Out of Space #01-200
Author: neo Koh
Date: 2021-01-08T00:00:00+00:00
Publisher: anonymous

Table Of Contents

- Table Of Contents -
1 - Journey
2 - Contact
3 - Engaged
4 - Boarded
5 - Overwhelmed
6 - The Jump
7 - Disaster
8 - Lost
9 - Crash Landing
10 - Planet Fall
11 - Blake's World
12 - Strange New World
13 - Numbers
14 - Numbers Part 2
15 - Giant Wolf
16 - Giant Wolves
17 - Manastone
18 - Needs
19 - Ruins
20 - Dungeoneering
21 - Trapped
22 - Boss
23 - MvP
24 - Loot
25 - Aftermath
26 - Ideas
27 - Ethics
28 - Stalker
29 - All along the Watchtower
30 - Clash of Giants
31 - Wheels
32 - The Empire
33 - Fugitives
34 - Help
35 - Mighty Magic
36 - Elves
37 - Disaster Relief
38 - The Hoomans
39 - Castle of Iron
40 - Sugar and Spice and Everything's a Lie!
41 - Kingdom of Goldrose
42 - Dragonslayer
43 - Are you...?
44 - A moment of Peace
45 - Battle of Sawtooth Pass
46 - Enemy at the Gates
47 - Alliance
48 - Counterstrike
49 - Infiltration
50 - Knights
51 - Tech vs Magic
52 - Recovery
53 - A time to Grief
54 - Goblins
55 - Pirates of the Goblin Sea
56 - Magic 101
57 - New World
58 - The Untamed Lands
59 - Survivor
60 - Return
61 - Green City
62 - Interrogation
63 - Dissent
64 - Guns
65 - Camp Alpha
66 - Recruits
67 - Boot Camp
68 - Bored
69 - After Action Review
70 - Promotions
71 - The Crucible
72 - Escape
73 - The Hunt
74 - When shit falls, it comes in buckets...
75 - Distractions
76 - Eye of the Storm
77 - War Drums
78 - Rematch of the Pass
79 - The Ritual
80 - Zombie Mode
81 - Night of the Living Dead
82 - War Plans
83 - What's Next?
84 - Arcane Tactics and Intervention
85 - Claymore One
86 - To Kill a Necromancer
87 - Angry Orcs
88 - Objective Beta
89 - Ride of the Valkyries
90 - Earth Magic
91 - Anti Dragon Warfare
92 - All Out Attack
93 - The Witch
94 - 26th Imperial Dragon Corps
95 - Rout
96 - POWs
97 - Post Victory
98 - Recruitment
99 - Dragonite Crystal
100 - Mines of Sea Cliff
101 - Dungeon
102 - Peace through Superior Firepower
103 - Golems
104 - Looking for Group
105 - Dungeon Level 1
106 - Waste Not, Want Not
107 - Clear!
108 - Boss Fight
109 - Rest and Recuperation
110 - Operation Dagger
111 - Talent
112 - Guns, Mushrooms and Explosions, Oh My!
113 - Falledge
114 - A Business Deal
115 - Officer Cadet School
116 - First Aerial Prototype
117 - Gunpowder
118 - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
119 - Level 2
120 - The Fog
121 - Bazooka
122 - The Return of the Goblins
123 - Goblin Fleet
124 - The Goblin Beach Landings
125 - Unto the Breach
126 - Author's HP 46.7%
127 - Picking up the Pieces
128 - Freed
129 - Green Troubles
130 - It Ain't Easy Being Green
131 - The Council of Masters
132 - Magic Appraisal
133 - The Appearance of a Hero!?
134 - Supplies
135 - Stressed Out
136 - Operation Chaperone
137 - The seeds of a Nation
138 - Troubles
139 - The Evil Within
140 - See no Evil
141 - Hear No Evil
142 - Speak No Evil
143 - Tears of the Sun
144 - Sum of All Fears
145 - Rearguard
146 - Yo Mama...
147 - The Cavalry has Arrived!
148 - Eye of the Sun
149 - The Long Walk Home
150 - Chocolate
151 - Far Harbor
152 - Wings of War
153 - Rendezvous Point Yellow
154 - Dog Fight
155 - First Air to Air Dragon Combat
156 - I FOUND YOU~!
157 - Cobra Down
158 - How to kill a Hero
159 - Dante's Inferno
160 - End of a Hero
161 - Regrets
162 - Sunblock
163 - Holidays and Festivals
164 - Friends from Afar
165 - Trade Talks
166 - Story Telling

167 - The Things We Do for the Greater Good...

168 - Awakenings
169 - I Spy with my Eye
170 - History and Wrecks
171 - Lost
172 - Chains of Command
173 - Meetings
174 - Getting Out
175 - We All Float
176 - Deja Vu
177 - Decisions, Decisions...
178 - Doctor Strange
179 - Welcome To The (Concrete) Jungle
180 - My Soul!
181 - Home
182 - Running and Choices
183 - More Running and Choices
184 - Gods and Burgers
185 - Gone Rogue
186 - Wolf Whisperer
187 - Summer Festival
188 - A Wild Red Dragon Has Appeared!
189 - Dragon to Dragon Talk
190 - Misunderstanding Dragons
191 - Here We Go Again ~
192 - Chief of Naval Operations
193 - Project Ironclad
194 - A Good Place to Live and Die
195 - UNS Floatin' Wreck
196 - Your Navy
197 - Good Intentions
198 - Vacation
199 - Shock and Awe
200 - Beginning of a New Era
201 - Invasion

1 - Journey

A purple swirling storm suddenly grew out from the emptiness of space, un-natural lightning streaking within it as the dark purplish clouds rotated to form a whirlpool. A spaceship suddenly appeared in the eye of the storm and the particles almost immediately dispersed.

"All departments status report!" The XO of UNS Singapore spoke into his comms while he unbuckled out of his station chair. The battle shutters of the viewports rolled up, exposing the dim light from a white dwarf in the Rammas system. "Captain Blake, all departments reporting green." Commander Kevin Ford looked up from his communications console after several minutes.

"So slow." Sighed Richard Blake, captain of the United Nations of Man, heavy cruiser Singapore turn training ship. Commander Ford's face turned slightly red with embarrassment as he coughed and said, "Captain, with due respect. Almost the whole crew just graduated from the naval academy. This is their first trip out so far."

"I know" Blake sighed again. He used to be in command of a battlecruiser before losing it to the damn Swarm, losing both his ship and his left leg. Commended for his actions and sacrifice, he was given command of the heavy cruiser UNS Singapore.

The ship measured over 210 meters with a beam of 33 meters and a sleek rectangular predator shape. More than a third of the length was occupied by seven bulbous engines and its warp drive. A huge mass of sensor arrays stabbed out from the bow. It was armed with two dual 155 mm rail cannons on the dorsal side and a single dual 155 mm on the ventral side, 16 dual 50 mm pulse laser point defense turrets - four on each side of the ship and 10 light missile launchers on the port and starboard side. Protected by a 200 mm armor belt and electro-magnetic repulse shield, a crew of over 840 men and women manned the ship with berths, laboratories, and even a flight deck.

A ship with this potential was considered state of the art 80 years ago. As mankind ventured out in the unknown and colonized planets, they met the Swarm nine years ago. All attempts to communicate failed as the Swarm attacked with mindless abandon. Creatures out of nightmares dropped from the skies above Himpra Prime, while the unsuspecting colonists watched the beautiful meteor shower which later turned into death with claws and ichor.

A typical Swarm warrior drone stands two meters tall and has two sets of legs and arm claws. A flat triangle carapace protects its braincase and teeth covered mouth which was located at the chest area. It uses its four claws to rend, tear and pull its prey into its mouth. Typical low caliber weapons bounce off or were unable to penetrate its carapace and by the time a relief fleet arrived over Himpra Prime, the survivors counted less than 15,000 out of 1.1 million colonists.

Richard Blake was one of those 15,000 survivors. He was in a polytechnic lecture on mechanical engineering when the Swarm fell on the other side of the planet. Soon a planet-wide emergency was declared and he was called up to his reserve commission as a part of the Planetary Defense Force. Over several months, he has been part of the desperate action to delay the Swarm as the government attempted to evacuate as many people into space as possible.

Spores the size of buildings constantly rained from space for over two weeks and by then the land was forcefully terraformed into a mass of gooey substance. The Swarm used the organic materials of living beings and spawned more creatures. Several months later, the fleet arrived but everything was overtaken except for a last stand of survivors. Himpra Prime was then bombed from orbit, turning the whole surface into glass in order to wipe out all traces of the Swarm.

After that, Blake enrolled in Fleet Naval Academy and fought in several distinguished actions before having his ship boarded with Swarm spores and losing it along with his leg. As the war with the Swarm continued, he felt left out and discarded in the safety behind front lines.

"Captain, I recommend we push more drills so the crew can gain more experience." Commander Ford handed a tablet with details of the drills to Captain Blake. He felt resentful to be the Executive Officer, or XO, of an outdated ship even as a trainee. He was a career officer who graduated with top grades at the academy. His first command was a destroyer that fared fairly well in combat. He was summoned to Fleet Command to meet Chief of Staff Admiral Spencer, thinking that he will get a promotion and a new ship to command. To his dismay, he was "awarded" this position as XO. Admiral Spencer patted his shoulders and said. "You are still green, and inexperienced in command. Learn from Captain Blake." Shortly Ford departed after he was convinced this was a requirement for a promotion.

Taking the tablet, Captain Blake scrolled through the list of drills his XO detailed out. "Alright, run the crew through the drills. But I want you to do it randomly, at all hours." He handed back the tablet.

"Aye Cap-," Ford replied halfway when a sudden alert sounded in the bridge.

"CAPTAIN! XO! We are detecting gravitational anomalies ahead!" Sensor Officer 2nd Lieutenant Randy yelled excitedly. "Two... no, five anomalies. Eh... 9,852 km away!" He added. "Wow!  Estimated mass 50,000 tons each!"

Captain Blake gripped his armrest as he swallowed the retort and counted to 10 to calm himself down. They are kids just fresh out of school. He glared at Commander Ford and signalled with his eyes.

Catching the gesture, Ford sighed inwardly. To be fair, it was his job to teach and train the bridge crew. He stepped over to Sensor Officer Randy and leaned over his shoulder and said in a low voice. "Lieutenant, please control yourself and report properly. You have learned it in the academy, keep your excitement down!"

"Yes, Sir!" Randy swallowed his excitement and turned towards the Captain. "Sir! Five anomalies detected 67 degrees off to starboard, estimated mass of 50,000 tons each! Sir!" He nearly jumped up and saluted as he made his report, forgetting he was buckled into his crash seat. The rest of the bridge crew quickly turned away as the XO glared at everyone on the bridge.

"Relax." Captain Blake said. He knew they were just as green as he once was. He should not be so harsh on them. "Do we know if there is a fleet operating in this area?"

"Negative Captain." Replied the comms officer. "According to our logs and fleet schedule, we should be the only ship in this system."

"Merchant fleet? Or smugglers?" Captain Blake continued asking.

"Captain, this system is designated as a training sector. There are no stations here nor do we have a pirate or smuggler base here for target practice." Commander Ford answered.

"Captain, the contacts are moving. Sensors are picking up ion emissions. Computer analyzing the data reports 83.7% resemblance to Swarm parasite cruisers!" Sensor Officer Randy reported.

Hearing that, the bridge crew started to get anxious. "Isn't this a safe zone?" someone muttered.

"SILENCE ON DECK!" Captain Blake yelled. Damn these newbies. "This is not a market! Do your duty!" The crew instantly quieted down. "XO, set Condition Two!"

"Aye, set Condition Two throughout the ship!" echoed Ford. He pressed onto the ship-wide intercom. "All hands, this is your XO speaking. Set Condition Two throughout the ship. This is not a drill. I repeat, this is not a drill!" Following that announcement, the ship's alert system blared out.

2 - Contact

Second I/C (Second in-charge) Marine Corporal James "007" Bone was at the mess with the rest his Section Two mates having dinner when XO announced the Condition Two alert. Due to his name being similar to a classic 2d movie character, everyone nicknamed him as "Double-0-7". He dropped his mess tray as he and his section mates rushed out of the mess hall towards their berth where their equipment was stored. He pushed his way past several confused crew members as they stood in the way, wondering what's happening. Luckily for the Marines, they have been conditioned to respond rapidly by constant training and drills.

As he reached the Marine's berth, he found most of the platoon gearing up. "Come on! Load up!" Platoon Staff Sergeant Pike yelled at everyone in the hatch, miraculously already suited up in full battle gear.

Damn. Did he sleep in that gear? James popped open his locker and started to suit up. First was the environmental wear which allowed him to survive in space or any biochemical environments, followed by his chest plate armor and munitions harness. Lastly, he donned his fully enclosed HS3 "smart" helmet and checked his readouts in the heads up display. All green, no leaks from the suit. Good. He grabbed his personal weapon, an M7A1 pulse rifle that fires 6.5 mm cased telescoped ammunition and queued up at the armory to collect his ammunition.

"Check your ammo! Make sure it's not Armor Piercing! We don't want you jugheads to put a hole through the hull and suck us all out into space!" SSGT Pike roared in his standard loud voice.

He grabbed ten 50 round magazines, ensured they are not AP rounds and started slotting the mags into his ammo pouches.

"Hey, Corp!" Pvt first class Mills called out. "What's the scuttle bug? Did we get scum here? And no AP rounds? How are we gonna do shit with these pussy rounds?"

He held up the mag which contained 50 ceramic frangible rounds. This type of ammunition was used to prevent shots accidentally penetrating the hull of the ship or sensitive locations like the reactor or engine. The bullet fractures into tiny pieces upon contact with metal but against soft tissue, it will penetrate and fragment inside.

"Do you want to put a bullet into the reactor and blow us all to space dust?" James retorted. "Just shoot at the mouth cavity!"

Deep inside, James was worried too. Ceramic rounds just gave those Scum, as the Marines like to call the Swarm, bruises. The AP rounds will penetrate easier on less armored parts of the Swarm warrior drones but in an old spaceship without internal armored bulkheads, AP rounds were a disaster just waiting to happen. "Alright! Section Two, you pigs form up! By the numbers! NOW!" he shouted.

Throughout the ship, crewmembers milled in confusion and were yelled at by their supervisors to get to their action stations. As time went on, department heads reported back to the bridge their level of readiness and XO Ford's face grew darker and darker. They have traveled from Sol to Rammas, passing by two systems along the way for a total of two weeks. He deeply regretted being engrossed with paperwork instead of running more drills. He’d thought that nothing will happen behind the lines and he will just serve his term onboard before going over to command his own ship! He glanced at the captain as he thought.

Captain Blake sat on his command chair without saying anything, but his fingers tapped on his armrest constantly. He was excited about the chance of a fight. He spent over two months in the hospital, another two months in rehab getting used to his new prosthetic leg and an additional month doing psych-evaluation before returning to the Fleet, followed by another two more months bound as a desk jockey before he was given command of this ship.

The Fleet was sending out all their newest ships to the frontline to hold back the Swarm, while mothballed ships like the UNS Singapore were taken out, given an upgrade of their drives and systems and turned into auxiliary ships. At the time he was thankful to receive command of a ship again but soon the excitement and joy died down as he got stuck babysitting new graduates and the children of important ministers behind the lines.

"Captain, the five contacts will be within effective main gun range in 53 mikes." 2nd Lt Randy reported. Despite his calm report, he was actually afraid inside. My dad said this was a very safe deployment. There will be nothing to do, no chance of the enemy. His father was a senior minister on Earth and pulled some strings allowing him to be posted to UNS Singapore when the Council passed a bill that all able men and women within the age of 18 to 35 had to serve in the military.

"XO, set the ship to Condition One and prepare for combat." Captain Blake intoned. He looked at the tactical screen readout displaying the contact’s course and frowned. If only I had some shipkiller missiles, I could start engaging them now, he thought. The 155 mm rail guns were simple electromagnetic cannons that just shoot out projectiles that reach 290km/s.

In a planetary atmosphere, rail guns dominate the battlefield as long as there is a line of sight. But in space, moving objects were easier to be tracked and dodged. The longer the distance the easier it is to calculate its impact point, thus the effective range of rail guns was shorter than lasers as lasers travel at the speed of light. This means he has to engage within 5,000 km, while ship killer missiles can be fired at targets over three times further!

For this battle, he had to get to practically knife fighting range for ship combat. Suddenly he caught himself, I should not prioritise combat. His crew was too inexperienced. He only had a few of the old hands from his previous ship on board. He looked at the tactical board and started to make calculations in his head. If he turned the ship around now to the jump point out of this system, with the speed the enemy was closing in at, the ship would have to hold out for 15 mins at least before they can escape. Too bad he did not have any missiles. He sighed again. If he did the chances of survival would have been higher.

"Navigator, plot a course back towards the jump point, flank speed. Get us out of here." Blake commanded. "XO, ensure all stations are operational."

"Aye Captain." Commander Ford started to message all the department heads, chasing them for readiness reports. Each station's readiness slowly started to flicker from red and yellow to green. After several minutes, he finally reported all boards showing green and gave a relieved sigh.

"XO, after this we need to drill more. If we survive." Captain Blake gave a bleak smile to his XO.

"Yes, sir. That is for sure," replied Ford. He looked at the blinking red dots on the main tactical screen approaching slowly. "Five versus one. How did they get here? This is a dead system, other than the Ecythn jump point there shouldn't be any other way in, Fleet has surveyed this system thoroughly."

"I have no idea either. I’ve been running up and down this sector for almost a year. This is the first time this has happened, Could the Swarm have developed some kind of unknown drive that Fleet Intelligence doesn't know about." Captain Blake stood and stretched his back.

He looked at the timer on the screen and said, "There should still be over 30 minutes before they have range on us. How about some coffee and food?"

"Yes sir, I shall order some up from the galley." Ford said, "I think everyone should have something hot in their bellies too."

"Sir, course calculated, time to the Ecythn jump point will take us 40 mins, but we will be within the enemy range for roughly 20 mins before we can jump." the navigator reported.

Captain Blake nodded. Not bad, plus or minus a few minutes from my own calculations. "Do it."

"Pilot, bring us about, follow the new route." ordered the XO.

"Aye aye. Changing course. Flank speed aye!" intoned the pilot.

Hope this old lady can hold out for 15 to 20 mins of combat. Blake thought to himself.

3 - Engaged

"Combat Information Center confirms contacts as five Swarm Parasite class bio cruisers!" Everyone looked up from their consoles as the report came in. Parasite class bio cruisers were the Swarm's mainstay space-borne weapons, born whole right out of a Queen class hive ship like some insect. They were made of living tissue combined with a super hard carapace and had a simple brain that controlled the bio cannons and the organic ion propulsion at its back. Scientists have yet to discover how they are able to generate wrap fields to travel faster than light.

It looked like a giant space squid with 2 trailing tentacles like limbs which the only purpose was to grapple objects. It has a mouth cavity under the ventral front that when opened, stretched as long as seven meters allowing it to swallow small asteroids or even ships whole, crushing them into chunks before its stomach processed them down into resources to be used as fuel or organic materials.

The sides of the parasite cruiser have several spike like protrusions, which fire out spores or acid seeds. Each spore seed contained over a dozen of warrior drones in stasis, protected by a jelly-like sac that acted as shock and temperature absorbents, allowing the drones to survive re-entry into a planet or even slamming against a planet surface or a ship. The jelly also acts as a sort of nutrients for the drones, allowing them to survive in space for over a week. Once the seeds land on a surface, the jelly sacs will break open and the drones will awaken. The parasite cruisers will fire their spore cannons to land their warriors on ships. Once the ship's crew has been subdued, they will ingest the ship and produce more spore seeds. Swarm ships are known to feed on their own wounded kin to sustain and repair themselves.

"Enemy contacts designated Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo coming within main gun weapons' maximum effective range in ten mikes." Weapons Officer Yan Fey licked his dry lips as he stared intensively on his screen. "Guns are primed and ready sir!"

The atmosphere in the whole bridge was tense except for Captain Blake. Richard Blake seemed like a changed person, from being indifferent to a tiger on a hunt. He sat on his chair, with his back straight. His untidy grey hair has grown long since he last had a naval regulated haircut. The week-long unshaven face twitched in anticipation of the engagement and his brown eyes glowed with a sign of fire that has rarely appeared lately. "Have all main guns target Alpha, fire two volleys when in range," he commanded.

"All departments ensure all non-essential personnel is locked down." Cmdr Ford double checked the crew members again. "Marines are standing by at key points for counter enemy boardings. Security crews are also securing their stations."

"Enemy contacts designated Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Echo coming within range in 3 ... 2 ... 1!"

"Fire!" Blake snapped sharply.

Since the launch of UNS Singapore from Mitsubishi-ST Orbital Slip Seven over Earth's high orbit, she has never fired a shot in anger. Now more than 80 years later, she finally has. Six 3.2 kg nickel iron slugs were flung out at a velocity of roughly 290 km/s towards the projected course of target Alpha. Five seconds later another volley of six slugs was fired.

"Target Bravo! Two volleys! Fire when ready!" Blake commanded.

"Aye two volleys on target Bravo!" The Weapons Officer replied grimly.

Everyone in the bridge stared at the screen as the timer on the 1st volley countdown the time to impact. At a distance of 5,000 km. It took the volleys 17 seconds to arrive at its target.

"Target Charlie, two volleys!" Blake continued.

"No hits on Alpha! Nothing on the sensors!" SO Randy turned and looked at Captain Blake in horror.
"We are missing!"

"Back to your station!" XO Ford stormed. "Keep your eyes on your screens!" He glanced at the Captain.

"Switch back to target Alpha, Two volleys again," Blake ordered.

"Aye target Alpha, two volleys!"

"Enemy closing in at 4,300 klicks! We're getting into their weapon range! Sir!" SO Randy cried. "Wait! Hit! Target Bravo is leaking atmosphere!" The bridge erupted in cheers at this news.

"Quiet down! It's not over yet!" Blake shouted. The crew quickly silenced down but their morale was up.

"Targets are performing evasive actions! Charlie no hits! Enemy at 3,900 klicks and closing!"

"Fire at Alpha, two volleys again!" Captain Blake barked. "Stand by to go Evasive Pattern Alpha and ready point defense lasers and missiles. They are gonna fire their spore cannons soon!"

"Multiple contacts detected! They fired their spore cannons!" SO Randy tensed up as he looked at his screens. "60...80...92, no, 93 spore seeds!" He looked on in horror. "7 seconds to impact!"

"Go Evasive Alpha now! Fire countermeasure missiles!" XO Ford yelled.

Twenty armored hatches popped open and twenty AIM-32H Space Sparrow multi role missiles blasted out from the tubes and darted towards the incoming clusters of spores on an interception course. Each Space Sparrow had onboard heat-seeking sensors to detect spore seeds in the depths of space at a range of 1,000 km. Seconds later twenty tiny light balls appeared at the same time as the second volley of missiles were launched. The spores that survived the second wave of missiles continued on till they got burnt down by the point defense lasers. None made it within 300 m of the ship.

"First wave spores all destroyed!"

"Target Alpha is crippled! It's leaking atmosphere and dropping out!" Cheers greeted this news and Captain Blake gave a shark smile. "Switch to target Bravo, continuous fire!"

As the parasite cruisers approached closer, the UNS Singapore's railgun accuracy increased, successfully hammering target Bravo into bloody chunks of biomatter. The other three parasites cruisers dodged and returned fire with volleys of spore seeds.

By luck and chance, the crew of UNS Singapore managed to do enough damage and three out of five parasite cruisers fell back slightly. But the waves of spore seeds never stopped coming.

4 - Boarded

The ship shook as several of the spore seeds slammed into the aft and dozens of spores got vaporized by the plasma exhaust of the engine. The point defense gunners did their best to prevent the spores from hitting the ship but still, some made it past the defensive laser fire.

"Damage report?" Captain Blake called out.

"Unknown at the moment, Sir!" Ford replied as he checked each status on his screen. "I think they hit the engine block."

"Get on the comms! Warn Engineering that they might have trouble and alert the Marines." Blake yelled.

-----

Chief Engineer Matt Peterson ended the call from Bridge and turned around to face his team. "We got some hitchhikers on our tail! Open the arms locker and get armed. Inform the Marines."

The engineers and techs looked at each other with frightened faces. "Chief are we gonna fight too?" Someone yelled. "I didn't sign up for this!"

"So you wanna roll over and die? If those swarm things get in here, everyone is fish food for them! Now stop your whining or I swear to god I'll space you guys instead and save the swarm the trouble of eating you!" Chief Engineer Matt bellowed at his crew.

"Sir! Heard that you have some trouble?" Marine Sgt Collins of Section Four entered Engineering Block B with his team of six other Marines.

"Yes, those Swarm seem to have boarded the engine block. We need to hold them off. If they destroy the engines, we ain't going nowhere!" Chief Matt replied. "I'll assign some guys to guide you around the engineering passages."

He turned and yelled at the guys. " You and you! Yes, you! Grab a weapon and join the Sarge here! You are their guides. Go!"

"Jenkins, Royce, and Dean. You three stay and guard the main hatch. The rest on me, move out." Sgt Collins led the rest of the section behind the 2 engineering crewmembers deeper into Engineering B.

-----

Marine Officer In Charge of the UNS Singapore, 2nd Lt Frank Lee was standing outside the Bridge hatch. He flipped out his readout, glanced at it and returned it back to his pouch. "Staff, you fought these things before right?" He asked Staff Pike softly.

"Yea, fought them several times, on Himpra, same as the Cap, and two fleet boarding actions." Staff Pike replied while checking his gear.

"What is it like?" Lt Frank asked curiously. All he knew was from videos and training simulations. He just got this posting directly after finishing officer cadet school. Command sent him here to learn how to command a platoon in the rear lines before planning to send him to the front.

"Bad. Really bad, don't let them get near you. Their claws can rip your MK XI Armor into shreds, not to mention other than armor piercing rounds or large caliber weapons nothing can pen their carapace. They are almost impossible to stop." He dug out a magazine from his ammo pouch containing the ceramic rounds and shook it. "These? It's not gonna do much to them. But the trick is to shoot them when they get near you and open their mouths."

He loaded his rifle and slung it. "Sir, you need to show the troops that you are confident." He reached out and stopped Frank from opening his pouch to take out his readout. "That's the 11th time you took it out, Sir. Keep calm, don't show your fear."

Great. How am I going to do that? Thought Frank. He caught himself reaching for his readout again and instead forced his hand back and gripped his rifle instead. "You think they boarded?"

"Sure as hell. These things, they don't stop. They feed on you so they can create more of themselves. If we don't fight them, sooner or later, mankind is gonna be extinct."

He braced himself against the bulkhead with one hand as the ship groaned and shook from the maneuverings. "They are coming. I can feel it."

He looked at the rest of the troops milling outside the reactor room. "We have to make sure they don't get past us if Collins and his section fail."

-----

The narrow service corridors lined with pipes and cables only allowed Collins's section to advance in a single file.

"Keep some distance, don't cluster fuck together!" Collins warned his men as they followed the lead crewman to where the ship computers detected the intrusion.

Pvt Leeds was following the techie in front of him. He looked at his readout and pulled the techie to a stop. "Wait, we are about 30 meters away from the target."

The techie dressed in a white environment suit with a blue strip indicating he's from Engineering looked frightened. He raised his weapon, a compact personal defense weapon chambered in 5 mm, and nervously fingered the trigger.

"Hey techie, what's your name?" Leeds asked as he signaled the men behind him to stop and hold.

"Lawrence, Spaceman apprentice of engi- ARGH!" A scythe-like blade suddenly burst out of his chest turning his white suit red as he turned to reply to Leeds.

"Shit! Contact!" Pvt Leeds yelled as blood splattered onto his visor. He scrambled back and fell on his back as he watched Lawrence twitching in agony while a creature from nightmares appeared.

The warrior drone lifted Lawrence towards its maw and bit down, severing the head and part of the shoulder of Lawrence and started chewing.

-----

Pvt Drake grew up in a sprawling metro hub on the outskirts of LA. The war had started and with the new law stating that young men had to enlist, he decided to join the Marines. Travel to exotic planets, find aliens and kill them, the Marine recruiters said. Complete your term of enlistment and get a nice pension they said. He grew up playing CoD XV and other shooters, fancying himself a pro shooter.

Yet despite all the time in VR games, the reality was different as he went through four months of grueling training in death worlds and airless moons. And he really wanted to kill some aliens.

And now one of the aliens stood over his section buddy snacking on the techie that brought them here. He flicked his safety off and fired at the warrior drone. Reddish puffs of smoke erupted over the head carapace of the drone as it lowered its head to protect itself.

A couple of shots blew what remained of the techie into a bloody mess. He watched his rounds impacting uselessly on the armored torso of the alien and decided to pull back instead. He grabbed Leeds's harness at the grip bar behind his neck with one hand while firing at the creature. "Back! Get back!"

Leeds kicked his heels as fast as he could to scramble back as the drone discarded the gory remains and dropped into a crouch. He brought up his M7A1 and fired point blank at the drone while he felt someone grabbing his harness and pulling him back just in time as two scythes slammed down where he was a second ago, leave a twin gouge on the steel deck.

"Shoot the mouth!" Someone shouted in the rear. "Get back! It's too narrow here!"

"Fuck!" Drake cursed. Shoot the mouth? Easier said than done! I got my hands full trying to pull Leeds back! I can't even aim straight! "Fuck!" He swore. "Leeds you fucking owe me one! Shoot that scum's mouth!"

Drake dropped his rifle which automatically retracted back to his harness. Using both hands he dragged Leeds all the way back.

"Die mutha fucker! Die!" Leeds screamed as he unloaded his whole magazine into the drone. Several shots punched through the razor-sharp teeth due to his firing angle and tore the soft tissue within the drone apart.

Taking critical internal damage, the drone jerked and vomited a mass of bloody gore and purplish ichor before collapsing.

"More incoming!" Leeds yelled as he noticed shadowy shapes behind the corpse of the first drone. "Fuck!"

5 - Overwhelmed

"Captain, Marines reporting contact with the enemy at Engineering B deck 12." XO Ford reported. "So far one known casualty from Engineering."

"Noted. Pilot, push engines to 110% output, get us out of their firing envelope." Capt Blake ordered. "Drop some countermeasures, see if we can trick them for a minute or two."

He turned to the Weapons Officer next and snapped. "All guns on target Charlie."

As the Swarm ships slowed due to taking damage, the distance increased from 3,000 km to 4,000 km, but the Swarm ships regrouped and continued to chase and harrass the UNS Singapore.

"Captain, Gun One can't target Charlie, it's at its blind spot!" WO Yan Fey said. He wiped his free-flowing sweat off from his face. "Do I re-acquire another target?"

"Yes, make it so. Next time don't ask me. Just do it and inform me ." Blake replied. He looked at the main tactical display screen. Seven mins more to the Ecythn Jump Point. "Prepare the warp drives."

"Captain, engineering reports warp drives are on ready to go. But the engines can't take 110% output much longer. They are overheating badly!" Ford looked up from his console.

"How long can the engines last?" Blake asked.

"Four more minutes, tops," Ford answered. "Then the computer will auto shutdown the engines and begin the cool down procedure."

"Understood. Pilot drop back to 100% power but be ready to push it up to 125% on my command." Blake ordered.

The whole bridge turned and look at their Captain. Confusion can be seen on their faces. "Back to your duties! The Captain knows what he is doing." Ford snapped.

"Captain, with all respect, don't you think its too risky to go 125%? The engines might blow and we will be stranded here." Ford whispered as he stood beside the Captain.

"It will be fine. These things were built to last. Not like the ships these days." Blake looked how the counter changed from 7 mins to 11 mins. "We just need it to give us enough inert force to enter the jump point. Then we call for help. The Fleet supply depot there can rescue us even if our engines are burnt out."

-----

Deep in the bowels of Engineering B deck 12, continuous gunfire echoed across the deck.

"We need backup! Ray and Hawk are down!" Sgt Collins yelled into the command network comms. "We can't hold them back! We are pulling back to deck 10 !"

He paused to fire at the rushing horde, watching his shots knock the creature down. It shook itself up and started rushing forward again.

"Back! We can't hold them here! Get back to deck 10!" He instructed Leeds and Drake before throwing a stun grenade at the mass of claws and chitin.

The concussion from the stun grenade disoriented the drones long enough for the three of them to retreat back. As they fell back they sealed and locked hatches to slow the Swarm down. Panting, Sgt Collins led Pvt Leeds and Pvt Drake to link up with the rest of Section Four.

"Sarge Collins, what's going on?" Asked Cpl Jenkins. With him were Lance Corporal Royce, Pvt Dean and 4 other white-suited techies armed with 5mm PDWs. Everyone was looking at Sgt Collins with anticipation, other than Leeds and Drake who leaned against the bulkhead panting.

"Form a firing line here. Damn things are coming!" Sgt Collins said. "These peashooters of yours can't do much damage. Those scum are damn hard to kill." He pointed to the techies' weapons. "Go find something to act as barricades. We hold them off here."

The techies looked at each other and nodded. "We got some heavy machinery movers. Those can block the passageway."

"Great! Get on it and tell Chief Matt to evacuate non-essential personnel away." Sgt Collins instructed.

"Yes Sarge." with that, the techies ran off down the hatchway. Not long later, a couple of forklifts driven by the techs arrived and were directed by Sgt Collins to park in alternating zones to create an S-shaped funnel. The techs locked the wheels and jammed the fork arms against the deck to prevent the vehicles from getting knocked away easily.

Screeching sounds of metal and unearthly cries echoed down the hatchway. "Get ready! They are coming! Remember to aim for their mouth or their weaker joints. These pussy rounds can't penetrate for fuck!" Collins yelled. "You guys, clear the area! Get back to Engineering!"

"You guys take care!" The techs left the area and returned back to the engine room.

"S4, S4 come in! This is Eagle. Over"

"Eagle this is S4 actual. Currently in combat with scums. Two men down. Requesting immediate support! Over" SGT Collins commed back.

"S4, Eagle. Roger, sending S3 to your location. Standy by. Over."

"S4 copy that. Out." Sgt Collins turnd and said to the rest,
"Section 3 is coming to reinforce us. So we gonna have to hold here till they come!"

"HOO-RAH!" The Marines of Section 4 yelled back. "Kill them all!"

The warrior drones rended and tore the hatches that stood between them and their prey. Their senses allowed them to locate the tasty meat through a mix of psionic waves, smell and taste. They "saw" things by sensing their "life" aura, a kind of energy to the Swarm. They could even see the engines and reactor fueled with Helium 3.

Live prey shows up as a yellowish white pulsing mass while pure energy sources show up as a red white mass. The drones communicated telepathically and divided into two groups to harvest those energies.

The first group continued to systematically rip open the sealed hatches to reach the live prey, while the second group tore right through the decks to reach the mass of angry red aura only which the Swarm could sense.

"Here they come!" The lead warrior drone slammed against the forklift, causing it to tilt down and crash into the deck on its side.

"Fire!" Sgt Collins commanded.

Five M7A1s blazed a hail of ceramic bullets that forced the leading drone backwards. It struggled to rise but must had suffered from some internal injury in its body. The Marines then switched to the next target behind but as one drone went down, three more appeared to take its place.
"There's too many! Fuckers don't die!" Pvt Dean shouted as he reloaded his third magazine. He suddenly found himself flying in the air towards the onrushing Swarm. "What?" He looked down at his chest to find a claw latched to his armor flipping him upside down.

"Nooo!" Pvt Dean screamed as he disappeared into the mass of thrashing claws and teeth.

"Fuck! Dean is gone!" Lcp Royce screamed.

He crouched behind a stack of engine maintenance parts, trying his best to shoot at the joints or mouths, but it was hard to hit as the creatures utilized their head carapace as a form of shield to advance.

He fired at the exposed legs, sending one of the drones crashing down, and sent a burst into its exposed mouth as it struggled to crawl up. "Sarge! We can't hold!"

"Hold, goddamn it! Section 3 is almost here!" Sgt Collins reloaded his rifle and fired at a warrior drone which climbed on top of a toppled forklift. A searing pain tore through his left side as another warrior drone appeared and slashed at him.

"Fuck this! Use frags! He yelled as he stepped back.

"Frag out!" Two fragmentation grenades were thrown by Pvt Leeds and Cpl Jenkins.

Both of them aimed theim behind the upturned forklift to prevent fratricide. The M144 AP Fragmentation Grenades packs 70 tungsten ball bearings surrounding a 25g core charge of C-9 explosives. The resulting explosion of the explosives turns the tungsten balls into bits of plasma that can burn through 4 mm thick armored steel.

The dual explosion lifted Sgt Collins off his feet as the shock wave carried him back a couple of meters, dumping him painfully against the bulkhead. Dozens of molten holes could be seen on the forklift's hard plastic structure that protected the rest of the Marines.

Alarms blared and warning of several breaches in the hull screamed. The Swarm took the brunt of the explosions in their midst, shredding them to bits and pieces. As the auto fire suppression system kicked in, a dark shape emerged through the foam.

LCP Royce dropped face down as he was cut in half by the warrior drone's scythes. The rest of the section which was still recovering from the shock after the blast was cut down one by one helplessly. Pvt Leeds lost his left arm as he attempted to fire his rifle before losing his head.

Pvt Drake managed to skittle across the deck as he dodged the multiple slashing limbs of the warrior drone.

Just as he ran out of space to dodge, with the warrior drone looming over him, sudden gunfire forced the warrior drone to retreat until it collapsed from the hail of bullets from the timely arrival of Section 3.

"Medic!"

6 - The Jump

The ship shuddered and shook violently, its hull groaning and moaning even louder. "What was that?"

XO Ford scanned his console, "Damn marine jugheads are blowing the ship up! They just detonated 2 grenades in Engineering!"

Captain Blake looked at the main tactical screen and listened in to the marine comms.

"Need backup! Royce is down!"
"Medic!"

He closed his eyes remembering his first fight with the Swarm on Himpra Prime. He and the other troops of the 6th PDF have been deployed on the outskirts of the city. He remembered the sky being a beautiful purplish pink with white clouds in contrast to the horizon marred with plumes of black smoke. He watched dark lines appearing in the wheat fields three km away using his binoculars, until there was too many to count.

The Swarm were approaching their defensive location rapidly in a massive wave of black chitin. Artillery fired and balls of fire spurted out among the dark lines, yet the Swarm pushed on relentlessly. Soon the order to open fire came, and he among a thousand others fired their weapons en masse.

'Captain?" XO Ford called out. "Are you alright sir?"

"Yes, just remembering some things." Blake looked at the timer. four more mins before entering the Eycthn Jump Point. So far their mains have been keeping the Swarm parasite cruisers at bay, but they learned and were staying mostly at the blind spot of Main Gun 1, effectively cutting down a third of their firepower.

Combined with the emissions from their own engines, sensors have not been very effective meaning their point defense was less effective and the spore seeds were landing on his ship more frequently.

From his experience and research released to the military by Fleet Intelligence, the Swarm was attracted to sources of energy like the fission reactor and thrust engines. The scientists are unable to determine how they see as they don't have physical eyes. It was widely speculated that they sense and communicate using some telepathic ways.

"Let the Marines do what they need to stop the Swarm," Captain Blake said. "If the Swarm don't kill us first..."

The ship groaned again as the pilot put the ship through another bout of evasive maneuvers. As the timer dropped to two minutes, Captain Blake gripped his armrest and ordered, "Warp engines on standby, pilot, push engines to 125% power. Once we are in warp space, cut the engines immediately!"

The seven massive Mitsubishi ST RX-78 Astrospace engines created a bigger plume of superheated plasma pushing the 35,000 tons of armored steel faster towards the Ecythn Jump Point. The four remaining Swarm parasite cruisers, seemingly sensing that their prey was trying to escape, also put on speed and "swam" closer to the United Nations of Man heavy cruiser.

-----

"Staff! What do we do now? Section 4 just suffered over 80% casualties!" 2nd Lt Frank urgently asked Staff SGT Pike. "Put the survivors with Section 3?"

"Sir, I advise you to let the survivors recover a bit first, put them here to hold the bridge. Push Section 2 to help secure Engineering B, and move Section 1 to cover Engineering A." SSGT Pike said while tapping the map on his readout. "Hand the rest of our M7A1s out to the crew security details to help hold Engineering. Other than our M7s, nothing is effective enough against the scums."

"Can't we load armor piercing rounds? Or get the heavy guns?" 2nd Lt Frank asked worriedly. "We are taking unnecessary losses."

"Unless you wanna chance blowing half the ship to space. No sir." SSGT Pike sigh. "Let's move the section out. Better to bring more ammo along."

"Alright, Staff. We do it your way." 2nd Lt Frank said. He activated his comms and instructed Section 2 to advance towards Section 3's location and ordered the survivors of Section 4 to take over the guard post at the Bridge.

"Yes, Sir." SSGT Pike turned to the rest of the section manning the guard post outside the bridge hatch and yelled. "Alright pack it up! We are moving to Engineering A. Lambert and Gath, you 2 stay here and wait for relief from Section 4. After that head to the armory and bring 1 times 6.5 mm "C" type ammunition case to Engineering A. Do you apes understand?"

"Yes, Staff! One times 6.5 mm "C" type ammunition case! Aye!" Pvt Lambert and Pvt Gath chorused.

"Sgt Raman! Where are you?" SSGT Pike commed over the net.

"Y-yes, Staff?" Sgt Raman, I/C of Section 2 replied after a while.

"What are you doing? Get your section to Engineering B and I want you to unlock the armory and issue out the remaining M7s to security details and also wait for Pvt Lambert and Pvt Gath to draw ammunition. Then get your ass back to your section. You clear?" SSGT Pike spoke into his comms.

"Of course! My pleasure! Staff!" Sgt Raman replied, happy to know he could get out of harm's way. Ever since he had been posted onboard UNS Singapore as an armorer, as there was no senior NCO for Section 2, he was assigned to be the I/C and armorer.

Most of the men don't like him, as he was not the ideal example of a fighting marine. With a slight pot belly and balding head, he struggled to squeeze into his suit, harness, and armor. He normally skipped the drills and exercises the rest of the men went through, claiming he needed to inspect his armory, leaving the running of his Section to the 2 I/C, Cpl James.

When the sirens went off, he was totally terrified. He hid in his armory, using as many excuses as he could to avoid being deployed with the men till Staff Pike kicked his ass out of his hiding spot.

While he may have been a coward and was posted to UNS Singapore to keep out of trouble, his skills as an armorer were top notch. He was able to modify or even build guns from scraps and gun parts.

Sgt Raman puffed out his chest, turned and said in a self-important manner, "Cpl James, you're in charge now. Staff wants Section 2 to link up with Section 3 and I am supposed to head to the armory." He grinned happily. "New orders."

"Eh, roger that Sarge." Cpl James raised an eyebrow as he watched Sgt Raman scuttled away like some huge cockroach.

Sighing, he turned and spoke to the rest of the section who were watching Sgt Raman leave. "Ok new orders, Staff wants us to link up with Section 3. Let's go!"

"Fat Ramen is a joke, man." Pvt Mills said in a low voice to Pvt Bartley. "He always tries to hide in some dark corner away from all the fun! Ha!"

Pvt Bartley, standing over 2m tall, replied softly "You shouldn't make fun of the sarge. He's a good man inside."

"Come on! He was posted here due to him losing his marbles in the front lines. He's lucky they didn't shoot him for cowardice." Pvt Mills scorn. "Hey Corp! Why are we joining Section 3?"

Cpl James looked up from his readout and saw Pvt Mills together with Pvt Bartley walking next to him. Pvt Bartley looked like a huge lost bear without his usual heavy weapon, and the M7A1 in his hands looked like a toy. "Heard that Section 4 got it bad. That's why."

"Ah shit, that bad?" Pvt Mills gulped. He wondered if he made a right choice in joining the Marines instead of Fleet or any other branches. Am I gonna die here on this old metal tub? He thought.

"All hands prepare to enter warp space in 2 minutes! I repeat entering warp space in T minus 2 minutes!" The shipwide PA system announced.

7 - Disaster

"Entering final limit of Rammas's gravity well, warp engines are fully charged. Course to Ecythn System is plotted in. Captain, all systems green, ready to enter warp." The pilot announced.

"Do it."

All along the sides of the hull, purplish blue streaks of energy crackled and sparked. Everyone onboard felt the ship vibrate and hum all the way deep into their bones. A cosmic storm started formed about a 100m away from the bow of UNS Singapore, purple lightning flashes across and reach out to in arcs, seemingly pulling the ship into the depths of the storm. Soon the ship covered by the cosmic storm vanishes away.

Blake held down a wave of nausea threatening to vomit out. He gulps down a mouthful of coffee from his fluid pack and asks, "How long to Ecythn ?" He noticed some unfortunate soul vomiting inside their helmets.

"Sir, about 9 hours before we exit warp space."

Blake nodded and turned to Ford, "XO get more men to help the Marines. Once we can get the Swarm onboard contained, then we can start repairs." And count our dead, he thought to himself.

Section 3 I/C Sgt Kai Xiang peered over the wrecked forklift, dozens of Swarm warrior drones corpses laid scattered along the narrow deck. Some of the bodies are still twitching and moving. He looks back at the medic trying to stop the bleeding of Sgt Collins. "Doc." He called out. "How does it look? He will be ok?" He asked.

"His armor absorbed most of the blow, no major organs hit. Will need some surgery, he should be alright. He is just knocked out from the shockwave." The medic hooked a pack of nano blood onto Collins's harness and the inserted the catheter into his suit's medical port. He checked his medical readouts and gestures to the 2 medical assistants, "Alright, send to sickbay, he's stable for now."

Sgt Kai Xiang cocks his head as he thought he heard something. "Guys, is that gunfire?" He asked.

The rest of the section also started to listen intently. "Yea sounds like those pop guns the crew uses."
Someone said. "Sounds like below us."
"Shit!" Sgt Kai Xiang cursed. He activated his comms, "All units on alert, we have unknown contacts other than deck 12. Repeat unknown amount of contacts other than deck 12. Be on the lookout!"

"Hey Sgt KX." Cpl James leading his section arrived. "More trouble?" He nodded to other members section 3. "Where do you want us?"

"Good, just in time. I want you to head down 1 level. Check it out. Hearing shots fired."

"Roger that." Collins turn and said, "Alright let's go scum hunting!"

As Section 2 entered the lower decks, after turning around a split way, what they saw turned their stomachs. Claw marks scarred the walls and decks while blood, pieces of human parts and bullet casings litter the walkway. Several of the lights were damaged in the fight, leaving parts of the walkway in the dark or flickering.

"The fuck. This is like those horror 2d movies we watched." Pvt Mills muttered. "Where did those scum went?"

"Over here!" Pvt Ed stood over a ripped up section of the deck plates. A section of the floor has a huge hole torn up, large enough for a Swarm warrior drone to enter. "I think they went down there."

Cpl James shone his tactical lights down into the hole, revealing an engineering service duct which appears to lead towards the port side of the ship. He debated should he send his people down, when screams and gunfire echo off the sideway.

"Ok Ed, David, Shawn, and Hong. You 4 down the rabbit hole and check it out. The rest on me." He hefts his weapon and headed towards the direction of the screams and gunfire.

When the spore seeds slam onto the hull of the ship, the outer layer consists of a highly corrosive agent, that is able to melt through several inches of thick armor. Once a breach is formed, the spore seed will cover the hole made and naturally seal it and starts to disgorge its cargo of warrior drones.

Following the signs of battle and the sounds of fighting ahead, Cpl James and the rest managed to approach from the rear of the Swarm. As the back carapace of the Swarm warrior drones is thinner compared to the front side, the 6.5mm rounds might not penetrate the hard carapace but still managed to cause enough broken bones and inner trauma to the warrior drones attacking the group of crew members ahead.

"Thank the stars you Marines are here!" An ashen-faced crew called out. "We nearly died."

"Is this all? Are there any more of them around here?" Cpl James asked the survivors.

"I'm not sure. We were mostly running and shooting, didn't have a chance to do anything else."

"Alright. Stay here and hole up here." Cpl James turns and jerked his head back to where they came from and the rest of the section formed up behind him.

"Pocking hell. This is like a death trap!" Pvt Shawn cuss as he can only advance in a half crouch manner in the tight service tunnel. "Yup, they went by this way." He pointed to the side of the tunnel where scratches made by claws could be seen and reported their progress to Cpl James. "Ok, we are told to keep going." He said to the rest behind him before continuing.

After walking less than 20m a corner appear, where sounds of metal tearing could be heard. Pvt Shawn raises up a fist and the rest behind stopped and stay alert. He peeked around the corner to find several meters away, 4 Swarm warrior drones were ripping the through the bulkhead and tearing pipes and cables out. "Cpl James! We spotted the scums! But they are doing something strange." Pvt Shawn whispered into his comms. "Do we engage?"

"What are they doing?" Cpl James asked, curious about the actions of the Swarm.
"Eh, digging in the walls?" Pvt Shawn replied. "All 4 of them. They are tearing up the place pretty bad."

"Wait, what?" Cpl James stopped and rush back towards the group of crewmen they just saved. The rest followed in confusion wondering what is going on.

"HEY, Do you know whats in the service tunnels?" He yelled as he approaches the crewmen.

"Which service tunnels?" They asked back.

"What tunnel is it you are in?" Cpl James held his palm up to indicted the crewman to wait. "He says MT-E-B-13C." After a short pause.

"That's the main conduit from the reactor to the engines and warp drives." The crewman replied after double checking his tablet.

"What happens if the conduit is damaged?" Cpl James asked urgently.

"Erm, lost of power to warp drives and engine until backup kicks in or power are rerouted. If the ship is underway in warp space as the warp drives require a high amount of power to keep running, an energy leakage will vaporize everything within 50m or more." The white-suited crewman said.

"GET OUT OF THERE NOW!" Cpl James shouted to his comms after hearing what was being told to him. Next, he switches to the command net and reported to everyone about what is going on. "Get out here! The Swarm is tearing the power conduits!"

Horrified the crewmen turn and ran towards the center of the ship, followed by Cpl James and the rest.

Hearing the shout to get out, Pvt Shawn turn and shoved David who was at his back "Go go go! Retreat!"

Less than a second a burst of bluish white flame erupted out between the warrior drones, instantly vaporizing them before turning Shawn and the rest into ashes. The blast expanded, melting decks and turn hull plates to slag before tearing the ship into half and sent the halves spinning in the warp space.

8 - Lost

A sudden rattle of the decks first indicted something was wrong. Capt Blake sat on his command chair reading the reports flooding in from Engineering felt the shaking of the ship. He looks up in surprise as did the rest of the bridge crew. The shaking of the ship grew stronger and harder like an earthquake, followed by the massive sound of groaning metal. "What the hell is that?" He asked.

Before anyone could respond to his question, alarms blazed madly, and the whole world went white.

The rip in the power conduits blew a massive hole at the port side of the ship closer to the engines. As a result, the force of the explosion caused massive structural stress and damage to the ship, snapping the ship in half like breaking chopsticks. The leftover energy spun the forward half of the ship like a spinning top.

As decompression threaten the ship's crew, the computer activated emergency decompression protocols and 1 by 1, airlocks slam shut protecting the remaining crew members from instant decompression. Yet this did not save everyone as the inertia energy causing by the ship's spin, forced a crushing 14Gs on everyone.

Unsecured crew members and objects were slammed onto the bulkheads causing broken bones and instant concussions. Crew members fainted from the high gravity or died to heart attacks, broken necks or head concussions even with everyone is wearing a space/env suit. The computer detecting the high gravity spin and no human responses, attempted to right the ship using maneuvering thrusters. It was successful and managed to stop the spin of the ship. By then the crew of UNS Singapore has become incapacitated.

The ship continued on in warp space, draining power from the charged capacitors and the remaining reactor. The spin from the explosion knocked the ship off course from its original plotted route to Ecythn system and traveled on to an unknown region in space. Warp travel is based on knowing where the endpoint is, if not, the ship will be lost traveling to an unknown part of the galaxy. In the beginning, many explorers disappeared into the void of warp space, never to be seen again. Hence at each stable jump points, a warp signal buoy guides ships to their destination.

Blake felt someone shaking him, he slowly woke up from the endless shaking and "Captain! captain!"
"Enough, stop yelling at my ear. It's giving me a headache!" He grumbled.
He tried to raise his head, only to feel like it weighs 10 times more. He blinked his eyes and realized as that it wasn't his vision blurry but his head visor was chipped with spider web cracks. He tugs his helmet off with the assistance of someone he couldn't really see clearly.

"Captain, are you alright?" Comms Officer Clara peer at Capt Blake. She has some medical knowledge and is checking on Capt Blake if he has any concussion.

"What happened?" Blake rubbed his face, coughing from the fumes and burnt plastics and found his gloves tinted with blood. He looks around the bridge, finding several of the crew slumps over their seats.

"I am not too sure, sir. I just woke up not too long ago." She checked his irises and declares, "You got a minor bump, sir. Stay on your seat. I go check on the others." And she moves to check another person.

Blake fumbles with his console, bringing up the ship's computer logs. His face turns as he reads through the logs. A nuclear explosion onboard his ship? Damn. He unbuckles the crash harness that deployed when the explosion happened and stumbles to the pilot controls.

He checked the pilot's suit readout, finding him without any major issues and unbuckled him from his seat and unceremoniously dump him on the floor. Blake pulls up the warp navigation systems on the pilot's console and cursed. The ship is out of course! Damn it. 27 hours in warp space?! Need to shut it down! Blake quickly keys in the commands to drop the ship back to normal space.

Red lines of warnings alerts appear immediately on the pilot console as he tries to stop the warp drive. <WARP DRIVE UNCONNECTED> What? How can the warp drive be unconnected? He made his way back to his command console and search for the damage report. What? He looked at the ship's wireframe diagram showing all the systems onboard. The reactor B is greyed out, so is the warp drives and engines. In fact, the entire rear half of the wireframe diagram is greyed out.

Did the explosion blow half the ship away? All those men gone. What the hell really happened?

He tapped a few keys trying to access the systems but there was no response. Blake stumbled back to the pilot seat and typed in some commands, and the console displayed what he was looking for. The warp engines are down but the warp emitters are still generating the warp bubble that keeps the ship in warp space. Without the warp bubble, ships can't enter warp space. Blake checked the power systems and found that the warp emitters are still drawing power from reactor A. He quickly shut down the power to the emitters.

Without the warp engines to slow and control the exit speed of warp space, the ship dropped out of warp space back to normal space like a bullet hitting a water surface. Blake flew forward, over the pilot console and slam against the main tactical display knocking his breath out, and causing more spider web cracks to appear. Several yells and screams of pain and surprise came from the other side of the console where Coms Officer Clara was trying to treat the wounded bridge crew.

The viewport changed from purplish grey scenery to normal specks of stars. A dribble of blood trickled down Blake's forehead as he climbs his way back over the pilot console. He slumps on the pilot chair, trying to get his head to stop spinning and looks over at Clara. Seeing that she is moving, he turns back to the console and with 1 hand pressing on his head wound, uses 1 hand to search for their location.

<Error, no database of the current system.> No! Blake groaned. He looks out of the viewport seeing the tiny specks of stars in the distance. We are lost! He sighed.

9 - Crash Landing

Stand in front of the viewports, Captain Blake turned when XO Ford approaches. "How bad is it?" he asked.
With his left arm in a sling, Ford held the tablet on his right hand and replied. "Not good. Lost all main propulsion systems, life support systems, warp drives, reactor B, supplies in cargo bay B and 378 crew members. The remaining 458 men and women are all suffering from some degree of injuries." He sighs and said. "We are basically a drifting hunk derelict in space."

"The computers still can't pinpoint our location? Blake asked.

"No, the computers couldn't match any of the Astro charts that we have. But basic survey sensors classed this system as having a G5 star and 4 planetary bodies." Ford replied.

Blake reaches out for the tablet and Ford hands it over before continuing. "There is no traces of radio waves or any kind of electrical signals. We are in uncharted space."

"How is life support doing?" Blake continues to ask.

"Overloaded. With the main life support gone, the secondaries are doing all they can to scrub the CO2 out of the systems. Maintenance gives 40 hours max, before total failure." Ford said.

"So no chance of a rescue as we don't even know where are we." Blake scratched the bandage covering his forehead. "Less than 40 hours of air, looks like we have to find an ice asteroid or moon to mine some water to convert."

"Captain, I think we can try surveying the planets. With a G5 sun, there is a high chance that there might be a planet suitable for us to land on." Ford reaches over and taps a few commands on the tablet. "The computer has simulated which planets have the highest chance of it being life bearing.'

"But we do not have a way to land on the surface. There are only 2 shuttles onboard, and it is not used for atmospheric travel." Blake said. "Unless we land this ship down?"

"Yes sir, that is what I am proposing. The only way for us to survive is to land with what remains of UNS Singapore." Ford nods.

"Alright prepare a plan for me to review and also arrange for an all department heads meeting at 2 hours time." Blake turns back to watching the stars.

2 hours later, in the Captain's boardroom. The seats are getting filled up as the heads of various departments arrived. Everyone has some kind of injury and looks tired as they took their seats. Blake stood up as the last attendant entered the room. "Alright, now that everybody is here, we shall start. 1st thing I want to say to clear everyone minds is, the ship is crippled and there is no chance of a rescue at all." He looks around the conference table.

The people at the conference table consist of XO Ford, Chief Engineer, Lt Cmdr Matt, Marine CO, 2nd Lt Frank and Marine Senior NCO, SSGT Pike, Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Sharon, and from Ship Operations & Maintenance, Lt Grayson. Missing from the command group is Master Chief Cobbs and Weapons Officer Yan Fey who lost their lives.

"We will start by updating each other on what is each department's situation and what resources we have left and ideas to resolve them." Blake nodded towards Lt Cmdr Matt, "Let's start with Engineering."

"As you all know, we lost the engines, warp drives and also a reactor. We are down to 1 reactor running the whole ship now. As for fuel, the forward fuel bunkers are at 46% capacity, enough to keep the ship running for 3 months since no fuel is needed for the engines." Chief Matt reported. "So no issues with power for now." He gestures to Lt Frank to report next.

"The Marines are down from a total of 28 men to 12 effective. We lost almost 60% of the platoon to the Swarm and the explosion." Lt Frank spoke.

"Medical is overwhelmed, I got over 200 with severe wounds and another 100 or so more with minor injuries and 8 in critical condition. I do not have enough beds to look after them all." Dr. Sharon said. "I need more help with the injured. Most of them are just laying in the hallways."

"I can clear the space at the forward hanger bay. It basically almost empty." Ops Officer Grayson said. "We can set up a triage station there."

"Good, that will help." Dr. Sharon replied. "I also need some manpower."

Blake nodded and said, "Ok, Ops please prioritize it. Next?"

"Damage control parties are working in 3 shifts to prevent decompression at Deck 17, 19 and 23. The explosion has weakened the ship's structure but it shouldn't be a problem. Also, we are trying to get the machine shop to fabricate some air scrubbers which will help with the increased CO2 in the air." Grayson looked up from his tablet. "If we use the emergency O2 supplies from the lifeboats, it will give us another 12 to 14 hours of air."

Hearing that, no 1 spoke until Ford cleared his throat. "I have a proposal that might help in regards to that." With that, he activated the holographic display in the middle of the conference table. "Scans show that this system has a total of 4 planets circling a G5 star. The computer has calculated that this planet," The indicated planet starts pulsing. "Is within the Goldilocks zone, which can allow life to be sustained. 1 hour ago, a probe was sent to determine if it is habitable, has returned the sensor reports. Based on the report, it is an exoplanet which can support Terran lifeforms." The holographic image of the planet expands out showing blue seas and green continents. "The computer also calculated with our current amount of thruster fuel, we can achieve orbit in 2 weeks time."

"2 weeks? We do not even have enough air for 3 days!"

"Yes, that's where Dr. Sharon expertise comes in." Ford continued.

"Me?" Dr. Sharon looks surprised.

"Yes. We can use the cryo injections which is used to keep the heavily wounded in suspended animation to slow down the crew's metabolism rate, and also power down all non-essential systems especially the general heaters. We freeze the crew and once in orbit the computer will thaw the men out and we can land on the planet."

"It might work, but I need to manage the dosage properly. Also, I need to fabricate more cryo shots. There is only so much in stock." Dr. Sharon frowns as she mentally did some calculation. "Yes, I should have enough supplies."

"Question, sir." Grayson raised his hand. "Even if the cryo shots work. We wake up all happy at the planet. How are we going to land? The SCT-200 shuttles we have are space haulers! They can't fly in an atmosphere! Even if we use the lifeboats to drop into the planet, we can't squeeze all the crew and critical supplies!" Grayson pointed out.

Captain Blake rose from his seat and said. "Lady and gentlemen, who said about landing on the planet in the first place?" He smiled and said. "We are going to crash land this baby down!"

10 - Planet Fall

A ship-wide announcement informed the crew of the current situation, while the head of departments assigns and prioritize tasks to their people.

The next several hours onboard UNS Singapore was like a kicked anthill. Medical personnel and Marines worked to stabilize the wounded while other crewmembers stripped reserve O2 tanks from lifeboats and even the water converter to convert O2 out. The mechanics also managed to fabricate out the CO2 scrubbers, which lowers the CO2 content in the air.

As everything was being prepped, Dr. Sharon using the med bay, managed to produce enough Cyro shots for each crew member using the stock medical biomaterials onboard. The medical computer analyzed the requirements and fine-tuned the medicine to be used.

"Sir," Ford appeared next to Blake. "Here are the plans I have worked out with Ops."

Blake took the tablet and quickly glance through.

"We will load the more severely wounded on the lifeboats while the rest stay on their crash seats. Then on the designated time, all crew members are to inject themselves with the cryo shot while the computer shuts downs all non-essential systems and vent all heat out of the ship. All thrusters will also activate at the same time pushing us towards Blake's World."

"Blake's World?" Capt Blake raised his eyebrow.

"Ahem, yes sir. The rest of the crew is calling that planet, Blake's World, so it kind of stuck." XO Ford looked away. "All preparation should be ready in a 1 hour. But even with everyone in cryo-sleep, including the oxygen stores from the lifeboats, we barely have enough for the 2 weeks of travel to allow us to land on the planet surface."

"Are you not scared?" Blake suddenly asked. "We might not make it."

"Sir?" Ford was confused. He was, of course, scared. This was supposed to be a simple assignment before he gets promoted. A stepping stone for his climb up to Fleet HQ. How could he not be? He didn't want to lose face nor give up and he should put up a brave front. After all, he still has his pride as an officer. "Of course, yet there is nothing to do about it. I do want to survive and return to Earth, and preferably get a desk job at Fleet HQ," he responds.

"Hahaha, you still thinking of climbing up the staff ranks?" Blake joked. "I'm terrified, yet excited at the same time." He tapped his artificial leg. "They took this from me, and my friends and family too. I wanted revenge so much that I jumped at any opportunity to fight them. Even if it wasn't on the front lines, I can still do some good training new crews." Blake looked at Ford in the eye. "So even we are lost out here. We shouldn't give up, I almost did before. Even if we're afraid, there are still over 400 people counting on us, so we have to stay strong for them."

Ford was surprised as he looked at Blake. Ever since he joined as XO, he found Blake was mostly indifferent to what the crew does. Blake usually agrees to anything Ford proposed and generally kept himself out of running the ship other than attending meetings or major issues. Ford realized that maybe this was what drove Blake, the combat and life and death situations.

"We will not orbit the planet but instead crash into it." Blake declared.

"What?" Ford was shocked. "But can we survive re-entry?"

"The City class cruisers were designed to be atmospheric capable. It will be able to enter the atmosphere and land somewhere safe. I will set the computer to wake me up and I will pilot the ship down." Blake said. "Even if we don't survive re-entry, it will be painless, the crew won't even feel it."

"But, it's too dangerous! Half the ship is gone, shouldn't we follow my team's plan?" Ford argued.

"By fabricating drop pods for materials and supply, converting the haulers to atmospheric travel and using the lifeboats to land?" Blake shook his head. "Not enough time for that."

"Its a gamble! One against the odds, Sir!" Ford stood his ground. He pointed out the viewport. "There is no telling if the ship will break up during re-entry!"

"I have already had Chief Matt and Ops Greyson to check the ship's integrity. This old lady won't fail us." Blake pats the smooth bulkhead. He returns and faces Ford. "It is my responsibility to save the crew and the ship if possible. It is the only way left."

Ford kept quiet and his thoughts race through his head. Finally, he nodded, "Yes you are right, we can't complete the evacuation of the crew and most likely the heavily wounded will be left behind."

"But Captain, only you alone to pilot the ship, will that be enough?" Ford asks.

"Of course! I have plenty of experience piloting her." Blake grins. "Alright back to work." He pats Ford's shoulder and walks off with his hand clasped behind his back.

"Here, help carry this." Cpl James bends over a stretcher with a wounded crew on it. With the help of a fellow marine, they moved the injured into a lifeboat where medical personnel took over.

"Urgh, I am still wounded, Corp!" Pvt Mills complained. "How much more shit do we need to carry?" He rolled a massive canister of over 200 kg with the markings O2 stenciled on it onto a hoist with several others. "I'm claiming overtime for this!"

"Cut the crap and get those down to Engineering." SSGT Pike roared behind Mills, making him jump. "Hurry up, this shit is gonna save your arses soon!"

"I am so gonna put in a letter of protest for this shit," said Mills out of hearing from Pike and the rest of the crew and marines nearby laughed as they continued their tasks.

Finally, the crew of UNS Singapore completed all preparations to enter cyro sleep. Blake sat on the command chair in the bridge and watch the rest of the crew strap into their seats. He activated the ship-wide announcement systems and addressed the crew. "All hands, this is your Captain speaking, all of you have done very well in the fight with the Swarm and in the past few hours. All of you have gone beyond your call of duty and for that, you have my respect. Now we will be entering deep sleep to preserve our oxygen and prepare for a 2 weeks journey. I shall see you all there on the other side! Godspeed!"

Blake presses the injector against his thigh and injected the cyro serum into his body followed by hundreds of crew members who injected the cyro shot into their arms or thighs simultaneously.

Blake felt a cold numbness spreading from his thigh until his whole body is feeling cold, he felt his eyelids getting heavier and heavier before he fell asleep. Throughout the ship, crew members slowly fell asleep from the drug and as the computer vented the heat from the ship, the temperature drops down to around 3 degrees Celsius.

The computer AI following the instructions that are given earlier by the command crew, ignited the maneuvering thrusters to the maximum, placing the crew on a force of 7 gravities. Following an order that was given by the Captain and XO, but unknown to the rest of the crew, the computer uses up all but 10% of the remaining fuel for the thrusters putting the ship onto a collision course with Blake's World. It will not enter orbit but instead enter the atmosphere of the planet and land on its surface.

11 - Blake's World

Blake suddenly jolts awake, he gasps for air while struggling against the restraints. As the fog in his mind slowly clears away, he realizes on the command seat. As he removes his helmet and takes in deep breathes, he felt the cold icy air. His breath turns white in the chill.

Blake tried to unbuckle himself out but finds his fingers numb, he spent several minutes shaking his hands and massages them until he could move his fingers properly. Finally free of the restraints, he looks around the quiet bridge. Lit by a dim red light, the shadows cast on the bridge crew sleeping on their seats look like they are dead.

Blake sat on the empty co-pilot seat and booted up the display. Once the system started up, he ran a ship system diagnostics. He tries to peer out of the viewport as he waits for the logs to appear but due to the frosted screens, he couldn't see anything clearly. Finally, the computer beeps and display the ship's system log.

What is left of UNS Singapore is currently almost on top of Blake's World. Captain Blake set the computer to wake him up an hour before hitting the low orbit of Blake's World. He checks through all the systems of the ship to ensure there is new issues or problems from the 2 weeks travel. Next, he powers up the main display on the bridge.

The huge screen flickers to life and shows a live image of Blake's World from the probe. Data streams on the side display a few basic information regarding the planet. Blake got up and stood in front of the display and reads the 2 weeks of data from the probe.

The atmosphere appears to consist mainly of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen, carbon dioxide, and small amounts of other gases and some unknown elements. Blake skims through the data. Continental type world, 1.3 times the size of Earth, with a gravity of 0.9 times of earth. No electronic emissions of any kind detected but appear to have some native lifeforms. Satelite images show oceans, massive landmasses topped with vegetation. It appears to be totally earth-like to Blake.

He let out his breath that he has been holding in. Blake could not imagine if after traveling here, the planet is unable to support human life. His whole crew will be doomed. He looked towards where Ford was lying on his crash seat, face hidden by the frosted visor. His gamble has paid off.

Using the data provided by the probe and the current approach of the ship, the computer calculated several possible reentry sites. Finally, he chooses a site with the highest percentage of successfully landing and less amount of projected casualties. He looks at the data and images and together with the computer, fine-tune the approaches, taking into account factors like wind and drag.

The ship will begin its approach from the thermosphere, looping once over the planet to bleed off speed before descending down to the troposphere and using the remaining fuel to and air brakes to further reduce speed before hitting the ocean and using it to dampen the landing and land on a flat beach. Blake was confident that UNS Singapore will be able to land on the planet but the issue is, will they still be in one piece?

Almost an hour later, the floating hulk entered the orbit of Blake's World. Thrusters angled the ship to the correct trajectory and the ship slowly falls into the atmosphere. Blake strapped himself in on the copilot seat and gave a quick prayer to the gods before activating the heat shields.

Blast shields slid smoothly down to cover the viewports, the ice slowly melts away and the temperature in the bridge starts to rise. As the ship enters the atmosphere, the bow of the ship glows a fiery red, turning the ship into a falling star.

All across the planet, natives lifeforms look up to the skies, watching a fiery falling star streak against the sky. As it travels through the sky, it announces its arrival with a thunderous roar, awakening slumbering creatures and scaring the natives.

The damaged end of the ship trailed a massive plume of smoke, fire, and debris, from the day, it looks like a meteor while at night a falling star. As the natives of this world have never seen anything like this before, many falls to their knees in worship or fear.

After the ship looped once around the planet, Blake deploys its aero stabilizer fins from the ventral side, giving the ship some form of aerodynamics. He groans from his seat as the shaking rattled his whole body while warning alarms blazed endlessly driving him mad.

Soon the shaking stopped and the blast shields retracted back, Blake looks out of the viewports, seeing a pristine world, and a whole lot of water rushing towards him. He quickly pulls the control up and activates the thrusters to slow the falling ship. Soon his view changes to show the skyline instead of the ocean. He checks his airspeed, still too fast and applies the air brake to slow down.

Blake wasn't really flying the ship, as the ship is just dropping down from the sky. He tries his best to level the ship and not pancake into the ocean. As the City class ships, UNS Singapore were designed for atmospheric entry, it is also designed to land on water. Even so, he told Ford, that he could handle it, he did not really have much skill in piloting the ship.

By blind luck, he manages to keep the bow of the ship facing upwards as the aft portion splash landed against the ocean, creating a massive wake behind. He struggles with the aero stabilizers to keep the bow up as much as he can and burn up all the fuel in the maneuvering thrusters to slow the ship down.

Despite his best efforts, the ship skids and cuts through the ocean, directly towards land, Blake watches helplessly as the landmass getting closer and closer. Oh fuck, he closed his eyes and braced hard against his seat as the bow of the ship ram up the beach before smashing its way through the trees. He finally lost consciousness as the bow of the ship punch through a small hill before stopping.

12 - Strange New World

Cpl James had a good dream, with a pretty girl, living the good life while still schooling in university, when the Swarm invaded and turned the dream into a nightmare. The faces of Shawn, David and the rest keeps appearing and taunting him no matter where he ran or hide before catching up to him and turning into a Swarm warrior drone, it's limbs gripping him tightly and drawing him into a deadly embrace.

Screaming, he jolted awake suddenly and flailed around, bathed in cold sweat before remembering he was buckled up in a crash seat. He took several minutes calming his racing heart down before trying to get out of his restrains.

Where are the lights? He got out and stepped on the deck, thinking that he must still be under the effects of the drugs that he felt the ship was slanted. He looked at the rows of marines and crew members strapped to their seats and realized that it was the side effects of the cryo shot, the ship is slanted. Is the gravity generator broken down? He removes his helmet and a strong smell of ozone and burnt plastics instantly assail his nose. He coughs violently and turns on his flashlight on his harness.

The light beam lit up the compartment, showing people strapped to crash seats mounted in 2 rows against the wall. Spending some time. James checks his teammates' and the crew members' vitals and found them all alive but still sleeping.

Trying to open the hatch of the compartment, he found that there is no power and has to manually crank the door open. As he stepped out to the deck, he could see several beams of lights as other members of the crew are moving up and down, rescuing people and trying to organize things.

James waved at a crewmember with a medical patch on his sleeve and called out. "Hey, medic? I got about 30 guys in here. Can you check them out?" The medic took a quick look into the compartment and took out a marker and starts to write something on the bulkhead next to the hatch.

"Power's out for now. No comms no network." The medic explained as he sketches some medical lingo on the bulkhead. "Got it, I'll be right back with more help. By the way, head to the forward flight deck, everyone is gathering there." The medic said and rush off down the hallway.

As James approaches the flight deck, he notices it seem brighter and a chorus of voices could be heard and the air feel cleaner, less smokey. Stepping on to the flight deck, he was surprised at the sight he saw.

The launch bay doors lay open, displaying a view of the evening sun. Orange purple skies and clouds stretched as far as he could see. He stood there watching the view than he realized that they had landed on Blake's World. He notices the foliage looks bluish-green, instead of green but other than that everything looks suspiciously Earth-like. Even the smell of the sea from the breeze.

James walks to the edge of the open bay doors and peers off the side, he found that the ship or what is left of it is wedged directly into a cliff hill. The forward bow appears to be buried into the hill while a trail of destruction could be seen behind the aft section. Wait how did we land? I thought the plan was to drop supplies from orbit and not the whole ship? He rubbed his short crew cut hair and sat on the edge of the doors, feeling the sea breeze and watch the sun set into the horizon. Whatever. I am alive. He smiles at that thought.

"Hey corp?" Pvt Mills stumbled over and flopped himself down beside James. He took several deep breaths and said, "Join the Marines, see new planets eh?" Behind him stood Pvt Bartley,

"Pretty." He intoned before squatting down behind to James and Mills.

"You alright man?" James noticed Mills's complexion wasn't very well. "How's the rest?"

"Ribs hurt. I feel like a truck had sat on me." Mills brushed it off. "All up, Staff Pike says to take it easy first while he and LT go find out what is going on."

"Well, we are all that is left of Section 2." James turns and looks at the crew standing or sitting around the bay doors. "Except for Raman," he added.

"What do we do now corp?" Bartley asked in his deep voice.

"What we need now is some beach balls, suntan lotion, and babes!" Mills interrupted and gave a wide grin. "By the way, this feels like some survival VR game I was playing back awhile ago. You land on this planet with nothing, then you try to survive by rubbing sticks for a fire, to hunting animals, chopping trees and growing crops."

"Shut up." James rolls his eyes. "We are not that primitive to that extent to need to rub sticks for a fire. Anyway, just take a break for now till we get new orders."

"Thought the higher up's plans was to orbit and drop instead of crash landing this hulk? Mills asked.

James shrugged, "I woke up and we are all here. Maybe the computer crashed us? I don't know."

"Safer to crash land than do orbital drops," Bartley said.

Both James and Mills turned to stare at Bartley. "No shit?" Mills said sarcastically. "Why didn't I thought of that?"

"Stop that." James sighs. "Knowing our drop lift amount, yes, crash landing is better to get us all down in one piece rather than in pieces."

"Well, I guess we all made it is a good thing? I hope no aliens here that want to eat us." Mills said as he flopped on his back. "Hey Big Guy, wake me when its chow time yea?" He said to Bartley.

"Alright," Bartley answers back and sat down on the deck.

James wondered at that, will there be aliens here too? Will they be hostile like the Swarm? He took a last look at the scenery as the dying light of the sun turns everything in darkness before laying back against the deck and close his eyes in thought.

13 - Numbers

Blake leans against the railing, watching the night sky from the window in the officer's mess. The planet's dual moons loomed over the horizon with a spectacular display of stars as the backdrop. It's pretty romantic, he thought, with the dim lighting of the officer's mess and that wonderful view.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ford joined Blake at the viewing gallery. "How are you feeling?"

"Better, after the meds," Blake replied. "I was contemplating about how beautiful this planet is."

"Thank you, for saving us all," Ford said. "Your plan worked. You landed us all in one piece with only a few casualties."

"It was a gamble. Thank god this lady held. I thought that we are all gonna die when that cliff came up."

"Lady luck is smiling on you, on all of us," Ford said. "So what's next?"

"Let the crew rest for the night, we start from fresh tomorrow. Make sure that none of the crew leaves the ship, and all hatches are locked down later tonight." Blake said. "We have a HOD meeting tomorrow after breakfast." He turned back to view the night sky.

By 10 pm shipboard time, the crew members lock down the ship once more. As they have no idea what was out there, it was safer to just lock down the ship and the crew enjoyed some much-needed rest. As the crew slept into the night, a fair distance away, near the peak of a volcano, a deep roar rumble out.

As morning came, the overall high morale of the crew could be seen. Chorus of greetings and cheerful laughter could be heard in the mess and walkways.

Blake sat at the head of the conference table and waited for all the heads of departments to enter and started the meeting. "Alright, we landed safely but there are still many difficult times ahead. We need to ensure our survival here, as we do not know how long we will be stuck here. There are 3 possible scenarios; One, we are stuck here forever, so we need to build a permanent base here. Two, we build a base here and wait hopefully for a rescue. Third and last of all, we rebuild a warp drive and return to Earth."

Chief Matt spoke up, "Rebuilding the UNS Singapore with what we have is impossible! We don't even have the proper tools for it nor the knowledge base! Last option is out!" He declares.

Ford spoke next, "As for a rescue, it is also impossible. 1st of all we are in uncharted space and with the war with the Swarm, it will be years before a survey ship enters this system."

"So the only option is for us to build a base here. A colony of man." Blake said. "In this case, we need to inventory every item and salvage all usable systems from UNS Singapore."

Grayson raises his hand, "We need food, water, medical supplies, shelter, and security"

Dr. Sharon also raises her hand and added, "We need to send out surveying teams to gather samples from native plant life and soil to see if it is edible and also if it provides the vitamins we need. Our vitamins supplies are a little low. And also I need to use the labs here to test if there is any pathogen or viruses that are harmful to us in the air or soil."

"Eh, for security, I will set the Marines out to recon the perimeter, and also as escorts for the surveying teams if needed." Lt Frank. "But we are lacking severely in manpower. I have only so many marines left."

"Alright, you guys know what to do without me tell you," Blake said. "I want a detailed report on our current level of status, manpower, fuel, power, food, water, equipment, weapons and action plans," Blake tick his fingers off one by one. "For now we set up a perimeter first around the ship. We will convene again same time tomorrow morning. Thank you."

By noontime, the ship was a hive of activity. Crewmen using power tools were either flatting the ground to level the surface, while others, cut down trees and other foliage. Another team worked to clear the buried portion of the ship out. Pairs of Marines could be seen patrolling along the perimeter. In short, a perimeter radius of 100m is being cleared around the crash. This activity went on all day till nightfall where everyone retreated back into the ship to button up.

"All here? Good. Let's start." Blake leans back in his chair as he looks around the conference table. Other than the usual people, a few more new faces appeared. "Ok, who first?"

Ops officer Grayson cleared his throat as he volunteers to start first. "The ship doesn't look pretty. What remains of UNS Singapore is the forward and center crew quarters, the forward flight and cargo decks, the bridge and CIC, the forward reactor and the central magazines." He flips his notepad, "Also, the med bay, the old civilian research labs and Marine quarters are all that survived."

"How about weapons systems?" XO Ford raised.

"For weapons systems, the dorsal turret is currently half buried in the side of the hill, while the ventral turret is scattered in pieces from here to the sea. The missile launchers and point defense lasers on the port and starboard side are relatively protected in their armored casements. But we have to dig some out from the hill. For ammunition remaining in the magazines, we have a grand total of 80 Multi-Purpose AIM-32H Space Sparrows missiles and 20 more in the ready launchers and 236 155mm sabot penetrators for the rail guns. For the PD lasers, until the reactor is fixed, we do not have enough energy to fire them."

Grayson took a sip of water before continuing. "We got 3 machine shops, 1 in flight, 1 in cargo and a final 1 in the forward reactor. All are tooled for maintenance and simple parts fabrication. We could tweak around with the software to produce other things but don't expect to build a warp drive out of it."

"Total active manpower standing at, 424. While 34 are still in recovery. We have set up 5 Wind, Tidal and Solar (WTS) power generators taken from the 5 remaining lifeboats, it currently provides enough power for our basic needs. Also, the ship's water purifiers are still working, just that we need to find a proper water source, seawater works too but I don't really recommend it. We will need to build a water supply line or we have to transport water to be purified every day." Grayson looked up from his notes. "For inventory," He nods to the Asian male sitting on his left. "Quartermaster Chen will update us."

'Good morning sir," QM Chen greeted Blake. "We have a total of 22 days worth of food both perishables and preserved if running on full rations for 500 people. We have water enough for 16 days at current usage. 92 power tools, 5 forklifts, 19 heavy hand lifters. Zero fuel in the tanks. 2 space haulers and 4 buggies."

QM Chen looks toward Lt Frank, and continues, "On the Marines and Security section side, we have a total of 37 M7A1s, 2 M7 DMRs, 220 Glock G88Cs, 50 M8 shotguns, 4 PK-299 HMGs and 217 PDWs. 30,000 rounds of 6.5mm C type. 50,000 rounds of 6.5mm AP, 179,000 rounds of 5mm and 10,000 12 ga shotgun shells." He pauses and flips his notes. "The Marines armorer says that once the ammo is used up, we do not have the advanced materials to produce any more ammo, except for simpler ammunition like the 12 ga."

"Medical wise, I am almost all out of biomaterials to produce much vaccines or medicine." Dr. Sharon spoke next. "We used up almost all of it to produce the cyro shots. We need to see if there are any native plants here with medical properties that we can use if we want more medicine."

"Is there any signs of viruses or pathogen that we need to be worried about?" Blake asked.

"So far no. I tested the air and seawater samples. As we have not found any source of water, I cannot verify it yet." Dr. Shanon replied. "As for the wounded in the sick bay. Good news is all of them are stabilized and should be able to recover in time. The bad news is I am nearly out of medical supplies like bandages, sterilizers, and other critical supplies for medical operations."

14 - Numbers Part 2

"The Marines and the Security section have established a 100m perimeter around the base. We are hoping to clear the area to 200m." Frank said. "Once Dr. Sharon's team is ready, I will have my guys company them for surveys to provide security."

"Lt, I will get the team leader to liaises with you as soon as possible." Dr. Sharon promised.

"I guess it's my turn now." Chief Matt sighs. "Well, the crash landing and ramming of the ship into the cliff has knocked the reactor's fusing rod alignment out. Stupid computer." Chief Matt grumbled.

Blake looked away in embarrassment while Ford kept a straight face. As the crew still did not know the details, Blake decided to keep it that way.

"It will take some time to realign the rods."

"How long?" Blake asked.

"It's a very delicate job, supposing done in a yard. A week at least." Matt said.

"Alright make it a priority. Also get the surveying teams out to look for water." Blake ordered. "How about the wildlife here? Have we encountered any? Natives?"

"No sir, other than the usual bugs and insects, there is surprisingly no form of wildlife seen," Frank said.

"I won't be surprised, considering we crash landed like that. We probably scared them all away." Dr. Sharon said.

"Any chance of the Swarm here with us?" Blake asked.

"It's too early to time. With the sensors and communication arrays on the bow of the ship destroyed, we couldn't even contact our probe in orbit. We have no eyes in the sky and all form of communications." Ford said. "We only have local communications within a range of 15 km. If the weather stays like this. The range will drop to less than 10 km if the weather is bad."

"We can launch some UAVs to help survey the surrounding areas and as first line of warning." Lt Frank said. "But they are power intensive. So we might not get as much flight time with them,"

"Alright set that up with the UAVs." Blake than ask, "How about transportation? Are the 4 buggies enough?"

"Ahem, eh, sir." A bespectacled young man, in a mechanic jumpsuit with a rank of Petty Officer 1st class pinned to his collar tabs, spoke. "The buggies will not be good for any off-road activities. They are primarily designed to be used in the ship. We need to modify them before they can be any use outdoors."

"You are?" Blake asked.

"This is PO Nelson," XO Ford replied for him. "He took over Master Chief Cobbs's duties in addition to his own in the motor pool."

"Space haulers are too heavy to lift off in the atmosphere, it will require a lot of modifications before it could be flown. Also, fuel for the haulers is limited." PO Nelson continued.

As everyone digest the news, Blake stood up. "Alright, I think it's good that we more or less know the problems we face. For now, our priority is food, water, power than medical. Weapons and modification of the vehicles is not an issue yet. As for rationing food and water, we decide again after 1 week." As he was about to end the meeting. Someone at the back raised her hand.

"Sir, I am Spaceman Apprentice Alice, from Hydroponics. " A young caucasian lady with her tied in a ponytail introduced herself. "Hydroponics was lost in the explosion but I have some seeds with me in my locker, mostly potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, and strawberries."

"That is good news," Blake relieved as it could help a bit with the food issues. "Ok SA Alice, I am putting you in charge of farming. Get a list of what you need to XO Ford. Any other questions?"

With that note, the conference ended and everyone returns to work. Blake gestures to Ford to stay back. Once the room was clear, Blake said. "What do think of our odds in starting a colony here?"

"If we can settle food, water, and power. I think we should be ok. Unless the Swarm is here in force or there are hostile natives than we need to rethink our strategy." Ford answered.

"We need to ration the usage of our equipment and look into ways to replicate or substitute them. We do not have the infrastructure to produce everything we need to support our current tech, sooner or later, it will break down and we won't have the parts nor the ability to build or replace them." Blake rubbed his eyebrows.

"Do we have anyone with the relevant knowledge or know how in this case?" Ford asked. "I know Staff Pike is great with jungle survival stuff. He probably knows plenty of jungle and forest skills that will be useful to the crew out here."

"OK, I think we should make all the crew members fill up a questionnaire regarding their skill sets," Blake suggested. "This way we can filter out those with skills that can help in building up the base. I will look at expanding the perimeter."

"I will get right to it, sir." Ford then left the room.

Blake finishes his coffee before following Ford out of the room and went off to supervise the crewmen working at the perimeter. He exited the ship by the cargo bay ramp with extends all the way to the ground. He stood at the foot of the ramp and cranes his head up and looks at the cliff where one-third of the ship is buried into. Damn, how did we survive that? Thank god for small mercies.

"Captain!" A crewman in a red jacket stroll up to and saluted Blake. "Sir, I heard from the XO, you are coming to check on the perimeter?"

"At ease," Blake returned the salute. "So what do we have here?"

"The soil is pretty sandy, we are about 300, 350m away from the sea. All around us is just overgrowth and not many large trees, so work has been progressing quite fast." The vegetation around the ship was 1st cleared away creating a flat square shaped field. The ground was then flattened and compacted uniformly. "We extended to about 120m away and by tomorrow we should be able to clear the land up to 200 m away." They walked towards the edge of the field.

The crewman pointed out various interesting features of the terrain and also elaborate on where will buildings be built using local materials. A wall enclosing the colony is also planned to be constructed.

"How do you planned to build this?" Blake asked PO 1st class Letts after looking at his name tag and rank. "Do we even have construction materials to build all that?"

"Cap, I used to run my own construction company before getting drafted," Letts said. "Cement and concrete are easy to make, all we need is limestone, sand, and some clay. I have gotten the boys to go poke around to see if they can find some clay for me but limestone and sand we got plenty around us." He gestures towards the cliffs.

"But can we produce enough of it to use?" Blake was impressed.

"Yup, I set up a production line to produce as much cement and concrete as you want, as long as I have the raw materials." Letts declared.

"How much manpower and resources do you need?"

"40 to 50 for now. Then depends on the output and demand. Also, I need a week or so to experiment to get the perfect mix." Letts said.

"Good work, PO. Keep it up. Inform either the XO or me if you need help." Blake said as he thanks Letts for the tour.

15 - Giant Wolf

"Hey Big Guy, See anything?" Pvt Mills ask Bartley as they followed the 3 technicians into the forest. "What are hell are they collecting?"

"Samples." Pvt Bartley replied. His eyes constantly scanning left and right at the clearing where they stopped.

"Damn, I know its samples, but for what use?" Pvt Mills grumbled, he slaps away an insect that landed on his neck. Both of the Marines were wearing No. 4 forest camo fatigues, open-faced helmets with their armored chest plates and equipment harness. Except for Bartley, he lugs along a PK-299 heavy machine gun, that is attached to an exoskeleton frame that he wears, with several large pouches containing ammunition for his weapon.

"To study."

"You know what? You are all fun and games, really." Mills gave up trying to chat with Bartley and walked up to 1 of the techs crouching over a plant. "Hey, whatcha doing?"

The technician turns and lifts up a small container with a leaf inside. "Well, we are cataloging the plants to see if they can be eaten or used in some way." He gives the bottle a little shake before placing it carefully into his bag.

"Eh, ok." Mills straighten up, unimpressed. "So this blue-green plants are edible?" He pucks a leaf off a small tree. Most of the leaves of the plant life in Blake's world are bluish in color with a hint of green.

"Well not this," The tech stood up. "Over here," he waves Mills over and kneels down to a tiny growth with blue fern-like leaves. "This here is a kind of tuber or root, in case you jug heads don't know what a tuber is." The rest of the techs laughs as he continues his explanation. "The guys at the lab says it tastes like carrot and potato and carries the same nutrients and vitamins as them. So they called this a carr-ato."

"Oh wow." Mills rolls his eyes while Bartley looks on in interest. "So other than the tuber root carr-ato. Nothing more interesting found?"

"Hahaha, we found plenty in the last week." The tech proudly said. "There a tree sap that tastes like maple syrup but when dried becomes like rubber."

"Also there's this berries that the other team bought in," The rest of the techs chipped in stories. "- that huge monster fish from the sea." "-mushrooms from the -"

Mills listened with half an ear to the excited techs talking about new discoveries on this planet. He waves away the insects buzzing around his face and leans against a tree. He looks around the clearing, pulls out a pack of protein bar and starts chewing on it.

"Mills," Bartley said in his usual tone. "Mills, something is watching us."

"What?" Mills jolt up. "Where?"

"I am not sure." Bartley slowly turns on the spot to face towards the forest. His eyes peer intently trying to find the source of his unease.

"Are you sure?" Mills fingered his weapon's safety. He casually walked towards the techs still in lively discussion. "Guys, I think we should start to pack it up. It's getting late." They are roughly 1 hour on foot away from the base.

"But we are not done here. It's still early!" The techs protested. "We only collected less than half of the samples needed"

"We can do it tomorrow, for now, pack it up, we are heading back," Mills growled at the techs.

Sensing something is wrong, the techs quickly grab their belongings and equipment. Less than a minute, they are all ready to return.

"Quickly now, let's go." Mills lead the way with Bartley covering the rear. The group quick march through the forest, climbing over massive tree roots and in certain areas, dense foliage.

"Mills," Bartley comms. "It's following us. I can hear it."

Shit. Mills cursed. "Base, this dog 2, we might have a situation here." He comms back to base.

"What's the situation?" Base radio back.
"We appear to have something following us. Unable to identify,"
"RTB immediately, a rapid response team will meet up with you along the way for escort, over."
"Roger that!" Mills ended the comms. "Let's go," He pushed the group to travel faster.

They push through the dense foliage and emerges out into a field of grass. The wind causes the grass to sway like waves. "This is not good." Mills said as he scans the surroundings. The closest treeline is about 200m away. "It's too open."

"Big guy, hold the rear. We go by frog leap," He tells the group. "I go first. Once I reach the tree line, I will give a signal then you guys are next. Just run ok? Don't stop till you hit the trees."

Mills look left and right before dashing across the field in less than 40 seconds before he arrives at the edge of the forest. He quickly got into a ready position to cover the rest and waves the techs to start running. The techs seeing his signal, they ran towards him. Once they reached the cover of the trees, Bartley followed suit and sprint across.

Suddenly a huge roar erupted from behind Bartley, causing to pause and turn. A wolf the size of a bus leap out from the foliage and lands several meters behind him. Everyone stood and stared in amazement before yelling for Bartley to run. The giant wolf-like creature, has 2 horns like a buffalo, and grey-blue colored fur coat, making it seemingly bend in with the surrounds. It made a leap towards Bartley who following the encouragement of the group, was running towards the trees.

Mills flicked his safety off his M7A1 and took sight on the creature. The 2x red dot sight mounted on the weapons seems to enlarge the creature furthermore. Once he noticed Bartley out of the line of fire, he triggers his weapon, firing a long burst into it. This time, instead of the C type rounds, he was loaded with AP rounds.

The AP bullets slam directly into the center of the creature, causing it to tumble. Sparks and bluish blood burst out from the impacts. The creature yelped in a very dog-like manner and as it rose up, it shook its body causing specks of blue blood to scatter.

"What the fuck!?" Mills roared! "That's cheating! It's bloody armor piercing rounds! It fucking shrugged it off!" Pissed, Mills continued firing at the creature.

By this time, Bartley made it over to the tree line. He took a deep breath and braced himself as he hoists his PK-299 and fires a stream of bullets at 1,400 rounds per minute. The tracers from the HMG was like a laser, striking the creature, and tearing it to meat chunks.

16 - Giant Wolves

As the echo of Bartley's HMG died down, the techs together with Mills cheered. "Hot damn! I need one of those myself!" Mills swap out a new mag with his partial empty mag from his rifle. "Hey techies, is that a giant wolf or what?" He asked the techie crouching next to him.

"Eh? I have no idea. We need to bring the corpse back to study. But it does look like a wolf, with horns." The techie replied excitedly, as he peers intently at the downed wolf. "Huge too."

"No shit, Sherlock." Mills rolls his eyes. Damn nerds.

"Mills, it's not over yet." Bartley's calm voice cuts into their conversation. "More incoming."

In the distance, sounds of something heavy crashing through the foliage could be heard. Snarls and growls seeming grew nearer and louder. A sudden howl heralded the arrival of 4 more giant wolves, each as huge as a car or minibus!

"Oh shit," Mills saw the group of wolves appear at the opposite side of the field. "Run!" He yells at the techs. "Big Guy! Covering fire!" And opens up with his rifle.

Bartley opens fire with his weapon and backs off slowly. He directs the spray of tracers onto the nearest and largest wolf in the group. Sparks, smoke, shreds of meat and fur flew as the tracers come into contact. Seeing his target dropping, he sweeps his fire to the closest wolf. Clumps of dirt and torn grass flew as the bullets wrought destruction in its path.

The wolf roars in agony and raises its front paws to protect its venerable face, as bullets slam into its body. The other wolves quickly leap into action and split off towards the left and right respectively to escape the storm of bullets from Bartley.

The heavy fire from Bartley manages to suppress and take down the two of the wolves but the other 2 wolves moved too fast for him to get a good lock on them.

For Mills, it was harder to hit the wolves. "Fuck! How can dog shit like that move so fast?" Mills cursed. He tries to get a good aim on the closest wolf but it kept dodging his shots. "Damn it! You dog! Stay still!"

Bartley ceased his fire, turn and ran towards Mills. Upon reaching his side, he turns around and covers Mills's flank and fires at the other rapidly approaching wolf. He fires a short burst and waits after the wolf makes a dodge by leaping to the side than he opens fire at where he estimates the wolf will land. The laser beam like tracers torn the area where the wolf landed into smoke and blood, causing a small fire in the grass field.

Finally, Mills also manages to bring down his target, just 10m away from him. The wolf crumpled down, dying of internal injuries. Even in its dying breath, the giant wolf snarls and rage, it struggles to raise up and its limbs claw desperately in its attempts to move its body. Slowly the hate in its eyes faded as Mills and Bartley watch it slowly stops moving.

"Any more?" Mills asked. He reloads and crouches down keeping his rifle in a ready position.

"I don't see anything," Bartley replied. He lowers his weapon and checks his ammunition counter.

"Phew, thought that last one was gonna get me." He walks up and pokes the wolf carcass with his smoking rifle barrel. "These guys are tough! I'm using AP rounds!" He bends over and examines the wolf body before using his hands to pull something out from its fur.

"Holy shit." He holds up a complete bullet, with the tungsten alloy core tip slightly flatten. "This shit is supposed to penetrate up to 14mm thick steel plates!"

Bartley picks the bullet from Mills and examines it. Then he walks 1 full circle around the body and gauges. "Roughly 5 meters long, 2.5 meters tall." He taps the horns growing out from the head of the wolf. "Solid ivory."

"Damn, we bagged a big one eh?" Mills grins. "Think they allow us to mount its head up in the barracks?" He poses with one foot on top of the giant wolf like a big game hunter. "We can make big bucks with this."

Soon after, the rapid response team of 8 arrives with the group of techs. 2 Marines and 6 from the security details, their gear and uniform greatly different from the marines. They are armored with black riot gear and dark naval grey jumpsuits, carrying PDWs or shotguns.

They hurriedly bash through the undergrowth and appears out of the tree line and sees Mills leaning on top of a large rock while Bartley seems like trying to put out some fire in the distance. "Took you guys long enough." Mills grins. "And no thanks to you guys but the day is saved!

"Yeah yeah," Lcp Cooper from section 1 rolls his eyeballs at Mills. "So what shit you got into this time, Mills?"

"Found ourselves the natives!" Mills pats the "rock" he was leaning on. "A freaking giant wolf." He gives a little bow as he presents the giant wolf to Cooper and his team.

Cooper looks over the giant wolf with the horns and whistle. "Damn this is a huge son of a bitch!" He gives the wolf a kick. "Bloody solid too."

"We got another 4 more of this bad boy here." Mills jerk his head towards the field. "And this is just 1 of the smaller ones." Bartley could be seen stomping around among the blue greyish rock-like objects amidst the smoking grass.

"4 more?" Pvt Koing and the rest of the security section looks on wild-eyed. "There's more of these things around?" The security sections fingered their weapons and look around their surrounding nervously.

"I don't know, seriously." Mills shrugged. He watches as the techs excitedly start to collect samples, measure the bodies and snaps photos. "All I know is they are pretty bullet proofed."

The group reports back to base asking for more support and help to transport the bodies back for analysis. Soon after over an hour, another 20 people arrived with heavy lifters and strapped the bodies onto the lifters and they started the trek carrying the giant wolves back to base.

By the time they approach the base, everyone has heard about the incident and turned out to see the giant wolves. Mills happily basked in the glory of all the attention as he bragged about how he and Bartley heroically saved the survey team and how he killed the giant wolves.

17 - Manastone

Captain Blake and Cmdr Ford stood outside a reinforced window looking at the dissected remains of a giant wolf. It was placed on a steel pallet in a hastily made environmental clean room in the corner of the cargo bay as it was too large to be moved into the labs. Huge glass containers containing parts of the wolf lined the sides of the enclosed area on a table. The rest of the wolves were stored in the refrigerator room in sealed bags.

"So Doc, what do you think of these wolves?" Blake asked through the intercom at the window.

"Very fascinating indeed these creatures," said Dr. Sharon wearing a yellow biochemical protection suit. She held a Ph.D. in criminal forensics and medicine. "I might not know much of animals but these creatures are amazing."

Dr. Sharon gestures her assistant to display their data findings on the display mounted next to the window. "These are all males, very similar to our Terran wolves in fact. But with several times the muscle, bone and tissue strength and having horns." She lifts up a curved horn measuring over a meter long. "I suspect they use this as a way to gore other animals like what Terran bulls do. Also, their blood contains large traces of copper, therefore their blue is blood. It is also why it's fur is bluish. I think this is its natural way of camouflaging in the wild."

"Blue like crabs?" Ford glance at Blake who shrugs.

Next, she displays a strand of blue hair. "This is taken from the body. Its tensile strength is almost as tough as nano carbon, that's why your marines' weapons are not that effective. With the dense coat of fur, it acts as a natural armor to absorb much of the kinetic energy and dispersing it away." She shook a tray full of deformed bullets to emphasize her point. "Other than the fur, it's hide is quite tough but is easier to cut with a knife or shot through."

"So you are saying, the fur is stopping bullets but not the hide of the creature?" Ford asks.

"Yes, even with the fur, we manage to easily cut through it with our operating knives." Dr. Sharon said. "But the fur does not fully negate the kinetic energy away since most of them died of internal trauma."

Hmmm, this means that the Marines' bayonets and knives are more efficient than guns due to the fur coat of the wolves. Blake thought. Or hit it with big enough gun.

"But the most amazing thing we found is this." She holds up a piece of blue stone. Under the white laboratory lights, it looks like a piece of blue quartz. "We dug this out from under its throat. It appears to form naturally from the creature like some sort of tumor. All of the wolves we have, has this under their throats, in various shapes and sizes." She gestures the lab assistant to turn off the lights. As the lights went out, the stone she held in her hand, gave off a faint glow.

"This is its molecular structure under the scope." A rotating image of molecules in a web-like structure appears on the screen next to Blake and Ford. "The computer is unable to match it to any known element. The closest match made is 68.33% similar to radium." She continues. "We also ran some tests on it and found something interesting." The lab suddenly lights up from a light bulb on the table, Dr. Sharon had placed the stone on a device with 2 wires, a red and a blue which connects to the light bulb that was lit up.

"Oh, is it some kind of battery?" Ford wide-eyed asks. Blake was speechless, this is unbelievable.

"We believe that it is used by the wolves like one, allowing them to tap into the energy reserves giving them extra energy to burn." Dr. Sharon said. "Also when it is used this way, we detected some form of radioactivity. It will appear the more power being drawn from the stone, the higher the radioactivity is."

"What? A miniature nuclear battery?" Ford and Blake were shocked by Dr. Sharon's words.

"We need to run more tastes. By the way, the meat of the wolf has been tested to be edible by humans, with similar nutrient values to pork, we can use it to supplement our dietary needs." Dr. Sharon turns back on the lights. "And for the stone, we decided to call it a Mana stone."

"That is amazing," Blake said to Ford as they walked out of the makeshift lab. "A giant wolf, with horns that grow radioactive batteries. If we are not at war or lost, this planet will grant us many technologic breakthroughs." He stops at the top of the ramp and looks out of the cargo bay at the lively scene outside the ship.

Over the week, the land has been cleared to almost a kilometer away. Straight roads made out of crushed gravel lined the cleared land. Tiny crewmembers could be seen working at the planted crops. Clusters of circular pop up survival huts from the lifeboats are arranged neatly in a circle with the UNS flag waving gently in the sea breeze. Several wooden towers nested at the edge of the fields provide lookouts and security for the bubbling colony and the first workings of a concrete wall could be seen.

"If we can harness the power of the mana stones, energy won't be an issue anymore," Blake said as he took in the scenery.

"Sir, I think we should be careful out there," Ford cautioned. "We will need to increase the number of security forces to the surveying teams."

"Yes, there is too much unknowns in this world and many things we have yet to understand," Blake said. "Increase the number of guards and make sure they report in every 30 minutes from now onwards."

"It also appears that the by-products of the wolf are quite useful to us. Do you think we should set up some teams to hunt more of them?" Ford asked. "Our food supply is starting to run a little low. Even if we are growing crops and harvesting wild vegetables, we need more sources of food."

"How is the fishing operation going?" Blake asks, thinking of the group of people with fishing skills.

"Barely enough to feed the base. Too much time spent on the low yield returns, plus we need a boat to do large-scale fishing if we want to support the base with enough food." Ford says. And the skills, knowledge, and equipment to build a boat were left unsaid between them.

"No, I don't want to send the men out to hunt something the size of a bus." Blake decides after a while. "Also if possible run some drills for the base."

"Yes, sir. Ahem," Ford cleared his throat. "Will you like to try some wolf steak tonight?" He grins.

"Hahaha, sure, why not? I am sick of eating carr-ato every day!" Blake jokes back.

18 - Needs

"Hey did you try the wolf steak? I tried it and it was awesome!" Conversations like these were happening all over the base colony. The wolves provided the men and woman of UNS Singapore with a rare meal, allowing them to enjoy some fresh meat other than just eating starch or foraged roots.

Everyone was excited about the discovery of the wolves and topics of conversation was all about them. Yet in the commanders meeting, the atmosphere was heavy.

"So we had 1st contact with a native lifeform here and it appears to be hostile." Chief Matt said, as he leans back and folds his arms. "We have to assume the rest of the planet is hostile too."

"It might be our men were trespassing in their territory? Wolves are known to be territorial creatures." Grayson argued.

"We can't assume they are the same with animals from Earth!" Chief Matt shot back.

"Alright, that's enough." Blake slaps the table with his palm. "We raise our alert levels. Ensure all survey team members are qualified with a firearm and is armed at all times, and also double the security detail with them."

"Yes Sir," Grayson said, his face slightly red. "Here is our current progress of the base." He activates the display and brings up a UAV view of the area. "Over 2 hectares of land is cleared and ready to be used for housing and offices. Our current production of concrete and cement is still under the process of being streamlined, once that is completed, we will be able to produce enough concrete and cement for all our infrastructure needs."

"Another hectare is being cleared and it is currently in the midst of use by Hydroponics to grow food." He zooms the image out to display the whole area. "Current construction of the wall is at 20% completion. It will cover the entire planned residential and production areas."

"Our current food sources consist mainly of foraging from the northern forest. Fishing will be discontinued as it takes too much manpower and the returns currently are too low to support us. Hydroponics assures us that the 1st crops of potatoes and tomatoes will be harvested in 3 weeks time and also they are currently cultivating the local carr-ato, if successful, it will be harvested within a period of 1 month." The displays show several graphs and charts indicating different foodstuff.
"Our current food supplies is currently enough to last us for a month. I will like this number to be higher if possible, but we have yet to find more sources of food yet."

"As for a source of water, recon flights with UAV has spotted a river up north, roughly 8km away." Grayson continues. "We will need to dismantle piping from the ship and dig an 8km trench to pipe water here. Plans are here, waiting for approval." He hands a tablet over to Blake. "The water converters are currently producing enough water from seawater for our current needs, but wear and tear will increase due to the salt content."

Blake nods. "Ok, what's next?"

Dr. Sharon's assistant, PO Alvin, who heads the survey teams stood up and took over the meeting. "Currently, we have 6 teams doing surveying missions at these locations." The display once again shows a top-down map of their current location. "The sea is to our west, while the cliffs and extends from our south several kilometers till it hits the sea. To our north, is a huge forest, and to the east is large are of grassland stretching over 20km before stopping at the mountain range with several active volcanoes. This is where the wolves are encountered. And also, we discovered a rabbit-like creature, similar to the wolves, it has horns." The display shows several video recording from UAVs.

"Is it hostile?" Blake asked.

"No, but it ran away from the surveying team. We are hoping to catch some of it to study." Alvin said.

"Wait. Why didn't the UAVs detect any of the wolves or any creatures to be exact?" QM Chen asked.

"We believed that when we crashed here, we caused a huge stir to the local ecosystem. All local wildlife fled away and is only recently starting to return back." Dr. Sharon explains. "Or, another reason is, our sensors are not calibrated correctly to detect the local wildlife here."

"Doesn't the wolves show up in the infra sensors?" Chief Matt askes. "Or even heartbeat sensors should work?"

Dr. Sharon shrugged, "We need a live sample to test. If the Marines can catch one alive."

"No," Blake rejected immediately. "I don't want to lose men. If they come, we deal with them accordingly, but we do not go out to find trouble."

Lt Frank nods, glad that he does not have to send his men out on some crazy mission.

Dr. Sharon shrugs again. "Well, the test results for the mana stones we have came back. It's certainly is some kind of natural biological energy storage, but it appears that the color, size, and purity of the stones varies. The more clear and larger the stone the more energy it stores." Dr. Sharon paused for a sip of water before continuing, "We are unable to identify what it is made. It appears to grow out from the thorax of the wolf." I would really like a live sample to play with, She thoughts. "The amount of energy stored is roughly 5,000 watts for the smallest stone and up to 9,000 watts for the largest stone that we have." She places a dull fist-sized grey stone on the table in front of her. "After we depleted its power, the color fades and becomes like this, like a normal rock."

"Is it dangerous?" Ford asks, "Like highly flammable or explosive? The last time you said it emits radiation when it is used."

"It is in a very inert state. It doesn't appear to be highly flammable nor explosive and it is similar to the tensile strength of wrought steel." Dr. Sharon places another mana stone on the table. The color of the stone is in a dark blue hue.

"The more power you draw from the stone, the higher the amount of radiation is given off. Similar to how atomic elements create energy, the molecules inside split apart to produce energy." Dr. Sharon explains. "But unlike nuclear fission, the area of radiation is limited to less than a meter nor does it produce heat!"

The people in the conference room were stunned. A mini nuclear battery which produces also no radioactive waste and heat! Think of all the tech that could be powered by that!

"Amazing!" Chief Matt exclaims, "Can I have one to experiment with?"

"Sure," Dr. Sharon pushes the blue stone to Chief Matt, who picks it up and examines the stone against the lights.

Matt kept the stone in his pocket after examining it and says, "The repairs on the reactor are proceeding as planned. It should be operational within 4 days."

"How much fuel do we have for the reactor?" Ford asks.

"Enough to power what remains of the ship's systems for 7 months," Matt replied. "After that, it's all dry."

19 - Ruins

A massive wolf, with a streak of silver fur on its back, its ivory tusks spanning over 2m, walks out of the tree line, sniffing the air. It stood upright, over 4m tall, and shook its self, displaying its impressive silver blue mane. Walking over to a spot of trampled and torn grass, it lowers its snot and sniffs the ground, before looking up at a trail leading towards the other side of the field.

The next few days at the base, the higher-ups ran several unexpected drills, some in the day, others in the middle of the night or just before dawn. A typical day at Blake's World lasts 27 earth hours, and the crew kept the days, weeks, months and time similar to Earth. The drills differ from an attack to the base, to biological outbreaks.

"They are starting to shape up properly," SSGT Pike says, as he stood before the tactical screen in the bridge watching the hive of activity at the base with the ship's cameras. He glances at his wristwatch timer, 9 mins 11 seconds. "Better than before, Sirs. Before, they took over 19mins to get into action." SSGT Pike says to Blake and Ford watching the action next to him.

"Good work Staff." Blakes watches in approval. "Making sure the men know what to do in an event of an attack." He watches the crew in the base drawing weapons and getting to their assigned positions. Simulated explosions popped here and there within the base compound. "Alright. End the exercise, and let the men stand down." He looks at the clock displaying the local time, 4:46 am.

"Thank you, Sir!" SSGT Pike did a parade ground salute and turn before exiting the bridge.

As the day started, work was divided into construction, foraging, security, production, and surveying. Constructions teams worked on building the infrastructure of the base, like the perimeter wall, or digging the newly approved 8km long trench to lay a water pipe to the deliver fresh water to the base. Other teams foraged for food like carr-atos, patrol the perimeter, creating cement, farming and exploring their surroundings.

Communication officer Clara sniffs a yawn as she sat at her console monitoring all communications in the base with the different teams work out in the fields. So far, all the communications traffic mostly involves mundane reports. She looks at the time, another 2 hours more to shift change. She sighs and leans back in her seat, wishing time could pass by faster.

Her console suddenly flashes an incoming transmission. "Base over." She taps the connect icon.
"Dog 4 to Base over, we ah, found something here." Clara leans over her console and waves to the XO, getting his attention.
"Dog 4, please report your current location and status." Clara continues, she pulls up the operation chart of the day, finding out who is Dog 4 and his team. "Sir, it's Cpl James's team. They are supposed to be surveying the North sector, grid H4." Clara said as XO Ford stood beside her.
"Base, Dog 4, eh we are at grid H4-B-3, over."
"Dog 4, Base, what is the situation, over."
"Base, Dog 4. We found some ruins of some kind over. Requesting orders over."
"Dog 4, this is Base, standby over." Clara looks up at XO Ford, waiting for his reply.
"Tell them to hold, we will dispatch more support his way," Ford said after deciding a moment.
"Dog 4, Base. Hold your position, back up and support on your way. Over."
"Roger Base, Dog 4 over and out."

"Get the Captain," Ford said to Clara.

Cpl James ended the call with Base and looks at the moss-covered ruins. A four stories tall tower-like structure made of stone, with the local flying creatures flying in and out of the crumbled roof. Several other collapsed structures surround the tower but nature has reclaimed most of it, only a few remaining walls remained standing. The techies were looking over the entire site, trying to determine how large the structure was, while the rest of his team were on alert, watching their surroundings of any danger.

He removes his gloves and touches the surface of the structure, feeling the rough stone surface. Who built these, he wondered, and if are they still around.

Suddenly yelling and sounds of gunfire erupted from the ruins. James turns and rushes towards the direction of gunfire, speaking into his comms as he ran. "What's going on? Who's firing!"

He saw 2 of the techies scrambling out from a lichen-covered building with a collapsed roof, next to the tower, 1 of them was firing his pistol wildly behind him. James quickly ran towards them, shouting. "What is going on?"

The techie yells something incoherent while continuing to firing into the depths of the ruins. James, losing his patience, jerks the techie's weapon away from him and slaps him. "Calm down!"

The wide-eyed techie blinks several times before saying "Monsters, little green monsters! They got Kristine!"

James quickly ordered the security team to stay on alert, and waves to 1 of the security guys in his black riot gear over. "Karl right?" James confirms his name, "You know how to do an entry?"

Karl nods, he checks his shotgun is loaded and follows James to the entrance of the ruins. James directed Karl to enter first with his shotgun, while he slings his M7A1 and draws his Glock 88 out.

With his left hand on Karl's shoulder, he grips Karl's shoulder to indicate Kal to advance. Both of them enter in step into the building with their weapons on the ready.

Even with part of the roof collapsed inwards, the shadows cast by the overgrowth and partially standing walls blocked most of the sunlight. A strong smell of rot and wet mud greeted both of them as they shone their flashlights left and right. Several empty bullet casings shattered all over the moss-covered stone floor glittered from their flashlights. Signs of struggle could be seen from the clumps of dirt and moss torn from the stone slabs.

"Corporal," Karl calls out. He directed his light to a small opening at the back of the building where a pile of stones sat. "Looks like a way in."

James crouch down and shines his light in, he couldn't see all the way in but the ground clearly shows signs of something heavy being dragged and other prints trampled all over.

"Damn," James report his situation to Base and quickly makes a decision. "Let's go in after them."

He tells the rest to wait for the backup at the entrance of the tunnel while he and Karl will advance into the tunnel to save the techie.

"Let's go!" James tells Karl, and the 2 of them bends down low and enters the tunnel.

20 - Dungeoneering

The tunnel appears to be part of the ruins, as the walls and ceiling feature the same stone designs as outside. Dangling roots and some kind of fungus lined the sides of the walls. Only the entrance appears to be dug out by someone or something. After several meters, the tunnel slopes downwards and into the side of a stone corridor.

James following the tracks and stops as they entered the corridor. He looks carefully on the stone floor and says, "This way," Pointing to the right. Bits of soil and moss on the stone floor shows the direction of where the attackers went. "Wait." James suddenly stops Karl. He pulls out a chem stick, lighting it, he jams it into the opening in the wall, pointing to the direction they are heading to. "For the reinforcements to know where we went." He adds for Karl's benefit.

Karl nods and starts fast walking with his weapon at the ready. They have tested their communication devices earlier and couldn't get any signals out.

As they went deeper, they noticed there were several side rooms with the doors, rotted or caved in, inside, they found them to be some kind of storeroom, with several unidentified objects with large rat-like creatures scurrying away from the bright beams of their lights. Some of the rooms were even filled with bones or rotting parts of all kinds, they quickly retreated out of the room as the stench of rot and decay was super bad in there.

The stone walkway finally splits into two ways, and James bend down low to examine the floor. "Shit, I am not sure where they went." He cursed. "The stone floor is too hard and dry to leave tracks behind."

"So what do we do now?" Karl asks as he licks his dry lips nervously. "Splitting up seems bad."

"Wait, turn off the lights," James said. With the lights turned off, darkness surrounds them. After a while, James excitedly said, "There! Found them!"

Confused, Karl looks around in the dark before understanding what James meant. As their eyes adjusted to the dark, the right side of the tunnel appears to be brighter than the other. It highly meant that whoever grabbed Kristine, they have to be using some kind of light to travel.

Turning on their flashlights again, James marked the wall with an arrow indicating which direction they went and they set off at a faster pace. After another 10 to 15 mins of walking and passing by more empty rooms, they saw that there appears to be some kind of lights ahead, both of them turned their lights off and clearly could see a flickering glow at the end of the corridor.

As they came closer, they peek out of the corridor to see the stone hallway expands out to a huge hall. From their vantage point, several crude torches hang on the sides of pillars that reached up to the hold the ceiling where what looks like chandeliers hung limply. Sounds of voices and growls reach their ears and they saw several children like creatures, mingling around a huge black pot set in the middle of the hall. Pieces of furniture littered the walls and several sleeping cots could be seen.

"What are they?" Karl whispers. "Natives?"

"Yea, I think we found the natives. You see Kristine?" James ask.

"No, I don't see her." Karls peers around. "Wait... She's in the pot!" Horrified, Karl blurts out loud.

Instantly the hall turns quiet, all the denizens inside turns and look at the two of them.
"Oh shit, sorry." Karl apologizes. "Ah fuck." The childlike creatures shriek and scramble to grab what appears to be knives or swords, as the blades reflected the light from the flaming torches.

"FIRE!" James screams as the creatures closed in. From close up, the size of the creatures appears to be similar to a 10-year-old child. But the long ears with the wrinkly face, bulbous nose, red bleaty eyes, fanged mouths and bald heads seems to be from some fantasy nightmare. They shriek and yelp like hyenas, pushing and shoving their naked bodies at each other in their mad quest to get to James and Karl.

The bark of the M7A1 and the boom of the shotgun drowned out their eager screams and cries of pain. James now understands why the techie says green monsters, as his 1,000 lumens tactical flashlight on his M7 light up the creatures in front of him. The bright glare of his light half blinds the creatures making them flinch away. Their skin is colored in a greenish grey hue, most of them are naked displaying their deformed genitals, while others wore simple loincloths, rags or even animal hides.

The forward wave of the green creatures screams in terror and pain as the bullets rips into them, they turned and shoves against the mass of green that is trying to get to the 2 humans. They couldn't understand what powerful sorcery they have, that throws thunder and fire at them. They try to run away but were blocked by the crowd pushing from behind, getting countless stepped on and crushed to death.

"RELOADING!" Karl screams in the cacophony of gunfire and shrieks, his hearing deafen by the firing in the enclosed area. James steps up to cover him as he sprays his M7 without even bothering to aim. The AP rounds torn through several bodies like paper in the tightly packed space. The flood of green skins soon starts to falter as the panic from the front spreads to the rear. Suddenly, like floodgates breaking, the host of green skins disperses and disappears into several other exits in the hall leaving behind a carpet of dead and dying.

The smell of voided stomachs, blood and cordite linger in the hall. Holding back his urge to gag and vomit, Karl steps over a body of a green skin. "What the hell are these things?" He turns to see Cpl James, dodging a dying green skin's dagger, who then shot it in the head with his pistol.

"I have no idea," James said as he holsters his pistol. "How is she?"

Karl reaches over the huge black pot and looks in. "Eh, she's naked and soaked in a bunch of other things." Karl gave a grimace. "I gonna tip the pot over." He braces his back against the almost 2 m tall cauldron and shoves it off the crude stone support. "Lucky they didn't light the fire yet." He notices the firewood stacked underneath the pot.

James joins Karl at the tipped pot and helps drag Kristine out. Apparently, the green skins have cut the clothes off from her body, as several long cuts could be seen on her body. She appears to be knocked out judging from the bleeding bruise on her forehead, other than that, she is still breathing.

"Better find something to cover her up," James said before realizing there is nothing around and Karl's uniform is a jumpsuit. He sighs and starts removing his armor and harness before removing his marine BDU to cover her up.

21 - Trapped

She felt a piercing headache as she slowly gains conscious. Blinking her eyes rapidly, she reaches up to touch the source of her pain, finding her fingers sticky with blood. Ow, what happened? She slowly recalls the events earlier.

"This is amazing!" She stares up at the crumbling moss covered tower. "There is an actually an intelligent species here! Look at these markings!" She brushes away at the moss to reveal several scratches etched onto the walls. "Joe, look, I think these are their language."

"Come on, relax, Krist!" Joe grumbles as he sets down his day pack on the floor. "These ruins aren't going to run away."

"Hey guys, over here. I think I found a way in!" Dan called. "I walked around the tower but the entrance seems to be totally caved in. But guess what? Look here!" He leads the rest into a side building where the roof has collapsed partially. "That looks like the way in," Dan shines his flashlight at a small opening at a pile of collapsed stones.

"I don't know, it doesn't look very safe," Joe muttered. "We better get the marines to scout it out for us."

"Hahaha, what you think there's a giant wolf inside?" Kristine jokes, "Come on, I studied this in university! Finally, I get to use what I learn!" She turns and smiles at the rest, her back towards the hole.

"Well, I think we should tell the marines first," Dan also cautions. "We don't know what could be in there."

Suddenly Kristine heard something behind her like something scraped against the wall. She turns and from the light of Dan's torch, a hideous creature appeared out of the hole, grabbing her foot. She remembers falling face down at the floor before darkness consumes her.

"Hey, you awake?" A voice sounds next to her. Kristine tries to nod her head but gave up after a wave of giddiness made her gag. "Take it slow, you got a nasty bump."

"What happened? Where am I? WHY AM I NAKED!" She shrieks out the last part.

"Woah chill girl!" Karl backs off. "You got caught by those green skins thingies. You nearly became supper."

"What?" Confused with her surroundings, she glares around the hall. Seeing the spread of dead all over the floor, her brain slowly catches up to her sense of smell and reason. "Urghhhhh..." She vomits over the side and wipes her mouth with the clothing draped around her. She realized that the clothing is what the marines usually wear. "Thanks," she said in a small voice.

"Ha, don't thank me," Karl smiles and jerks his head towards another person crouch over what looks like a huge pot. "Cpl James there rushed in to save you and gave you his shirt," Karl reaches out with a hand to help Kristine up.

"Thank you," Kristine said to the marine poking around at the contents of the pot after she buttoned up the marine BDU, while Karl looks away.

"No problem, it's my job." The marine said before standing up. "You better? Let's go then."

"So what's inside that cooking pot?" Karl asks as they re-entered the passageway.

"Carr-ato, pieces of some kind of meat and bones, some kind of herbs and the liquid seems to be the blood of some animal. And of course, plus 1 human girl." He laughs along with Karl as he said the last part.

"Wait, you mean I was inside that pot?" Kristine asked in surprise.

"Yup."

"Yucks! That's ... that's disgusting!" Kristine suddenly felt her whole body was sticky.

"Hahahaha, if Mills was here," James grins, "He probably has a joke or two for this kind of situation."

"Hey Corporal," Karl stopped suddenly, "You hear that?"

They all stopped and strain their ears, "I think it's some kind of rumbling? Kristine guessed.

"I don't know about you, but it kind of sounds like boots, marching boots," James said.

"No, not boots. It's drums." Karl turns and looks at them. "Lots of drums."

"Go!" James pulls Kristine, "Go back to the surface!" And the trio starts running.

As they about to reach the intersection, Several glowing lights appear in front of them, blocking their way out. "Shit must be the green skins!" Something strikes the wall beside them, "An arrow?" James looks in surprise, "Back to the hall."

They ran back, over the bodies and stood next to the overturned pot. "Where to now?" Kristine asks, looking at the other passageways leading out of the hall.

"We can't go in those, we don't know where they lead to." James said, "We make a stand here." He points to a door at the end of the hall. "I checked it out earlier. Seems like some kind of storeroom for the green skins."

They entered the room, finding it piled with stuff and without any other ways in or out. Karl taps the double doors and whistles, "Some kind of metal. Pretty solid."

"Karl, on me, we move the pot into the room to help block the doors. Kristine, grab some torches from the walls to use as a light source and see if there is anything useful." James ordered.

Over the constant rolling sounds of the drums, Karl and James roll the pot into the room. It barely fits through the doorway and Kristine slots a couple of torches onto the wall torch holders and drops several unlit torches on the floor. Just as they close the doors, they spot dozens of screaming green skins bearing torches storm into the hall.

Lifting the heavy cauldron till it seats on its mouth, both Karl and James exhausted themselves. Just as they rest against it, the metal door clanks loudly as dozens of tiny hands slam against it. "Quick! Push it to block the door!" The door swings inwards and several snarling green skins could be seen trying to squeeze their way into the narrow gap.

James pulls out a grenade from his pouch and lobs it through the door gap while pulling Kristine into cover behind the pot. "Fire in the hole!" He yells. A loud blast, followed by shrieks of pain and the pressure against the door ceased. "OK, PUSH!"

Finally with the huge upside down pot acting as a door stopper, the doors were blocked, preventing the green skins from forcing the doors open, and the humans in the room, slump down against the pot to catch their breath.

22 - Boss

Cries and constant banging of the metal doors grits on everyone's nerves, but the doors remained firmly shut. The 3 of them thus took the time to explore the room thoroughly.

"This racket is making me crazy," Kristine moaned. The banging against the doors and the sounds of drums at the back. "I wish they stop." She lifts up a piece of threadbare rag from the pile of dusty cloth. "Think they ate all these people?" She indicates the pile of rotting clothing.

Karl shrugs, "Maybe," He lifts what appears to be a broken spear, the metal badly corroded. "Nothing of use here, all spoiled." he drops the spear back into the pile of broken weapon shards. "They seem to be using stuff from museums."

James stood at a raised platform in front of what appears to be a block of chiseled stone, but the majority of it has been destroyed and vandalized by the green skins. "This appears to be a kind of throne or stone chair here." He looks around the room in the dim light. 8 finely chiseled pillars with the art defaced standing 4 by 4 on each side of the room. "This is supposed to be a throne room!" He exclaims.

"Yes, it is quite obvious," Kristine gave up her battle against the noise. She indicates the raised platform and says, "That is where the monarch sits, viewing down on his or her subjects." She steps up the platform next to James. "This is probably used for ceremonies. The pillars should be carved beautifully but looking at the vandalism, you can see how they knock off the carvings."

"You seems to know a lot about this stuff," James said.

"Yup graduated from Cambridge, I majored in archeology and history." She replied. "It's actually quite exciting to find all these alien ruins."

"Why did you sign up with the navy?" James asked curiously.

"Well, seeing all my friends get drafted or volunteered. Plus the money pays off my student loans, and I get to see the stars." Kristine shrugs. "You?"

"Well, I came out of college, worked a few years at odd jobs," James said casually. "When the war started and I decided to do my part for mankind." He smiles. "Actually I just wanna escape from my life. A change of pace."

"So how's the change of pace now?" Kristine gestures around them. "Great?"

"Haha, yea, it's pretty exciting actually." James smiles.

"Hey, you 2 lovebirds," Karl spoke up from where he stood at the edge of the doors. "I don't hear anything at all!"

The 2 of them blushed after hearing Karl's words but soon realized it has suddenly gone quiet. The drums, cries and even banging on the doors have stopped. They quickly joined Karl at the doors. "Did help came? They retreated?"

"I don't know, suddenly they all just quiet down. I am getting a bad feeling here." Karl whispers.

"Ok, I take it back my wish, it's starting to feel really creepy," Kristine whispers back.

"Why is everyone whispering?" James asks in a low whisper.

"Cause it's quiet out there!" Karl hiss back.

Sudden the beating of the drums sounds again, except it seems louder. Karl backed off from the doors and raised his shotgun. "Bad feeling," he repeats.

James hands Kristine a pistol and 2 stacks of pistol magazines. "I found your stuff earlier outside, most of it is trashed, but the gun and ammo aren't damaged."

Kristine grasps the G88, works the slide and holds it in a 2 handed grip. "Why didn't you give it back earlier?" She pockets the magazines in the marine BDU chest pockets.

"Erm, you don't have any way to carry it." James gave her a quick check with his eyes, smiling.

"Jerk." She responded, turning away and hid behind a pillar facing the wall giving a small smile.

Bom bom bom bom bom bom!

The drums kept beating louder and louder. It sounds like the drums are just right outside the doors. Karl and James stepped back from the doors, Karl took the left side of the room while James covered the right side.

Bom bom bom bom bom bom!

Than silence.

BLAM! Dust dribbles down from the ceiling and even the pot slides back slightly from the sudden impact. Kristine gave a frightened cry, while both Karl and James, jump in surprise. Another huge crushing blow, the doors creak ajar, a dent could be seen. "What the hell is that?" Karl yells.

The green skins seeing the doors getting destroyed, shrieks excitement and joy. "Karl, you got any grenades?" James asked.

"Nope, I only have 1 smoke," Karl replies.

"I am going to throw my last grenade through the door before they break it down," James says and he pulls his last grenade out, activates it and tosses it through the opening.

A muffled blast sounded, making more rock dust to trickle down from the roof. More screams of pain and agony could be heard beyond the doors. "Nice one!" Karl gave a thumbs up.

A deafening roar erupts from beyond the doors, causing them to flinch, and the doors shook again as something massive hammers against it.

"Eh, I think you made that thing angry." Kristine's voice came out from behind 1 of the pillars where she hid.

"Alright make ready, they are coming." Karl gave a warning as the pot starts to tilt up and down from the constant hammering. "Here they come!"

With a space large enough for the child-sized green skins appears between the door, they mindlessly rush into the room, meeting thunder and fire.

Karl left his shotgun leaning against the pillar and instead drew his Glock 88C. Each magazine in the Glock holds 32 rounds of 5mm CT ammunition. He aims and fires at the green skins that enter one by one, dropping them with single shots. James keeps watch for any stranglers from his side of the room, as the opening was towards Karl, there weren't any green skins for him to shoot at.

James turns around to see Kristine's red hair hidden behind the furthermost pillar at the back. She notices him watching her and gives a small wave with her pistol before turning her attention back to the door.

Suddenly, something massive shoved the doors all the way back, causing the pot to slide to one side, and a creature over 3m wielding what appears to be a part of a stone pillar looms over the mass of green skins that rushed excitedly into the room.

23 - MvP

The bright beams of lights from Karl and James manage to blind the majority of the green skins as they rush into the room. They raise their small arms and hands up to cover their eyes from the bright lights shining in their face and died.

The large creature at the rear bends down and turns away from the glare of the lights and roars in anger. "Ignore that large one!" James yells as he hoses the green skins with his M7A1 crowding at the door.

Karl holsters his Glock and picks up his shotgun, he fires the 12ga. 00 buckshot directly into the middle of the group, knocking the green skins down like bowling pins. Even Kristine at the back, fires into the mass.

Similar like before, faced with overwhelming firepower, the green skins panics and tries to flee from the thunder and fire, while the rear kept the front from fleeing. The panicking green skins attacked the ones behind them that are blocking their retreat in their rush to escape the madness. The host of green skins soon turned into a rout, while the large grey skinned humanoid creature scratches its head in confusion.

It roars out again and bends down to enter through the doorway, only to meet James and Karl's fire. It topples back, with half its head gone and holes in its body and crushes the remaining green skins loitering around it.

"Advance!" James shouted. He drops and slaps in a new mag into his M7A1 and advance tactically forward, firing in short bursts at the routed green skins. Karl follows along, slotting new shells into his shotgun and supports James from the rear.

Seeing James and Karl advancing into the enemy, Kristine thought, what the hell? Are they so enjoying this massacre? But she follows grimly along from behind. Men!

"Why are you chasing them!" Kristine shouts after James and Karl, as she catches up behind. "They are running, we are winning!"

"We are forcing them to run more, not letting them regroup so that they can attack us again!" James explains. "We are putting the fear of god up their arses!" He continues firing at the disappearing backs of the green skins. "Alright, let's go before they form up again!"

Returning to the passageway where they entered the hall, James took the lead, while Karl covers the rear, keeping Kristine in the middle. They rush back towards the intersection only to find it blocked by more of the green skins.

Under the glow of the burning torches, dozens of the green skins formed up loosely in 3 rows, with the front holding crude bucklers and shields made of animal hides. The 2nd row held wooden poles fashioned into spears while the 3rd row, held bows, crooked and ready.

Standing behind them milled more green skins outfitted with all manners of ancient weaponry, from stone axes to crude swords. A particular green skin stood out from the rest. It was dressed in dark feathery robes, with a helm made out of bones with twigs or horns sticking out from the sides, and it also holds a staff topped with a reddish crystal that appears to be made out of the spine of some creature.

For a moment, both sides stare at each other, the shaman looking green skin suddenly shrieks something and points towards the humans and the green skins rushed forward screaming.

"Will they ever stop!" Karl curses, as he pumps shot after shot into the screaming green skins, sending them flying back broken.

James tried to fire at the shaman, but the shaman raises its staff and gestures something, and for some strange reason, his shots appear to hit an invisible wall. In the end, he gave up and fires at the enemies in front of him instead. Even with the tactical lights blinding the green skins, they still keep rushing and dying with no signs of breaking.

"Argh!" Karl grunt in pain, as an arrow pierces his left thigh. His leg suddenly weaken, making him fall down.

"Karl!" Kristine screams, she rushes forward and drags him backward with one arm, while her other arm fires her pistol into the mob. Karl abandons his empty shotgun and drew his G 88 and starts shooting while pushing himself back with the help of Kristine.

James's rifle suddenly locks back, he does a quick tilt to check the bolt, "Shit, I'm out." The mob of green skins just meters away from him, he drops his rifle on its sling and drew his machete from his back with his right hand and held his pistol on his left.

The monomolecular diamond blade is used for cutting trails in the jungle undergrowth, but this time around, it was used to cut down the green skins. The 1 molecular thick diamond edge, slices, and dices all that comes near James. He chops and hacks at the mob surrounding him and fires his pistol when they pull out of range of his machete, his adrenaline causing him to ignore the cuts and stabs from the green skins surrounding him.

He fought like a demon and empties his pistol into the crowd as they held back from him. Suddenly, there was a flash of light and James found himself slammed backward. He falls down and looks down at his chest armor, seeing a smoking crater on it. What? Do they have laser weapons?

James looked up and saw the shaman waving its staff around and shrieking something. A ball of fire suddenly forms in front of the shaman, and it points its staff at James. The fireball flew towards him.
James quickly rolled away, and the fireball left a scorching mark on the stone floor where he was earlier. A plasma gun of some sort?

The mob of green skins, seeing the human taking a hit from their shaman, regains their courage and charges forward again shrieking in excitement. James lashes out with his machete, looping off legs and opening stomaches, manages to clear some breathing space and he gets up to his feet and faces the shaman.

As he was about to rush the shaman, several beams of light shone from the rear of the mob, and thunder and fire rains onto the shocked green skins.

"Reinforcements!" James screams in joy. "They are finally here!" He turns and sees Karl, an arrow sticking out from his thigh, leaning against the wall on the floor, with a large stain of blood on the stone floor and Kristine with her tear stained face, trying frantically to stop the bleeding.

"Oh no..."

24 - Loot

"Karl..." Kristine cries as she applies pressure at his thigh. The arrowhead has nicked his femoral artery, causing Karl to slowly bleed out. She tries her best to press down hard on the wound.

James looks back at the green skins, seeing them distracted by the force attacking them from the flanks, he quickly rushes up to Karl and Kristine. He grabs a self-sealing bandage from his first aid kit and rips Karl's pants away. He pulls the arrow out swiftly, before slapping the self-sealing bandage over his wound.

The bandage with medical nanites quickly dispenses a fast clotting agent, that stops the bleeding temporarily. The medical nanites than enter the wound and starts to repair as much damage to the muscles and tissues and the nicked femoral artery.

James looks up at Kristine and said gently, "He should be fine for now. Don't move him. Try to keep his leg elevated." He rubs the tears away from her face. "Keep him safe!" Before he stood up and returns to the fight.

The rescue team that came in manages to suppress the whole green skin army, the green skins with shield or bucklers raises them up to form a shield wall, only to prove useless as the bullets still penetrate through. The shaman scream and rage at its people, ensuring none of them slip away from the battle.

It raises its staff and the bullets hit an invisible wall, sparks could be seen where the bullets impact its magical shield. James watches from the side, realizing that the staff the shaman is holding is the key to its power.

James reloads his Glock and hefts his machete, taking advantage that green skins are distracted and not bothered with him, he then charges into their ranks. As James stands over 1.8m tall, and weights 90 plus kg with all of it as muscles, he slams into the ranks of the green skins like a quarterback playing football.

The flimsy shield wall explodes inwardly, the small sized green skins unable to match his strength and weight tumbled backward and body parts started flying. James hacks and slashes into the center of the formation, forcing his superior height and arm reach advantage against the smaller creatures. The shaman sensing James approaching, turns and points his staff straight at him, and starts to shriek something out.

James fires his pistol blank point at the shaman, invoking a shower of sparks, causing the shaman to flinch. Its concentration broken, James ignores the rest of the green skins and charges closer to the shaman. Using his long arms, he chops down hard at the shaman's right arm holding the staff just as it raises the bone staff up and starts chanting again.

A look of shock appears in the shaman's face, it screams in pain as he flails its severed arm in panic, spraying greenish blood all over. The shaman glares at James with hatred and using its left hand, draws out a curved wicked looking dagger and stabs towards James.

James gave a smile to the shaman and steps back out of its reach, he than lazily raises his Glock to its face and pulls the trigger. "This is for Karl!"

With the shaman dead, the rest of the green skins' morale broke, and they skittle away in all directions, shrieking in fright.

"Yo! Thunder!" Someone yelled.

"Flash..." James replied tiredly. He slumps down against the stone wall, suddenly feeling all the cuts and bruises on his body.

"Hey, I need a medic over here!" Cpl Collins steps over the bodies of the dead green skins and kneels down beside James. "James, you ok? Where are you hurt?"

"I'm ok, tend to Karl, he is in a bad shape!" James wave Collins toward Karl's direction.

The rest of the rescue team starts to surround them, forming a defensive perimeter. Lt Frank kneels next to James who was laying on a stretcher. "Hey Marine. How are you doing?" He asks.

"Hey, boss." James smiles, high on morphine, "Feeling great!"

"Alright, we gonna get you out of here in no time. Hang in there." Lt Frank got up and went to check on the others. He watches the medic load Karl onto a stretcher, hooks up a plasma drip before 2 others help to carry the stretcher out. The girl Kristine wrapped in a thermal blanket follows closely along, escorted by another 2 security personnel.

"Cpl Collins, organize the men, we going to flush these green things out." Lt Franks toes the dead shaman's corpse. "Once all is cleared, gather everything for the science guys to check them out."

"Yes, Sir!" Cpl Collins replied. "Alright people, form up. I want team A and B to push in that tunnel, C, and D this side..." Collins yell out instructions as he organizes the men into action.

Several hours later, the last denizen of the underground dungeon was wiped out. The teams mapped out the entire dungeon, which lucky, wasn't very huge. All the passageways link up to the hall where Kristine was held and a flight of stairs was found to lead up into the collapsed tower.

Hundreds of green skin bodies were carried out by portable heavy lifters and dumped at a mass grave, several of the more in one piece bodies and the huge humanoid were carefully packed into body bags to be sent back to the egg heads at the lab.

Other stuff was also carried out by the teams, gold and silver coins, precious stones, jewelry, bladed weapons, antique armors and even mana stones. There were even several bones of various creatures that were packed and transported back to be studied.

Lt Frank stood watching the crew pile all the treasure up inside a tent, he looks at Dr. Sharon who just arrived at the ruins not long ago and said, "There are probably 2 to 3 tons of gold and silver there. We are rich!"

"Yes, but I am more curious is where did these coins come from. Is it an ancient civilization or a current one." Dr. Sharon frowns, her brown hair tied in a severe bun. She stands at 1.5m tall, his head not even reaching Lt Frank's shoulder who height is at roughly 1.8m, his boyish good looks a contrast against each other, like a teacher and student.

"Those green things seem to eat anything that isn't their own or maybe even eats their own kind, as evidenced from the bones we found." She continues. "From this cracked femur, where they chewed it for the bone marrow, looks very human, but there are some differences from us still." She swaps some images of bones taken from the dungeon in her tablet.

"There should be more humanoid races out here. We are not alone on this planet after all."

25 - Aftermath

"So we found a total of 2,742 gold coins and 5,491 silver coins. Each gold coin weights roughly at 4 to 4.2 grams and the silver coins weights at 5 to 5.4 grams," Ford reads out the report. "That's a total of 11 kg of gold and almost 30kg of silver, not counting the weight of the pieces of jewelry."

Everyone around the conference table cheered, "That's pretty a lot." Chief Matt whistles admirably.

"Yes," Blake agrees. "XO, please continue." after he gestures everyone to settle down.

"Right, we also found 43 pieces of jewelry in either gold or silver, 64 pieces of gemstones, dozens of ivory tusks and horns." Ford gave a smile as he read from his list. "Also, 17 pieces of the mana stone were also recovered, which we discovered not only in blue colors but also in red, yellow and green."

"That's a good haul," QM Chen said. "So are we getting paid?" He jokes.

"1st of all, these minted coins represents civilizations or nations here has reached a level of technology and production means, capable to mass produce coinage." Blake holds up a gold coin with an image of a tree stamp on both sides of the coin. "This means there is a thriving civilization out there."

"Sir, but from the weapons and armor, we gathered from the green skins, their weapon technology appears to be around our human bronze-iron age." Lt Frank spoke up. "And those green skins don't look so civilized to me. In fact, the lack of maintenance of their weapons and armor shows how lacking they are!"

"Could it be that the green skin's civilization is in decline, and they have fallen to their current barbaric state? Grayson raises his point.

"No, I did an autopsy of them, and a brain scan," Dr. Sharon said. "They are small humanoid in appearance. Everything is very similar to a 10 to a 12-year-old human child, except they have thicker and tougher skin, a heightened immune system, more efficient organs and digestive systems compared to an adult human." She activates the display, showing images of a green skin, cut open on an operating table.

"Ok, that's enough pictures for now." Chief Matt looks disgusted at the images. Almost everyone's face turns kinda green.

Dr. Sharon smiles wickedly before switching the display to show images of a brain scan. "By the way, their blood is green is due to the double copper atoms in their blood. Oxygenation causes a color change between the copper atoms, hence it turns green."

She then highlights the scans and said, "On the right is the brain scan of a green skin while the left is a human scan. The highlight parts are where we measure intelligence or how smart a person is. If you look at the human scan, which is of someone with an IQ of 190, and compare with the scan from a green skin, it is almost identical."

Blake raises his eyebrows as he listens to Dr. Sharon words. "Wait, you mean that they are all geniuses?"

"No, not geniuses, like maths prodigy or rocket scientists but of intelligence. Meaning they are smart, learn fast and adapt fast." Next, she highlights another area on the scans. "This shows the level of aggressive activity of the brain, which is abnormally high."

"So this is my theory that they are not a declining civilization but more of their culture as scavengers and cannibals like some ancient human tribes in the past as we discovered many discard items, with their own distinct design styles and manufacturing methods."

"Alright, thank you, Dr. Sharon, for the report," Blake said as the rest of the people in the conference starts debating among themselves. "Ok, I got SA Kristine who has some experience on archeology from the surveying team to give us a quick rundown of the ruins." He nods towards a redhead sitting at the side of the room.

Kristine stood up, dressed her service dress uniform and stood before the conference table. The only scars from her adventure was a nearly invisible skin toned plaster on her forehead, hidden by her short bangs.

She took over the display controls and starts displaying an UAV imagery of the ruins. "We discovered these ruins over at the Northen section of the Base, 2 days ago. After the initial survey, and using a ground-penetrating scanner, we managed to map out the whole underground complex." She switches the view to a 3D display of the tunnels.

"The underground complex appears to be some sort of storage, with living quarters, a hall and a throne room or office. The upper levels are mostly buildings used for various purposes like production or even stables." Kristine extends the simulated 3D model to display the ground floor structures. "We believe this was a fort or outpost, but it was either abandoned or lost to the green skins or some other reason."

"Do we know how old the ruins are?" Blake asks.

"Yes, we managed to do a simple calculation on the plant growth and weathering on the stones stabs and found it to be around roughly 80-100 years old. Also, we dated the coins, they appeared to be within 10 years of circulation." Kristine replies.

"Wait, does this means, we are in some countries' territory?" Grayson asked. "Or there is some nearby town or cities?"

"Yes," Ford answered, "We have thought of that possibility. We stepped up UAV recon operations, but as we have limited supplies for UAV maintenance, we can only scout so much land."

"Ok, thank you, SA Kristine." Blake dismisses Kristine back. "Chief Matt, I would like you to ensure our reactor is up and running ASAP, charge all our capacitor to the max. Grayson, get extra work teams to help dig the forward guns out and make sure all the laser point defense and missile launchers are up and running." Chief Matt and Grayson nod.

"Dr. Sharon I want you to keep finding ways on how to harness the Mana stones, but don't blow the ship up!" Blake cautious while Dr. Sharon smiles back.

"QM Chen, I leave the treasure in your hands. Keep it safe, if we meet a friendly local, we can use it to trade for supplies or any necessities. Work with HR on it too."

"Also for the incident with the wolves and the green skins. We spend almost 2% of ammunition stores. We need to find a way to replenish our ammunition or discover new ways of fighting. Lt Frank, I leave this task to you." Blake ordered.

"Alright, get to work, people! Dismiss!"

"Aye aye, Captain!"

26 - Ideas

Shortly after the meeting, Blake left his office and entered the Flight deck. The 2 Boeing Super Spacebus sat on locked cradles on the far side of the empty deck. There is little personnel on the flight decks as most of them are assigned to other duties around the base and the ship. Yet at a corner of the deck, personnel can be seen constantly coming in and out of a workshop.

Blake walked into the workshop, waving away the salutes from the crew. "Deck Chief Gale?" He calls out in the din of racket made by the workshop's fabricators.

"Captain?," A heavyset middle-aged man, dressed in a pair of dark olive green work overalls, lifts the welding mask upwards from his face. "What can I do for you, sir?" Senior Chief Petty Officer Gale Tyson places his work tools and masks down.

"A word, please, Chief?" Blake gestures out of the workshop and with Chief Gale walks to the open launch bay overlooking the base colony. "I got something I need your help with, Chief."

"What do you need Cap?" Chief Gale took out a pack of cigarettes and offers it to Blake, who declines. He shakes his pack and cursed, "Damn, soon these things are gonna worth their weight in gold."

"I need your team to come out with a design for an all-terrain vehicle, that we can produce with what resources we have," Blake says bluntly. "We have no off-road capabilities at all, we need a vehicle capable of ferrying people and a large number of goods over long distances."

Chief Gale lits his cigarette and takes a long drag before exhaling out the smoke. "We can covert the forklifts for use as a truck, but it will require massive overhauling the structure of the vehicle." He takes another smoke before scratching his head. "No, that will take too much time and also ruin a perfectly useful vehicle that we will need for heavy lifting."

"So how is it? Possible?" Blake pressed. "Too much manpower being used as porters and half the time the surveying team spent is just to walk from point A to point B and back."

Gale puffed out some smoke before he carefully stubs out his half-smoked cigarette, "Well, I don't think it should be too hard, we have all sorts of designs and production templates in the computer."
He keeps the cigarette back into its pack. "Well, I get the boys to work out some designs, with the current resources that we can produce. Should take a couple of days before we have something."

"Good," Blake nods. "Well, good chance for you to quit smoking. Unless you can find tobacco growing here."

"That's why I am smoking them slowly, sir." Gale grins. "Alright, I'll get back to work and get the boys to come out with some designs." He gives a salute before returning to the workshop, bawling at his people to not slacken off.

"Come on Lt," Sgt Raman pleads. "I'm already busy as it is," He gestures around the armory, where weapon parts laid all over a table. "They keep breaking the guns!" He graduated from India's Institute of Technology Bombay, completing his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and firearms design before being drafted into the military. If it wasn't for the war, he was supposed to go start work with a high position in a prestigious company.

With his skill set and family connections, after basic military training. he was posted to become a marine armory sergeant onboard UNS Singapore which was supposed to be safe from all conflict!

He knew he didn't fit with the rest of the "real" marines as he thought of them as lower caste than him, but he manages to keep his armory functioning well enough that Staff Pike cannot fault him at all. And recently he heard, that stuck up Cpl James found a treasure trove of gold and silver, damn, lucky asshole. Him, he gets Lt Frank in his armory ordering him around with some ideas to create a new bullet cartridge? Crazy!

"Sgt Raman, I know you are busy, but those work you can delegate to others to do. This," Lt Frank controls his anger, he knows that Raman rarely leaves the armory to help with other work, always saying busy or finding excuses. He holds up his tablet and shoves it under Sgt Raman's nose, "is crucial to our survival here!"

"Lt, it's not that I do not want to do this," Raman explains. "You can't just make a new 6.5mm round with what we have here!"

"Than what do you propose?" Lt Frank asks. "At this rate of ammo consumption, we will run out less than a month!"

"Ah. as I said before, we do not have the materials to produce propellant for the 6.5mm rounds. But we can substitute it with other materials, like black powder or even smokeless if we have the components." Raman came up with some excuses. "Just that, we don't have all those components to produce any!" He hopes that Frank will go away.

"Wait, black powder?" Franks does a quick search in the computer archives. " Sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate."

"But the M7A1 can't handle black powder cartridges! The weapon will jam in a few shots due to the fouling of black powder!" Raman explains like he is talking to a 3-year-old.

"So we need to design a new rifle?" Franks asks. "One that allows the use of black powder."

"Eh, it's easy to design a new rifle, since the computer has tons of templates, the problem is finding potassium nitrate here." Raman gestures at the reloading bench. "We just don't have the materials to make anything. So there is nothing I can do. Oh, Sir, I heard that we found some treasure?"

"Yea, just some gold and silver coins." Franks busy with his tablet, casually answers, missing the look of greed from Raman. "I want you to come out with a new rifle design. No complaints!" He cuts off Raman's objections.

"I will reassign others to take over weapon maintenance. You just concentrate on the rifle design, you have 3 days." Frank held up 3 fingers. "No buts!"

With that, Frank left the armory, leaving Raman with his mouth gaping. Shit! Raman curses, why must I do all these slave work! I am the eldest son of the trade minister of India! Bloody low lives only know how to keep ordering me around! One day, I will show them who is the real boss!

27 - Ethics

"So, Dr. Sharon, what is it that we couldn't discuss at the meeting?" Blake stood inside an old laboratory in the civilian section of the ship with XO Ford in confusion.

"Well, there are some things to show you first before you decide what to do with the information." Dr. Sharon said as she brings up a display terminal.

"Look here, this is the video footage taken from the marine's headcam." Dr. Sharon shows the 2 senior officers.

A 1080p HD video recording of the fight inside the ruins plays itself. Lots of camera shake, muzzle flashes and screaming. Dr. Sharon paused the video at one point and highlighted a portion on the video. "Look, you see that flash of light?"

Both Blake and Ford nods as they watch the video playback. "Watch closely." Dr. Sharon says before playing the video.

"Is that some kind of energy weapon? Blake asks he and Ford leans closer to take a look.

"No," Dr. Sharon gestures both officers to a side table, where a long matt black crate sat. She keys in a password at the lock pad and opens the lid. "This is what that green skin was using."

A 1.2m long spine, inscribed with silvery runes all along the vertebral column with a reddish crystal set on the top rest on a layer of foam padding. Blake and Ford immediately recognize the crystal as a mana stone.

"This bone staff uses some kind of creature's backbone as its main structure, the bones are fused together by silver and some other materials. The inscriptions are also very detailed," She shows a magnified image of the characters. "It is inked mostly in silver and some unknown substances. And of course, we don't know what language it is in."

"The mana stone at the top is similar to the blue ones we have, the difference is just the color or something I haven't found out yet." Dr. Sharon than plays another video from the same camera. "If you look here, we managed to capture the sounds the green skin made when it tried to blow the marine away. I managed to get the sounds isolated from all the background noise and chatter."

She plays an audio file and a series of harsh sounds play out. "It sounds like a kind of chant, from the tone and pitch of the sounds it made." She plays the video again, showing the green skin chanting and forming a fireball before it flew towards the camera.

"Why does it feel like its magic?" Blake looks at Ford, who shrugs. "Wait did you try it?"

"Oh!" Blake smiles when he sees Dr. Sharon face turns red. "You did, didn't you? Hahaha, did you pose like a wizard or what those Japanese anime girls are called? Magic girls?"

"It's magical girls!" Dr. Sharon stomps, and seeing both of them laughing there,

"Ok, now I know why you didn't want to talk about this in the meeting! Hahaha." Blakes teases while laughing. She angrily elbows Ford hard in his stomach.

"Ooof! Why me?" But Ford kept on smiling even as he rubs his tummy.

"Because he's the Captain! Alright! Back to the serious topic!" Dr. Sharon tries to steer the topic back. "Watch this." She plays another video, this time it shows the lab that they were in. Dr. Sharon could be seen standing in the middle of the room holding the staff with 2 hands.

She could be heard speaking directly to the camera, "Time, 2:44 pm. Date, 2113 August 7th. Starting with experiment number 9." The video shows her she starting to recite the chant, sound by sound, just as she finishes the last verse, a faint glow flare from the mana stone for a split second before Dr. Sharon collapses onto the floor.

"I was knocked out for like 20mins, woke up feeling weak and giddy." She explains. "When I finish the last verse, I immediately felt tired and lightheaded, before I know it, I woke up from the floor."

"Are you alright? Did you do a checkup on your self?" Blake and Ford look worried, all traces of merriment gone.

"Yes, just fatigue and a minor dose of radiation. Nothing serious." She waves off their concern. "My theory is, to use it like casting a spell, you will require a certain amount of aptitude or mental strength, which clearly I'm lacking in it, that's why I fainted."

"Interesting, so if we got the aptitude, the mental strength, the chant and a mana stone, we can cast fireballs like that?" Ford lifts the staff up and examines it. "Magic."

"I will not recommend doing any of that yet until I run more tests." Dr. Sharon snatches the staff out of Ford's hands before placing it back into the crate.

"Ok, for now, we keep this quiet, and also do not place yourself in such a dangerous situation!" Blake lectured. "Keep at least 1 or 2 trustworthy assistants to help you. We can't lose you and your skills."

Dr. Sharon nods, she turns around and says, "Oh yes, the report for that giant humanoid is out too!" Pushing past the two officers, she keys in some commands at the console and a new image appears on the screen.

"I decided to name it a Troll since it looks like one. Body composition is very similar to the green skins, except that its skin toughness is almost as good as steel. DNA for the troll and the green skins almost match at 99%. They should be from the same family tree but developed different, like monkeys and apes." She types in more commands. "Here is a very interesting thing I found. It has a separate organ which secretes a type of adrenaline, that I have never seen before. It actually increases healing of cells by a factor of over 1,000 times!"

"What? Instant regeneration?" Blake and Ford were shocked! "What kind of lifeform is that!"

"I won't say instant regeneration, just very fast healing." Dr. Sharon explains further. "These are the bullet wounds made by the marine before it died," She points out some barely visible puncture wounds on the screen. "While these are wounds made after it died."

The bullet entry wounds made while the creature was still alive, have started to heal and close up, while the wounds made after the creature died, did not heal at all. "I found the gland to contain traces of a type of chemical that appears to speed up the natural healing of the body, much like our medical nanites."

"So this creature has a gland inside that is like some kind of wonder drug that heals all wounds?" Blake was seriously amazed. This planet has plenty of valuable resources!

"Yes. If possible I would like to harvest these glands from these creatures, preferably alive." Dr. Sharon states. "As you know, our stock of biomaterials is very very low. The medical properties from these creatures can provide us with the biomaterials for our critical medical needs!"

"Sir, I will like to raise an issue. Is this ethical?" Ford asks. "It is a living creature with some form of intelligence. Are we to farm it for its medical properties like some animal?" Ford looks at Blake directly.

"Is it a right thing to do?"

28 - Stalker

James knocked at the opened hatch of the medical bay, "Hey Karl, still alive?" He pokes his head in, seeing Karl laying on 1 of the hospital beds, with a bandage wrapped around his thigh. "How are you?"

"Hey Corp," Karl replies weakly. "I feel weak. Doc says I lost too much blood. Almost didn't make." He gives a weak smile. "Thanks for saving me."

"Don't sweat it. Good to see you better." James pats Karl's shoulder. "Well, get out of here soon, you owe me a beer!"

"Sure, on me. Invite that red head of yours along too." Karl gave a wink.

"Come on, you mean Kristine and me?" James laughs, "Nah, she probably have someone else."

"What someone else?" Kristine asks from the hatch. "What evil plots are you guys planning?"

"Erm no," James quickly replies, his face turning slightly red from embarrassment while Karl struggles to not laugh.

"Urgh, help! Don't make me laugh." Karl moans, "It hurts!"

Kristine shakes her head. Men! "So how are you doing Karl?"

"Better, Doc says a week or so, and I am good as new." Karl responses. "So how did the ruins exploration went?"

Kristine starts to tell the two of them about what they found in the ruins and what the ruins used to be. The trio starts talking about their theories and thoughts about who build the fort and also about the green skins.

Suddenly, an alert went off from their communication devices. After a quick read of the message, both James and Kristine look up at each other before turning to Karl. "We got a silent mobilization. Got to go, see you later," James and Kristine dash out of the medical bay, meeting several other crews also rushing to their stations. Halfway, James, and Kristine split off in different directions. "Be careful!" Kristine yells after James before heading to her assign station.

"What do we have?" Blake connects his comms to the bridge as their communicators flashed a priority alert message.

"Sir, perimeter sensors are picking up something massive and closing in."

"Roger that, I'll be at the bridge in 5mins." Blake cut the connection and turns to Dr. Sharon, "We continue this discussion later on. For now, any experiments with the Staff, do it with at least 2 assistants." Exiting the lab, he looks at XO Ford, "Put a couple of guards to guard that thing. It seems dangerous."

"Yes, Sir" Ford replies. Both of them hurries towards the bridge. As they enter the bridge, everyone inside was very tense, staring at the main display. "What in the world..."

A UAV hovers 30m off the ground, it's camera facing the massive wolf as it creeps stealthily through the thick undergrowth towards the base colony. The imagery is directly displayed on the bridge main screen, shocks everyone.

"How big is that thing?" Blake walks up and stands in front of the display. "Do we have an estimation of its size?"

"Computer simulations gauge it to be over 9m tall and 18m in length." Came back the reply. "Target has just crossed the 5km mark and closing in!"

The silvered back giant wolf pauses its movement and sniffs the air, looking directly at the hover UAV. The UAV coated with dazzle camouflage pattern, designed to blend into the sky makes less noise than the wings of a hummingbird. The wolf tilts its head, as it senses something watching it, but it is unable to see or smell anything. After a while of confusion, it continues its slow crawl towards the base colony.

To the crew in the bridge, the way the wolf crawls through the undergrowth looks hilarious, but judging from its size, it no longer is a laughing matter. "Do we have anything to kill it with?" Blake asks. How the fuck are we going to fight something that size!

"No, the Marines do not have anti-armor weaponry. We are not issued with anything more other than our individual weapons!" Lt Frank who entered the bridge just after Blake and Ford stares wide-eyed at the screen. "Command did not expect us to do any ground combat!"

"Point defense laser?' Blake called out to the weapons officer. "Status?"

"Dead, sir, we do not have enough power for the PD lasers!" Weapons reports. "Missiles are ready, but only launcher 1 to 8 are cleared to be fired."

Blake hits the comms and connects with Engineering."Chief Matt! Can we divert all power to weapons?"

"Yes, we can but it should only be able to give us enough power to fire 1 or 2 shot with the PD lasers before it drains all power from the capacitors." Chief Matt replies back. "And I need some time to reroute the power and charge up the capacitors."

"Do it!" Blake orders before he turns to the weapons officer. "Open missile bays 1 to 8."

"Aye, aye. Opening missile 1 to 8." The weapons officer punches in some keys and several clanging echoes could be heard in the distance. "Missile 1 to 8 open and ready. Sir!"

"All hands, battle stations, this is not a drill..." Ford alerted the crew through the comms network. "Repeat ... this is not a drill!"

All the of personnel working outside except for the security forces, dropped their work and rushed back towards the ship. People in an orderly manner, lined up at the entrance ports and the cargo ramp, while the flight deck launch bay is already starting to close up.

James rushed down the ramp and ran towards a concrete bunker built next to the unfinished wall. Goddamnit, why must there be a situation now! He huffs and puffs as he ran a distance of over 2km. Can't it wait when I am not onboard the ship?

Finally, he reaches the bunker with the words N-3 stencil on the walls, banging on the armored door which was salvaged from the ship.

"Hey Corp! Glad you decided to join us!" James sees Mills grinning face as he enters the bunker. "Having fun, jogging?"

"Shut...up..." James slumps against a side bench and pauses to catch his breath. "All ... here?"

"Yup, you are the last!" Mills replies, pointing out everyone in the bunker.

James sees Pvt Bartley, giving a small wave of acknowledgment from the forward firing slits and 2 other black-clad security members, peering out of the viewports.

"Corp, so what's the deal? More drills?" Mills asks as he settles down at 1 of the firing ports.

"Wait, I need to download the mission data." James pulls out his tablet and starts checking the mission brief. "hmmm ... what the hell! Mills! Come here!"

Mills wondering what all the fuss is about, he leans over and looks at the tablet, which James is holding up to him. "Yea? HOLY FUCK!" Mills yells, causing everyone in the bunker to gather around to view the mission data.

"Is this a joke?" 1 of the security guys asks. "A 9-meter tall wolf?"

"Oh boy, I'm screwed. Mommy is here for her kids that I killed." Mills groans. "Wait! Big Guy! You killed more wolves than me!" He points at Bartley, who just shrugs his shoulders.

"Enough, Mills! Stop whining." James kept the tablet and look at the room of frightened soldiers, except for Bartley whose expression doesn't seem to change.

"Question now is, how the hell do we kill that thing!"

29 - All along the Watchtower

"Power is being rerouted to the point defense lasers! Capacitors charging at 0.3% and raising."
"Get those people in the ship now! Just ignore it!"
"Shut the side hatches! Make sure all is locked down."

Chaos and panic reign in the Bridge, crews at their stations frantically give orders and directions to the men and women still evacuating back to the ship. Blake stood in the middle, staring at the image of the alpha wolf.

"Sir!" Ford came up next to Blake, "85% of the crew are accounted for. The remainder is the surveying teams in the South and Southeast section!"

"Inform them to lay low and be on alert," Blake orders. "Once the all clear is given than get them to return back."

"Weapons, how much more time do we have before the lasers are ready?" Blake asks.

"Sir, as long as the capacitors reach 0.4% strength, we can fire." Came back the reply.

Blake turns back to the screen, watching the wolf creeping its way forward.

"Captain, sensors are picking up more movement." Sensor officer Randy reports. "Moving UAV to expand area view."

The UAV observing the approaching danger, under the control of Randy, drifts high upwards and the video is transmitted back to the Bridge. Dozens of bluish-grey shapes follow behind the alpha wolf, their bluish-grey fur blends them perfectly to the undergrowth as they appear and disappear from view.

"Contacts just crossed the 2km mark."

"Weapons?" Blake asks without turning from the screen.

"Capacitors holding at the 0.7%. That's all the power we are getting from the WTS generators!" Weapons reports. The WTS generators are three in one power generators, powered by Wind, Tidal, and Solar energy.

"All hatches secured, the ship is secured, Sir!" Ford informs Blake. "Other than the away teams, and the perimeter defense teams, all crew is onboard and accounted for."

"Weapons, launch missile 1 directly in front of the Alpha wolf as warning shot!" Blake orders. If we can make them retreat, that is the best case scenario, he thoughts.

"Aye, missile 1 firing!" The weapons officer hits the launch key, and a slight tremor could be felt, as the missile was ejected out of launch bay, before igniting its engines and darts off towards the direct impact area.

A flash of light and a small dirt cloud explodes upwards over a kilometer away. The UAV wobbles and readjusted itself as the shockwave from the blast threatens to knock it off the sky. The view switches to infra then thermal as the cloud of dirt and smoke blocked the view, before switching back to normal vision.

"Where did it go?" Infra and thermal shows nothing, except for the missile impact area. Everyone eyes were on the screen watching, hoping that the missile manages to scare away the wolves.

As the smoke clears, a small crater has formed where the missile has hit. The alpha wolf has retreated back and glares around in confusion wondering where the attack came from. It narrows its eyes and throws its head back and howls, before turning and ran away with the rest of the wolves.

"Contacts are leaving!" Randy excitedly reports. "They just left the 5km mark! They are out of sensor range!"

"Stand down, people." Blake orders. "Good work everyone."

Blake gestures Ford to follow him, and he left the bridge and enter his office. "We need to be able to fend off those wolves. Infra and thermal have no effect on them, if we can't lock on the missiles means we can't hit them."

"Sir, we will also need to replan the perimeter walls." Ford rubs his chin. "Currently, the plans for the wall is set to a height of 12m. But this alpha wolf changes a lot of things."

"We need the reactor to be ready." Blake sat on his chair and sighs. "Without power, we can't fire the lasers and that's is currently our only trump card."

Ford nods. "I'll push Matt harder." before leaving the office.

Four hours later, the wolves returned. They came to a distance of 2 km before Blake orders another missile fired, this time to kill. The missile fired and guided manually only manages to scare the wolves away without killing or wounding any.

When night came, the wolves attempted to approach again, only to be driven back by another missile. Throughout the whole night, the wolves constantly probe the lines, trying to sneak closer to the base colony.

"Did you manage any sleep?" Blake asks Ford, yawning. "How many times did they come? Five or Six?

"Six times, Sir," Ford replied, he held two cups of coffee and hands one over to Blake. "I managed to nap a bit."

"Well, at least we didn't waste all those missiles. At least 2 confirmed kills and 2 wounded." Blake sips the hot drink. "But at this rate, we will run out of missiles before they run out of bodies."

"Chief Matt is rushing his team non-stop to fix the reactor." Ford sets down his cup of coffee on the table. "He says he needs a more time. Which we do not have."

"Well, at least the capacitors are at over 10% power. We can switch to lasers instead of using missiles now." Blake informs Ford. "The wolves are very intelligent, they appear to be probing our defenses and are trying to find a weak spot."

"Yes, I gather that they are trying to weaken us too by doing constant raids." Ford frowns. "It's like they are stalking us as prey."

Down in the bunkers, James and his team rotated duties inside, some will be on watch while the others resting. Throughout the day and night, the alerts keep popping up, making them scramble and stand ready at the firing ports. The concrete bunker is built with a tower built on top and a basement barracks for the soldiers to rest and store supplies.

Most of the team looks tired and fatigued, except for Bartley who managed a snore or two, while the rest attempted to fall asleep but couldn't.

"Corp, what are they doing?" Mills rubs his eyes and yawned. "Why are they not attacking?"

"I don't know." James blinks his tired eyes, he was too hyped to fall asleep last night. "Maybe they are testing us?"

"Wish they stop doing that," Mills grumbled as he opens the packed meal, delivered from the mess earlier. "Urgh, more purple carr-ato mash!" He spoons some out and swallows it. "Damn wolves, start the attack! So we can eat you after we kill you!" He shouts towards the forest from the firing port.

James smiles tiredly. He reaches for one of the packed meals when the perimeter alert beeps madly.

"Action stations!"

30 - Clash of Giants

Over 10 wolves ranging from the size of a car to a bus, rushed headlong through the forest and burst out of the foliage, appearing in the 300m strip of cleared land between the trees and the base's perimeter.

Snarls and growls accompanied the creatures, as they sprint against the open ground. "Fire!" James yells as the lead wolf passes the 200m marker. Tracers erupted from his bunker followed soon by the rest as they opened fire too.

The glow of the crisscrossing tracers lights up the new dawn of the day while howls and gunfire scattered the flying creatures from the forest.

"Watch your fire and aim before you shoot!" James peeks out of the bunker while directing his men's fire. "Don't waste ammo!"

Suddenly a huge shadow covers the left side port openings and the whole bunker shooked with a loud thud. A piercing whine could be heard as the wolf broke his paw against the hardened concrete when it tried to smash it away with its paws.

It couldn't understand why is it so tough! It used to be able to sweep the stone and wooden buildings away from the 2 legs! It whimpers in pain and tries to limp away.

"HELLO, MY DINNER! COME TO PAPA!" Mills holler as he fires full auto into the retreating wolf who hit the bunker, making his head hurt. The impact of his bullets pounded the creature's organs to jelly, causing it to vomit blood before it collapses with a earth shaking smash. "Woohoo! Fresh meat tonight!"

James shakes his head at Mills's antics and climbs up the ladder to the reach the tower top. After 3 levels of climbing, he emerges from the ladder to a spacious square room with tiny rectangular viewports giving a panorama view of the surroundings. The 2 security crew members were stationed here and were firing carefully downwards at the attacking wolves.

"How is everything?" James asks as he stood on the firing step and looks out at the surrounding. The sun has started to appear and casting long shadows over the ground while tracers flew hazardously towards the fast-moving wolves.

"Doing fine, corporal!" they replied excitedly, their fear overtaken by the adrenaline rush and success of the kills. "They can't get to us!"

"Good, watch your fire and ammo," James advised. "Make every shot count!" Most of the wolves have fallen, while some others surrounded the bunkers, trying to gnaw at the troops inside. Several wolves ignored the bunkers and rampage around the temporarily built structures at the Base Colony.

He watches a wolf the size of a truck, tramples the survival domes, tearing its tough fabric before getting fired upon by the nearest bunker. It dodges and howls, but under the heavy gunfire, topples over and crushes an abandoned forklift on the side of the road.

James checks his tablet and finds out that the wolves have split into 2 groups of over 20 each, and are attacking in 2 different directions. Damn. These guys are smart! But so far, other than a few damaged equipment and buildings, we manage to hold the line still. Unless that monstrous wolf comes into play.

Sensing that the attack has failed, the alpha wolf howls and the remaining wolves turn tail and retreated, leaving behind a dozen dead and dying. It glares from the cover of the forest, staring with hatred at the Base Colony before it turns and retreats with its brood to lick their wounds.

"Sir, contacts retreating out of motion sensor range."

"Send a UAV after them, see if we can follow them back to their lair this time." The last few attempts did not bore fruit as the UAV infra and thermal sensors couldn't pick them out in the night. Blake turns and asks Ford, "Any casualties?"

"No, sir, other than some shaken nerves, we survived this attack," Ford reports after he checks with every department. "But we depleted quite a lot of our ammunition stores."

"Get the crews out to bring in the bodies, make it quick. I got a feeling that they just fell back to regroup before attacking again." Blake orders. "Also, stop rerouting power to the laser's capacitors. Restore power to the rest of the ship and base." He wipes the sweat off his face, as the temperature had steadily risen up in the bridge throughout the night due to the air conditioners having no power. He couldn't imagine what the rest of the crew inside the ship were facing even with the vents open.

The cargo bay ramps slide out as the massive armored doors cranked open. A couple of forklifts drives down the ramp and headed towards the bodies of the wolves lying all over the Base Colony. Dozens of crew members cling onto the sides of the vehicles as they hitch a ride to begin to clean up of the area.

Mills watches the work crews, hook and tow the wolf carcasses away, "Fresh meat for tonight!" He rubs his gloved hands with glee. "Damn, I am hungry! I want a nice juicy medium rare steak!"

All the soldiers stationed at bunker H-3 have climbed up onto the tower and were watching the work crews cleaning up the battlefield. "Think the wolves had enough? Will they be back?" asked one of the security guys.

"Hell if I know." Mills patted his rifle stock, "If they come again, I just feed them 6.5mms while they feed my tummy!" He laughs at his own joke.

"And someone was almost crying for his mommy the other day..." James couldn't help but make fun of him, making the rest laugh along. James is very glad that his team morale has risen, asks Bartley, "You alright?"

"Yes, Corp," Bartley replies in his usual dull tone. "Just sad for those creatures. They look so noble."

"Noble or not," James pats Bartley on his shoulder, "They are still trying to kill us. We do what we have to do to protect everyone here."

"That we do," Bartley whispers. "The clash of the giants."

The wolves did not return later that day, nor the following weeks ahead.

31 - Wheels

Blake sat on his office chair and went through all the reports sitting on his work desk. Food and water supplies, ammunition consumption, crew morale, and more. Luckily the giant horned wolves donated over 4 tons of meat, helping them greatly with their food supplies.

How am I going to solve the ammunition problem? Over 30% used up in the defense against the wolves, if they attack constantly, they will be down to sticks and stones. Blake held up Lt Frank's report and skim through it.

Black powder? Hmm, we need a saltpeter source if we need potassium nitrate. Blake makes a reminder to get survey teams to head down south along the cliffs and hills to see if they can find any "bat" caves

Senior Chief Petty Officer Gale knocks sharply at the open hatch of Blake's office, "Permission to enter, Sir?" He stood at parade rest outside the office.

"Come in Chief." Blake glances up from his stack of paperwork, glad of the interruption. He pushes back on his seat, thinking even if stranded on an unknown planet, trying to survive, yet paperwork never dies. "At ease, Chief and take a seat."

Chief Gale pulls the chair out and sat down heavily, before handing over a tablet to Blake. "Sir, the vehicle designs are done."

"Oh? That's fast." Blake raised his eyebrows as he scrolls through the designs.

"Yes Sir, the past 2 days due to the wolf raids, we are mostly on lockdown, so the lads had plenty of free time to come out with something." Chief Gale explains. "We also built a couple of prototypes to test."

"What? Really?" Blake's eyes lit up, "Can I see them?"

"Sure you can sir!" And they set off towards the flight decks. Along the way, Chief Gale explains the design they came out with to Blake.

"This way," Chief Gale leads Blake to makeshift garage housed inside the flight deck. "We built up this garage so that it is easier for us to create and test the vehicles."

Sitting in the middle of the garage were 2 vehicles with several mechanics working on them. "Captain on the deck!" Chief Gale bellows. The mechanics instantly stop work and stood at attention.

"At ease," Blake enters the garage and looks with approval at the 2 vehicles sitting there. One is a 4 wheeler while the other was a half-track design, both still looking very barebones, with cables and gears exposed.

Chief Gale points to the 4-wheeler and points out its characteristics. "We took an old jeep design as it was the simplest to build with what we have. It is powered by an overclocked 50kW electric motor salvaged from the auto doors, providing 67 horsepower."

The 4-wheeler has no doors, just a simple car body frame with a driver seat, front passager seat and bench bolted to the back for 2 more passengers. "Of course, since the terrain here has no proper roads, it has 4 wheel drive capability, able to hit speeds up to 110 km/h with a max load of 450 kg and a range of 520 km on a full battery charge."

"Tested?" Blake sat on the driver seat, holding onto the steering wheel. He looks at the primitive design of the steering wheel, gearbox and foot pedals. "How do you drive this thing?"

Chief Gale gives a brief run-through of how the steering wheel, gearbox, and foot pedals work. "This turns the direction of the vehicle, while this controls the speed and this is the accelerator, brakes, and clutch."

After 30mins of explanation and learning, Blake turns the power key on and steps gently on the accelerator. The jeep rolls forward smoothly and exits the garage to the joy and excitement of the mechanics. Blake drove several rounds inside the flight deck before returning to the garage. "That was fun!" He grins at the excited mechanics and Chief Gale. "Very good work! Now we just need to do some outfield trials! What's next?"

"This is the half-track design we came up with. We actually wanted to use 8 wheels to give it good off-road capabilities but we are kinda lacking in rubber." Chief Gale pats the steel hull of the half-track. "For the engines, we pulled several large electric motors off the blast doors. The 200 kW motors provide as much as 260 horsepower, allowing it to transport over 2 tons of load while keeping its top speed at 78km/h."

The half-track looks like a flatbed trailer truck with 2 front wheels while the rear is a caterpillar track, instead of having wheels. "For it's maxed range, the batteries are also good for roughly 480 km on a full charge."

"Why a half-track?" Blake asks, curious. "Shouldn't a 4 or 6 wheels at the rear be better?"

"A few points, Sir. One is due to the placement of the tracks, it spreads the vehicle's weight over a larger area, which gives it greater mobility over soft terrains like mud and snow." Chief Gale ticks off his fingers as he continues. "Relying instead on their front wheels to direct the vehicle, they do not require the complex steering mechanisms of fully tracked vehicles. Next, it is easier to learn to operate than fully tracked vehicles."

"Last of all, rubber. We do not have enough of it to produce enough tires for all the vehicles, thus we opt for tracks, using modular steel plates as we have plenty of steel."

Blake nods before asking, "How long do you need to finish it before starting trial runs?" Blake stands next to the half-track. "And how many can you build and how fast?"

"The jeep is almost done, just needs some finishing touches." Chief Gale rubs his chin as he mentally makes some calculations. "Probably can squeeze out 2 jeeps per week."

"As for the half-track. 1 per week or up to 10 days to produce it. Also same as the jeep, rubber is lacking, unless we change all to tracks, like a tank." Chief Gale looks at Blake. "Including the needs of rubber for the jeeps, I say 12 jeeps and 20 half-tracks is all we can produce."

Blake nods. Once the survey teams have jeeps, they can expand out to find more resources easier. "Alright, that sounds good. Quickly finish the prototypes and run trials, once all tested to run fine, I want production of the jeep and half-track to begin."

"Yes, Sir. Also if you can assign people to start stripping the ship of rubber and other parts, it will help a lot." Chief Gale gave a suggestion.

"Got it, I will assign people to work on it." Blake agrees and continues. "We also need a manual for maintenance and driving, start getting some of your guys who know how to drive to be prepared to teach others."

32 - The Empire

A pair of huge massive doors, with carved scenes of trees and nature, swings open and a tall slim pale looking male dressed in a black coat with dark red pants, silk-like high collared shirt with a cravat tied in a soft bow, covered over by a black waistcoat, walks through.

His green eyes barely register the 2 guards bowing to him by the doors, a pair of golden earrings hung from his long pointy ears, his long handsome angular face framed by the light blonde hair and a thick sideburn frowns in worry as he hurried his steps towards His Majesty's day office.

Another pair of guards in full plate mail and holding halberds, bows and opens the office doors as he approaches. As he enters the room, he bows low to the person sitting behind the golden gilded desk, His Majesty, Varacen Bluewoods, ruler of the Bluewoods Empire.

"Your Majesty, I await your command." He half kneels on the floor in front of the desk with his head bowed low, waiting for Emperor Varacen to notice him.

The Emperor ignored his presence, continues to read the rolls of parchment tied with colored ribbons. His signature blue hair and thick beard that only belongs to royalty are tied with a dark blue ribbon into a ponytail, have started to show strains of silver. Dressed in a white shirt, waistcoat, dark blue pants and a knee-high leather boots, he finally sets down the scroll.

Emperor Varacen sighs, his aging face still retains some handsome features even after turning 60 this year. "Raise, my Lord Sturm." He leans back on his padded chair, finely carved with trees and flowers. "You disappoint me greatly."

Lord Sturm stood up and resisted his urge to wipe the sweat off his face. "My emperor! I have failed you, the rebel scum still walks the land, my troops were so close to wiping them out, but the green skins raided in massive numbers, thus I had to fall back my troops to block the tide of green skins." He explains.

"Yes, yes. I read your report and the commanders report too." Emperor Varacen waves away his explanation. "Still, your incompetence has allowed the rebels to escape," Varacen tilts his head slightly looking at Strum like a wolf looks at a rabbit. "Maybe you don't want your title of Duke of Fallowfall anymore?"

"No... no, my liege, I won't fail you again!" Lord Sturm fell on his knees.

"You sure? I got many other nobles queuing up to be a Duke." Varacen smiles wickedly, enjoying tormenting Strum. "I think I should just reward some other noble."

"My emperor, I won't fail you again! 2 months, no... 1 month's time! I will root out the rebels from Fallowfall and they will no longer plague our Empire of Bluewood any longer!"

"Make it so, or it wouldn't be just your title." Emperor Varacen promises, "Your head might roll too."

"Ye-yes, My Emperor," Lord Sturm trembles slightly with fear, as he knows quite well how mad Emperor Varacen can be.

"I will send the 3rd Lancers to you to help wipe out the rebels once and for all. Do not fail me this time." Emperor Varacen said before waving his hand to dismiss Strum.

The massive doors slam shut behind Lord Sturm. He shivers slightly even in his warm coat and turns and looks at the massive castle, battlements, and towers linked together by bridges and spires rising high up into the sky topped with fluttering royal blue trimmed with gold banners.

"Bring my carriage over!" He yells at his footmen, "Hurry up fools! Or I whip the hide off your backs!" Damn the slaves and rebels. I will find you and when I do, you will wish you were never born into this world. His crotch grew hard at that thought and he laughs in anticipation. "Where's my carriage!"

--------------------------------

"FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!" The crowd queued up in a line chanted in the ship's gallery. "FOOD FOOD FOOD FOOD!" and banging their trays or utensils in rhythm to the chanting.

"SHUT UP YOU PUNKS!" The serving mate hoists a large stainless steel pot into the serving line. "Like you guys haven't eaten in months!"

The crowd cheers as they see the steaming pot and starts to hand over trays for the server to put food into their food trays. Mashed carr-ota, some greens with slices of tomatoes, a few local fruits and finally the main course, wolf stew. Chunks of wolf meat with potatoes from the farms and local onions accompanied by a large piece of freshly baked bread.

Petty officer 1st class Keito Nagasaki, chef of the UNS Singapore leans over the counter and watches the crowd going wild over his cooking. He shakes his head and smiles, enjoying the mood. He always enjoyed cooking, taking a diploma in culinary before being drafted into the navy.

He did not expect to be dropped onto an unknown world but to him, it was like those light novels he so used to read in the past, about reincarnations or transported to another world kind of setting. Due to limited supplies, he has to manage the kitchen and stretch the food supplies to feed over 400 people every day! Luckily the surveying teams after bringing the local wildlife or edible foodstuff to be checked for health issues will always come to find him to prepare them.

Chef Keito was amazed by the different types of materials he has to work on, and all of them are new to everyone, thus he has to create new dishes to cater to everyone tastes. It was challenging and exciting to him, he felt truly alive at this point as his skills are tested to the max.

He returns to the kitchen and took out a piece of flat greenish transparent looking squidlike object. The surveying team brought it back from the plains to the East, and it actually looked like a ball of slime. No, it definitely is SLIME! After several cooking tests and tasting, he found the best way to cook and serve it!

Days before, he removed its internal guts and left it to totally dry in the sun. Once dried, it shrinks and turns hard like dried fish or octopus. He then boils it with salt water and made soup stock from the bones of the wolves slowly boiled over 20 hours, till the soup turns whitish.

Once the dried slime is boiled, he slices it into noodles like strips, paired with the wolf bone soup, tops it off with an ajitsuke tamago, or Japanese marinated soft boiled eggs and some roasted sesame seeds and seaweed and its done! Slime ramen!

Time to serve the officers their meal, as he prepares several bowls of it, whistling along all the way.

33 - Fugitives

Sherene Goldrose bends over with her hands on her knees and takes a breather, pushing her falling hair back over her pointy ears. She stood up and watches the snaking line of people, slowly climbing the steep slopes of Sawtooth Mountain. Young and old, carrying what little possessions they have, struggles against the rocky terrain, trying to escape the pursuing Empire soldiers.

"My Lady," A middle-aged male, with sharp eyes and hair turning grey at the roots, hands a skin of water to Sherene. "We must hurry, the Empire soldiers will be upon us soon. We have no time to rest!" He wears a half plate with a long sword belted to his waist and in addition a backpack of supplies.

"But the people are tired! We can't just push them too much!" Sherene pleads with the veteran. "We can't let them be taken by the Empire!"

He sighs. Joseph Tokin had served the Goldrose family for over 30 years, he knew the young princess since she was a baby and her temperament very well. But as she is the only last surviving member of the Goldrose royal family, her parents, brothers and ultimately the kingdom losing their lives to the Mad Emperor Varacen in the, he has to protect her at all cost!

"My Lady, I will dispatch men as a rearguard to buy us as much time as possible." He sighs inwardly, thinking of the men and women he will be condemned to death. "But we must hurry, please get on the wagon!" He dictates a wagon, pulled by a large lumbering land dragon.

Sherene looks into her loyal retrainer's eyes, seeing the sadness and pain inside. "I-I understand. But no, let the old, wounded and young on it." She stubbornly lowers her head and starts walking again, ignoring her painful sore feet.

Joseph shakes his head and waves at his flag bearer to come over and give some orders. The flag bearer nods and starts waving his flag in a signal. Shortly after a small detachment of escorting soldiers broke off and headed to the rear of the column. "My Lady, we will soon reach the pass between Sawtooth Mountain and be able to see the sea. My men will remain to defend the pass, they will not be able to follow us as long as we hold the pass!"

"But you can't hold it forever!" Sherene looks worriedly at Joesph since she could remember, he was always there for her, as her mentor in sword and archery, her protector, and friend. She doesn't know what she will do if she lost him too!

"Don't worry, my princess!" He smiles, "When winter comes in 2 months time, the pass will be blocked, giving us a whole season to prepare! You need to lead the people to rebuild their homes. Leave the fighting to me!" He pats his breastplate.

"Look princess!" A soldier in the front yells excited and points to the front. A narrow gap slowly comes into view, large enough for 4 land dragon wagons to drive pass side by side. "It's the Sawtooth Pass!"

The disposed citizens of the Goldrose Kingdom cheer up visibly as they point to the pass, knowing that once they cross it, they are saved!

Sherene hurries along with the rest of the soldiers and civilians, appearing out of the pass and seeing the glittering sea in the far distance. It was the 1st time most of the people have seen the sea, as their kingdom is landlocked. The sparkingly clear blue waters could be seen clearly from their height.

Suddenly someone shouted and points to the distance, Joesph and Sherene worried that the pursuit from the Empire has come, looks in surprise at the objects moving in the plains.

2 dragon-less wagons were moving rapidly in the plains following a herd of Pico Picos, a large-sized flightless bird, seemingly capturing them with ropes.

"What powerful sorcery is that?" Joesph stares wide-eyed at the fast-moving wagons. "They must be very powerful mages to do that!"

The people from the Goldrose Kingdom stood watching the scenery and the dragon-less wagons rounding up the herd of Pico Picos in awe when suddenly a horn blast bellowed from the rear.

"The Empire is here!"

Loaded up on the moving Jeep that was newly manufactured, Pvt Drake sat on the rear cheering the crew who was strapped standing in the middle of the jeep. The redesign of the prototype jeep has added a standing space in the middle of the vehicle, which holds a mount for mounting the PK-299 machinegun and new roll bars on the vehicle sides.

The crewmate threw a lasso and expertly caught another of the large ostrich-like bird. "Hee-haw!" SA Puller drawls as he tightened the noose. "Damn I'm good!" All that time spent with grandpa in the horse farms sure paid off!

At one side of the plains, the second jeep sat the rest of the survey team, husbanding the caught birds. "Lucky, they are quite docile or I think they ate you by now!" Sgt Collins jokes with the team. The large birds stand almost as tall as a human, with an eagle-like head and body covered with grey-white feathers, while their tails feathers are black and crane-like legs. It's surrounding eye sockets are color in a bright red-orange, with distinct black feathers protruding from behind its head.

Suddenly a long bellowing sound of a horn echoes down the mountains and onto the plains, everyone snaps their heads up towards the sound. "What is that?"

"Look! People!" Someone yells at the 2nd vehicle. Sgt Collins unstrap his binoculars and peers into the distance. The powerful 12x zoom instantly brings details of the group of people standing on the mountain slopes.

"Oh my, we got natives!" Collins yells as he focuses his sight on the group. "Call Car 1 back!" Another blast of long mournful sounding horn echoes again. "Damn!"

Car 2 pulled up beside them with the caught Pico Pico in tow. "What the hell is that sarge?" Pvt Drake hops off the rear with his weapon at the ready. He carried an M7 DMR instead of an M7A1 for this mission.

"There you see the gap between the mountain ridges?" Collins directed Drake, who deployed the built-in bipod of the M7 DMR onto the hood of the jeep, and peers into the 8x scope of the rifle. "You see them?"

Drake adjusted his sights and activates the built-in rangefinder. "Yup, a large group of people, some wearing armor and carrying swords and spears. Distance... 426 meters away"

"What's happening?" The rest of the team asking those who had field glasses.

"Some group of people turned up... wait... they appear to be fighting," Someone gave a commentary on the situation. "Oh no, there seems to be women and children in that group!"

34 - Help

"Captain, Dog 5 is requesting instructions." Ensign Clara sitting on her console waits for Blake reply. "Do we render help?"

Blake frowns as he looks at the tactical map of the area. A large number of unknown natives has appeared over the mountains, estimated numbers at around 2 thousand. He looks at the UAV imagery, showing a group of soldiers in eye-catching gold ending off another group of soldiers in blue while trying to buy time for their people to retreat.

"Sir!" Ford looks at Blake, "I advise we help them! There's women, children and elderly in that group!" He zooms the image to the running people, even with a top-down image, clearly shows children
and elderly among them.

Blake looks around the bridge, seeing everyone looking with anticipation at him. He noticed some of the female crew have tears in their eyes from watching those people getting butchered. "Alright, do it! Tell Dog 5 to provide aid as much as possible, but do not endanger themselves! Deploy the rapid responders."

"Yes, Sir!" The bridge crew hearing his orders jumped to it with a fervor. Ford nods at Blake and smiles. "Sir, helping them will boost the crew morale."

Blake nods, but he wonders that if helping these people, will it bring calamity in the future?

Sherene shouts encouragement to her people, pushing them to move faster and into the safety of the pass. Soldiers and civilians alike work hard to roll stones and boulders to create a choke point against the Empire soldiers. She sees the rear guard doing their best to stop the Empire soldiers from advancing and losing their lives for it.

"Its the Empire 3rd Lancers!" A soldier yells. Joseph looks at the banners, 3 red slashes on a dark blue background, carried on the backs of the dragon riding lancers, the dragons look like a large Terran crocodile, with a longer neck and legs, while the snot is shorter.

Damn. I don't have much dragon lances to stop them! Joseph orders his soldiers carrying the dragon lances, which is basically a lance magically enhanced with anti-dragon properties, enabling it to pierce the tough scales and hide of a dragon, it is a one-time use weapon, as after piercing its target the magic inside will detonate, killing the dragon.

"Lord General!" A soldier rushes up to him and salutes, fist over his chest. "The magical wagons are coming our way!"

"What?" Joseph turns his attention away from the rear and pushes through the crowd to the front, he looks down the slope and sees the 2 wagons making their way up the slope. What kind of magic is needed to do that! He looks on in amazement.

Sherene quickly joins Joesph as the crowd parts away from the approaching magic wagons. As they approach nearer, she could make out the features of the people driving it. Most of them were in grey or black clothing that covers most parts of their bodies, while some are wearing a helmet of some sorts, the rest were wearing some sort of hats.

The wagons stopped several meters away from the soldiers who formed a defensive line in front of Sherene and Joseph. She pushes the men away, and stood in front and said, "Greetings, I am Princess Sherene Goldrose, we greet you, strangers."

Collins signal the driver to stop, and watches a very very pretty lady walks out from behind the armored plated soldiers dressed in gold, pointing their spears at them. He drops his jaw in amazement and was stunned for a while, in fact, the whole team was stunned by her looks. They look human, except for the color of their hair and ears!

"*********, * ** ******** ******* ********, ** ***** ***, *********." The lady spoke something and gave a curtsy of sorts. Her beauty was incredible, with a top model body, heart shape face, large blue eyes, everything is prefect!

Collins scratched his forehead and looks around, "Anyone speaks... alien?"

"Elves!" Drake half shouted, his mouth opened wide, "I can't fucking believe it. Fucking elves!" Being a gamer, he recognized distinctive features, that are so familiarly the same as in the games he had played before.

"Pvt Drake, you know how to speak elf?" Collins turned around and asks. "If not, watch the language!"

Damn, Collins cursed, how are we going to do this. Urgh, I just smoke my way through!

He leaps off the jeep and removed his helmet, and held his hands up to show that he came in peace. "Erm, we are here to help? Can you understand?"

The lady tilts her head in confusion to his words before speaking in that flowery language to a tough looking veteran soldier beside her.

"What kind of people are they? They look like us, but their ears are so short!" Sherene turns to Joseph, "Are they, enemies?" She looks at the man dressed in a weird green-brown colored pattern.

"I don't think so, he is standing there with his hands purposely held to the sides to show he is unarmed." Besides, if they have the magic to power those wagons, I don't think we can stop their magic from killing us all here, Joseph thought.

Collins points to their rear and tried to sign that they are here to help, he waves the rest of the vehicles and walks slowly to the pass.

The surrounding soldiers nervously point their spears and swords as Collins approaches. He turns and looks at the Lady and gestures again to the rear urgently.

"Joesph! I think they meant to help us!" Sherene pulls at Joesph's arm. "They are trying to go to the rear!"

Joesph frowns, he couldn't be sure what these people are, nor why are they wanting to go to the rear where the battle is. Are they friend or foe? Should he chance it? Finally, he sighs, "Let them pass, I think they meant to help us." He orders his troops to lay down their weapons.

Collins seeing the old veteran gesturing and speaking, following that the soldiers lower their weapons, he knew that they have given them the green light to pass through. "Come on you pukes! People are dying are we are not the ones doing the killing!"

His team of 7 follows him swiftly through the pass, accompanied by the old veteran and some soldiers. He noticed that the lady was following behind them too, and he wondered who is she.

As they exited the pass, they saw the battle raging on, scores of civilians were still fleeing and trying to climb towards the pass, some of the unlucky ones, slip and roll down the steep slopes.

"Alright, we are gonna hit them from the flanks! Drake, you snipe, engage all officers or what you think are officers!" Collins orders and the rest of the men formed upon his sides, armed with 5mm PDWs. "Ignore those big lizards like things, kill the riders!"

They advanced down the stone path, waving the fleeing civilians out of the way. The soldiers in gold were holding a shield wall stopping the enemy at a bend in the path, denying the dragon calvary distance to charge through.

"Watch your front, don't hit any of the golden boys or civilians! Aim for the blue coats! READY?" Sounds of weapons cocking replied back.

"FIRE!"

35 - Mighty Magic

"Heavy infantry to the front! Destroy that shield wall!" Knight-Captain Yoles of the Empire's 3rd Lancer commanded, riding his war dragon. "Lancers are to pull back to 50 paces, once the infantry breaks the shield wall, We charge!"

Cries of acknowledgment reply to his commands. He observes the battle, savoring the smell of blood and enjoying cries of fear. These damn defeated Goldrose soldiers fight well for a destroyed kingdom, but too bad, they met me and my 3rd Lancers. Yoles smiles and yells over the battle. "We are the Third! Elites of the empire! Drop your weapons and surrender, or we will kill every single one of you!" And we make slaves out of you all! He smiles inwardly at that thought.

The golden shield wall quivers slightly upon hearing his words, and for a moment both sides stay at a standstill. Knight-Captain Joles smiles, knowing that the enemy morale has dropped, he raises his right fist upwards, ready to command his formed up lancers to charge into the shield wall, even with such short distance, they will still be enough to cause enough chaos to break the wall.

"Fire!"

Thunder and fire suddenly erupted from the rear corner of the Rosegold lines. Yoles jerked his head in surprise as his war dragon suddenly flinched from the loud sounds. He struggles to keep his mount from panicking and getting it back in control.

Pvt Drake lays prone at the pass with several of the golden boys watching him, wondering what is he up to laying there taking a rest when everyone is fighting. He ignores their stares and whispers, carefully set his bipod firmly onto the rock floor, and scans through the scope looking for targets.

He almost immediately spots a full armored soldier in blue, with a red plume on its helmet in the sea of grey armors. He smiles and checks the distance, 237m, and zeros his scope in. He places his crosshair over the target's "triangle", which is from the shoulders to the navel of the body, forming a triangle; rather than going for a fancy headshot. He calms and slows his breathing, keeping his cheek snuggled tight against the rifle stock and gently squeezed the trigger.

Knight-Captain Yoles finally manages to keep control his war dragon, he glares at the Goldrose lines and raises his fist and strikes it down, "CHARGE! FOR THE EMP-!!!"

The 6.5mm tungsten core armor piercing round traveling at 1,005 m/s took less than a split second to travel the short distance before punching through the plate mail's upper torso and into the leather under armor, before entering Knight-Captain Yole's chest. The armor piercing bullet spiraled deep inside his body rupturing organs and shattering bones before exiting out from his armpit, and tearing out a huge chunk of tissue, exited his armor at an angle before penetrating through an unlucky heavy armored soldier nearby, sending him crashing down.

"One..." Drake whispers as he sweeps for other targets.

"In the name of the gods!" Sherene and Joesph stood stunned behind the strangers who weld mighty magical thundersticks. With each boom of thunder, fire spits out and an enemy drops, sometimes more than 1! It does not seem to even care how heavily armored the soldiers are, it cuts them down like wheat! "What kind of magic is that?"

"It is as powerful as a level 5 spell! Maybe even more!" Sherene exclaims, shocked at how powerful the strangers are. The rest of the Goldrose soldiers and civilians watches in amazement, at the 8 strangers cutting down an enemy over 50 times their size!

SGT Collins and his team advanced in a tactical wedge formation, firing aimed shots into the mass of blue infantry and cavalry. As only he and Drake are marines who uses the M7 series, the rest of his team are mostly naval crew and 2 others from the security section, they are armed instead with the fully automatic 50 rounds, H&K AMP-11 Personal Defense Weapon firing 5mm Full Metal Jacket rounds.

They swept fire into the ranks of tightly packed soldiers, mowing them down in twos or threes. The 5mm FMJ rounds rip easily through the ranks of soldiers like paper, shields or plate mail that can stop a spear, sword or arrow are nothing compared to its power. The Empire soldiers cluster even tighter together in confusion, which makes them into easier targets. The blue coats seeing death coming from afar held their ground bravely at first, but as the officers and commanders started dying one by one, and with Knight-Captain Yoles death, they start to panic and slowly fall back. What kind of magic is that!

Once the first step backward was taken, more and more steps backward followed before the blue-coated soldiers turn and ran, some even abandoning their shields and weapons. Sergeants and officers screamed for their men to form up or hold their ground were picked off by Drake from afar. The Lancers seeing the deteriorating situation also turned and retreated ignoring the panicking men, trampling those unlucky to be in their way.

Cheers erupted from the Goldrose side, and some of the hotblooded soldiers even started pursuing the routed enemy to cut them down. "Hold, you idiots! HOLD!" Lord General Joesph roars at the chasing troops. "Form up! Flag bearer where are you! Get the men to form up!" He storms off towards the shield wall, cursing and swearing at the hotheaded soldiers.

Collins watch the backs of the blue coats running away in fear and felt a sense of extreme satisfaction. "Alright guys, good job!" The rest of the team started to chat excitedly and bragging among themselves over the firefight. "Ok, enough! You guys are like gossiping wives! Go police up all the spent cartridges!"

Sherene walks towards Collins and kneels down in gratitude to him and his team, and the rest of the Goldrose people also follow suit and kneels down thanking their saviors. "We thank you from the bottom of our heart for saving my people." She said sincerely to Collins.

Collins who was halfway reporting back to base, jolts in surprise as the crowd of elves suddenly kneels down to them all. "Erm... Base... they are kneeling down to me! Ah... What do I do now! Base, over?"

36 - Elves

"Ah... What do I do now! Base, over?"

Blake grins, as he watches the UAV feed of the kneeling elves around Sgt Collins. "Hahaha, maybe they gonna crown him a king or something?" He jokes, inciting laughter among the bridge crew.

"Alright, tell him to hold tight and secure the rear, backup is coming," Blake laughs, "He will be fine. Direct the UAV to provide overwatch and alert Dog Five if the enemy show signs of approaching."

"Ford, I remember there should be a first contact manual with an alien race somewhere in the system right? Dig it out, and also the universal translator." Blake turns his head towards Ensign Clara, "Ensign, work with the XO over the language translations, you gonna be the official translator."

Collins moaned when he received Base's reply. Urgh, securing the rear is easy but dealing with an alien race? Boot camp didn't teach me anything! He glances around at his team who quickly avoided his eye and he sighs. Walking up to the noble-looking lady, he reaches out a hand to help her up and points towards the pass with a hurry up gesture which he hopes she understands.

Sherene looks up as the man in the strange patterns clothes gestures her to stand up and points towards the pass. She understands that the man is telling her to move to safety from his gestures, she nods, touched by his actions, as most nobles will be bragging how great they are for saving you, and will be trying to falter or ignore the interests of the common people.

She raises up and taking his hand as support and brushes off the dust from her traveling dress. She was able to thank him again when she noticed that he has already turned around and headed off to towards the rear guards with some of his men.

Pvt Drake dumps the collected spent cartridges into his pouch and strolls up towards Collins, the few golden boys watching him earlier, now look at him in awe and respect. He smiles smugly and cradles his rifle over his chest like a baby and calls out to Collins. "Hey Sarge, frag much?"

"Great work with the sniping." They walked to the sea of bodies littering the mountain path. "Check this out." Collins squats down and lifts the visor off the metallic helmet of a dead blue-coated soldier.

"Same ears and features. Some kind of civil war?" Collins looks over the bodies. "No, not civil. Different colors and insignia too."

"Even weapons are slightly different." Drake picks up several swords and lays them side by side. "Oh, here comes their big shot." He warns Collins, seeing the old vet walking over.

Collins straighten up and points towards the pass, trying to convey to the old vet to move his forces towards the pass.

The old vet nods in understanding, and points at the bodies and mimics picking, seemingly indicating that they want to loot or salvage for weapons and armors.

Collins also nods and steps back allowing the vet to send his men into strip the bodies and retrieve the wounded.

"I think he was asking for permission to loot the bodies or something," Collins said to Drake.

"Yea, since we did the killing, we have the rights to it, I guess?" Drake shrugs, as he watches the soldiers carrying wounded away, stripping and stacking weapons and armors aside, while giving mercy killings to the badly wounded men of both sides. "She's very pretty eh?"

"Yeah, out of this world." Collins sighs, "Let's help them out with the wounded and dead, we got UAV cover so there are no worries of a surprise attack." Damn, we need the medics here fast, looking at the wounded, half of them won't make it if the medics don't come in time!

"Magister Thorn!" Sherene finds the old master magician sitting on a boulder next to a dragon wagon, his right shoulder swaddled in bandages stained with dried blood. "Why are you not resting inside!" She cried, gesturing to the magician's apprentices to carry him into the wagon to rest.

"No, child. It's alright, I wanted to see what magic they weld." He feebly waves her and his apprentices off. "Come closer, I have something to tell you."

Sherene leans forward and Magister Thorn whispers into her ear, "I don't sense any magic power at all from them! They are not using magic!"

"What?" She looks surprised, "But that power, it's almost as powerful as a level 5 spell!"

Thorn coughs and wheezed, "I do not know how they harness the elemental forces, but I did not sense anything from them at all!" Wiping the flecks of blood from his mouth, "I will advise making friends with them, with their power to harness the elements, our people can be saved!"

"I understand, Magister!" She said seriously, "Please rest, you need your strength!" She looks at the apprentices at the side, and asks, "Have you given him the healing potion?"

They looked at each other guilty, not daring to meet her eyes. "What? Why didn't you give him the potion!" She stood up angrily. "What have you done with it!"

"Calm down, child. I told them not to waste it on me." Magister Thorn coughs again, "I know my time is up. Why waste such a valuable potion on me, when there are so many others that need it? I told them to give it to the wounded."

"No... Magister Thorn! You will be alright!" Sherene cried, tears falling, too many of her people and close friends have died. Her heart couldn't take much of the sadness anymore.

Trent Oaktall cautiously touched the sides of the blue-grey magical wagon parked at the pass. It felt cold and hard like iron, not wood, but who is crazy enough to use iron to build a wagon! His plate mail itself would have cost the kingdom's treasury tens of gold coins!

The more he examined the wagon, the more impressed he became, the low hunched shape of the wagon looks like a predator, waiting to jump at its prey. The padded chairs attached inside obviously provides greater comfort to the riders. What kind of people are they if they can build something like these!

Suddenly he noticed a dust cloud approaching from the seaward side of the mountain pass, he lifts his hand to shade his eyes and peers towards the dust cloud. The rapidly approaching objects slowly came into focus as they neared, and he yells excitedly to alert his sergeant as more of the strange magical wagons arrives.

37 - Disaster Relief

SSGT Pike leaps off the half-track and bangs the rear container housing troops and medical personnel. "Alright men, unload! Form up by your sections!" The half-track starts unloading people and supplies, "Jeeps cover the pass." The two jeeps slowly roll forward through the crowd of amazed elves into the pass, to cover the approaches with their mounted Pk-229s.

"Staff!" Collins threw a salute and gave a quick report to SSGT Pike. "So far we got 227 of the natives wounded, with another 59 probably won't be able to make it unless they get to the med bay quick." He gestures to the pile of half-naked bodies dumped down the mountain slope. "112 enemies confirm KIA, 48 wounded and in custody. I think it might be some kind of war going on between two countries."

"Great work." Pike nods, crouching at the edge of the slope and looking at the bodies. Already the local scavengers have started to feast on the dead. "Why not burn them? Won't it cause an epidemic?" Pike asks.

"I think the locals think it is too much work, plus," Collins gestures around the barren mountain slopes, "not much firework around. Better to feed the wildlife here."

"How do they fight and what weapons they use?" Pike questions Collins.

"Mostly with sword, spear, and shields. For ranged, they use bows or crossbows." Collins points at the battlefield. "They mostly fight in a shield wall, using heavy armored infantry to anchor the enemy, while their croc cavalry charges in like a hammer."

"Hmm very similar like our own medieval tactics," Pike observe the nearby elven soldiers, looking at the armor covering their bodies. "Our weapons effectiveness?"

"Overwhelming, Staff. The bullets over penetrate in fact, and with them standing in formation, our rounds go through them like paper." Collins grins as he remembers the fight. "They might as well throw away their armors and shields."

"Understood." Pike nods before turning around and hops up a boulder, shouting for the team leaders to gather up for a briefing.

"Alright everyone, so we are dealing with some kind of alien elves in an alien world. All fun and games here!" Pike rubs his hands together. "We are going to treat this as a disaster relief mission, medical team leads are to organize your men to help with the wounded, support teams are set up cook tents and sleeping areas for the refugees." He points to the rear of the pass.

"Our supplies are limited but we will do what we can for them." Pike hops off the boulder, clapping his hands, "Get to work! Thank you!"

Pike turns to Collins and asks, "Who's in charge of the goldies?"

"Him for the troops and her for the civilians I think." Collins points towards a grizzly looking vet standing next to a wagon pulled by a giant croc thingy before pointing to another lady with pink blonde on the other side.

"Got it." And he heads toward the vet where Collins points first.

"Sir?" Pike executes a perfect parade square salute to the grizzled veteran wearing some sort of golden robes under a chest plate.

Lord General Joesph eyes the approaching stranger in that confusing green brown pattern clothing. The strange short ears are wearing an unfamiliar cap style, with a matching shirt and pants in that confusing blend of green and brown, what appears to be a chest plate colored the same way as his clothes with lots of small pouches and bags. And that crossbow-like weapon, that spits fire and thunder strapped to his chest diagonally.

With his years of experience as a soldier, he recognizes a fellow soldier from the way he walks and holds himself. That man is dangerous, thought Joesph, returning the salute, by thumping his left hand over his chest. Not only their weapons are formidable, even their armor and items of clothing look finely crafted!

Pike follows up with a salute to the beautiful lady with the pink blonde hair, dressed in a dust-stained ivory-colored dress with a slender golden belt. Damn elves, even the old man looks handsome. Shaking his head, he gestures the both of them to follow him, once he is sure that they understand what he is trying to convey, he leads the way over to the pass.

Sherene glances at Joesph, wondering what this strange man is bringing them to see. She notices two more of those magical wagons parked on both sides of the pass, with what appears to be their soldiers and those strange thunder weapons of their standing guard. "Do you think they meant us ill?" She whispers to Joesph.

Lord General Joesph eyes the strange soldiers and their gear, recognizing their level of professionalism, with the way they stand and hold themselves. "If they meant us ill, we are completely at their mercy, especially with those thunder sticks of theirs! We can only hope they treat us fairly."

The strange soldier points towards a group of people in the distance at the bottom of the slope, they appear to be setting up some tents. The soldier points to the direction of their wounded and mimics a carrying motion and points to the tents at the bottom again.

"He is trying to tell us to move the wounded there?" Sherene asks Joesph, who nods, confirming her guess. "Alright, I will get them to be moved down."

Pike seeing the two elves understanding his instruction, then points to the group of civilians milling around. He then mimics walking with his two fingers and points to another site, where some supplies were dropped earlier.

Both of the elves nods again, Pike pleased with himself, gestures them to get their people moving, before he turns and jogs down to the half-track turned temporarily command center. He pulls open the rear hatch of the half-track and climbs in. Set on the side of the compartment, are several communications devices and computer screens set up. He gestures the tech sitting on the console to connect him to Base as he prepares to make a report.

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Bouncing up and down at the rear of the jeep, Ensign Clara hugs the micro comp tightly with one hand while the other held dearly on to the handhelds on the side. The speeding jeep with an escort at the rear, burst through the foliage like a rally racer, the jolt of the crude suspension slams her hard against her rear.

"Woooo weeeeee!" Pvt Mills whoops and flexes his knees while he grips tightly onto the empty gun mount when all four of the jeep wheels left the ground. "Damn that was fun! Let's do that again!"

"Bartley, I didn't know you could drive like that!" Cpl James hooks his arm against the hand grip on the co-driver seat, grinning, enjoying the wind and the roller coaster-like ride through the forest. "Madam, you all good behind?" He yells over the wind.

"You Marines are CRAZY!" came back the reply.

Mills looks back from his perch, grins, yelling, "Come on! We are not crazy!." He grins wickedly, "Just INSANE! WAHAHAHAHA."

The speeding jeeps bounce over the grass plains and pull to a stop next to the command half-track. "Cpl James with a party of four and Ensign Clara reporting for duty!" James reports to Staff Pike as they formed up before the half-track with a pale-faced Clara.

"You guys made it fast here eh?" Pike looks at Clara, and asks, "Are you alright madam?"

"Just peachy, Staff..." Clara swallows an urge to vomit, while the rest of the Marines tried to keep a straight face. "I will go set up inside after I get some air first." She stumbles off to the side of the half-track while hugging her computer.

"Now, what did you sons of bitches do?" Pike places his hands at his waist and glares at the five of them standing in attention.

"Nothing Staff! Just a bumpy ride, Staff!" They chorus together in tune.

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Feeling better, Clara climbs into the rear compartment of the half-track and places down the microcomputer loaded with the universal translator and boots it up. She rubs her forehead and pats her chest to smoothe away the nausea feeling. Damn jugheads, but she had to admit the speeding jeep through the forest was pretty exciting and fun, except for getting carsick.

Alright to work. She connects her tablet to sync up with the microcomputer and inputs the commands to the universal translator software, which was older than her, used at the time for the first contact with meeting other alien races when mankind just started exploring the galaxy.

She read the manual before heading over in that hellish drive, the translator will require comparisons from the language you want to translate and the language to be translated to. For example, the word Tree will require both languages to be input. The more references the better, as the system will learn and get better and better over time.

Her tablet beeped twice, indicating the transfer is completed and the software is in sync with the universal translator. Now what I need is an elf to chat with.

38 - The Hoomans

The past couple of days had to be the most confusing experience for Sherene Goldrose. The short-eared strangers were called hoo-mans, in their language from her loop sided conversations with the hoo-man called Ca-ra.

The magical equipment Ca-ra held in her hand was nothing like any magical item she has ever seen before! It can converse with someone else thousands of paces away, show moving or still images and even text! They have no need of scrolls or parchment as all come be writing into that device.

Ca-ra calls this "tek-no-lo-gee" or something and Sherene realizes with each passing hour she spends conversing with Ca-ra, her grasp of to her language gets better and better. How powerful that must be!

Not to mention how humble, polite and efficient their people are. The hoo-mans spend less than a day setting up the tents for her people, providing food and waving off offers of payment with kind smiles.

Ca-ra had tried to explain to her that they are here to help or save them from disaster. She got confused with all the terms the hooman uses. But she has to admit that they hoomans is very dedicated to their work.

The magical wagons which Ca-ra calls as "Jee" and "Haf-tak", regularly ran up and down, bringing supplies and men to help build the city of tents, was nothing short of a miracle.

And they must have seers of some kind, as they could tell when Empire soldiers are attacking, even at nights! And they could even see in the dark, defeating the Empire soldiers three times with their deadly thundersticks with no casualties at all on their side! I wonder how much more secrets they hold.

She smiles as she watches an ongoing game between the hoomans and the children, involving a ball, and the objective seems to be to kick the ball into the middle of two poles set at both ends of the field, Some of the soldiers in the weird color scheme clothing taught the ball game to the children. she hears the laughter of the children playing and the cheers from the accompanying adults and felt truly at ease and safe after all that has happened.

-----------------

The Empire's delegation had entered the palace to discuss a treaty of peace, but it was just a farce, the so-called ambassadors plotted with some of Goldrose Kingdom's own ministers and murdered the King, Queen and other members of the Court while hidden agents of the Empire set fire to various parts of the Capital, sowing panic and confusion throughout the Kingdom.

Luckily, she was at the Summer Palace, when Joesph came bearing the grave news. The Empire's army, hidden along the borders, launched a surprise attack, forcing the Kingdom to its knees. Her two elder brothers, lead the Goldrose army against the invading Empire, but they fell one after another.

In just three short weeks, all five major cities, including the Goldrose Capital fell, the refugees from those cities, towns, villages and retreating soldiers gathered to her banner and, holding back her pain, she led them through the goblin-infested forests before arriving at the Sawtooth Mountains.

At the start, she had an initial band of over 11,000 soldiers and refugees. After three weeks of running, getting ambushed by the numerous crafty goblins and hounded to death by the Empire's soldiers while others fell to diseases or illness, some even lost the will to go on, had diminished to less than two thousand people now.

All that remains of her Kingdom are now gathered in a tiny tent city built in the middle of the grass plains.

Today, she dresses in her best finery she has left, an ivory dress with long wide sleeves, trimmed in gold lace, tied with a golden ribbon around her slender waist. Her hair braided up like a crown with the rest cascading down her back and wearing a simple tiara.

With her were Lord General Joesph, bareheaded, in his armor, and sword polished till shiny with a golden cloak draped over his shoulder, stood on her left, while Magister Thorn looking pale but cheerful, holding a blue mana stone topped ironwood staff, and wearing a midnight blue scholar robes trimmed with gold thread stood on her right.

The medical skills of the Hoomans proved to be another marvel. Master Thorn, who himself has given up hope of recovery due to the serious injuries incurred from the Empire soldiers, was healed easily by the Hooman's maa-dis.

While advised by the maa-di to rest and not move around, Magister Thorn strongly felt that he should not be left out as part of the party to visit the Hooman's Captial, to him, nothing short of death shall ever stop him from going.

Several pages, apprentices, and military officers also stood anxiously behind them waiting for the Hoomans arrival. "What do you think of the Hoomans?" Sherene asked the other two next to her.

"Really incredible, their "tek-no-lo-gee" is amazing!" Joesph praised, pointing to the approaching vehicles. "If we had those or even their weapons, we could have saved so much more of our people!"

"Yes, yes. I am really excited to see more of their amazing "tek-no-lo-gee," Thorn agrees. "I don't sense any form of magic from the hoomans nor from their machines, I wonder how do they get these amazing things to work."

The approaching vehicles stopped neatly in a line in front of the elven party, the rear doors opening and a young smart looking hooman, wearing a body fitting light gray coat and pants, festooned with bits of colorful metal above his chest pocket hops down, and saluted.

"I welcome you to come me to the city." He speaks in a barely understandable common tongue and held out his hand towards Sherene.

Sherene found her lips curling up in a smile as she gently covers her mouth with her hands and gave a small laugh."I thank you." She replies in Eng-ish, before accepting his hand and climbing into the rear of the carriage.

As she enters the carriage, she found her self in a very spacious interior lit by soft warm lights, a soft lush carpeted floor, and she does not even have to lower her head to walk inside. Surprised by the number of seats inside, two rows of seating were arranged by the sides next to clear glass windows, which she did not notice from the outside. Glass that clear! How rich are they to put glass in a carriage?

The hooman gestures her to the end of the carriage where seats were arranged to face each other.

She took the seat on the right, feeling the wondrous soft and comfortable seat conforming to her body. She rubs the texture of the seat, feeling the soft and rich fiber and examines the interior of the cabin, trying to understand what and how is it made. She turns to see the rest of party piling in and looking around acting like country pumpkins.

Joesph and Thorn sat down on the opposite seats facing Sherene. Joesph tried to hide his astonishment to the comforts of the seat and the luxurious interior while Thorn happily bounced up and down the seat like a child before settling down with a satisfied smile on his face.

"Ahh, this seat feels better than my feather goose bed back at the Capital. Mind you, I paid quite the lump sum of gold for that. Think I can persuade them to let me have this?" He gave the seat a few more bounces before finding the best position to sit.

Once the rest of the contingent has settled down on their seats, the hooman closed the door at the rear and walks over and sat down next to her, and spoke into a device set on his arm. Almost immediately, a slight quiver could be felt and she found the vehicle moving.

She glances out of the crystal clear window, watching the scenery fly pass them, seemingly faster than dragon wagon or even a carrier wyvern! The expected humps and bumps did not appear nor even the usual creaks and groans of wagons and carriages, even as she watches the vehicle moving up and down the uneven ground, the ride was the smoothest and quietest she ever had.

She turns to find both Joesph and Thorn with their heads glued to the windows, in fact, the whole party has their faces at the windows, watching the scenery fly past. She sees the hooman sitting next to her giving her a smile, "How ride feels good yes?"

She bites back the urge to laugh out, and instead politely smiles and nods. "Very good." Before turning to watch the flowing scenery, her mind racing.

Her smile slowly changes to a frown as she worriedly thought to herself, what can we offer these hoomans, they have such powerful tools and magic, what cards do I have to bring to the negotiation table which can benefit my people!

39 - Castle of Iron

Blake looks in the mirror, adjusting the loose collar of his dress whites. Since crash landing here for more than two months now, he lost quite some weight. Despite his gaunt looking face, he never felt much better or healthier, except maybe doing basic training.

He pulls his peak cap over his freshly cropped hair and steps out of his cabin. Ford stood outside waiting also wearing his dress whites with rows of ribbons displaying his services, "Damn, I think I need to get this to the tailor again. It feels kinda baggy."

Ford took a glance once over at Blake and smiles. "Sir, you look dashing. It suits you perfectly!"

Blake shook his head, and head towards the flight deck to await the arrival of the Elves. "Well, I think we know what we should and shouldn't say to them later at the meeting." Blake gave a quick reminder to Ford. "But I still don't under why waste the resources to make that VIP car."

"Well, it is like shock tactics," Ford explains patiently. "Shock and awe them, from our investigations regarding the Elves, they are way technologically backward compared to us."

"I know, but we need a workforce capable of providing food for us," Blake said, as they enter the elevator. "We need all hands on deck to just maintain our tech!"

"That's why we can't let them know our weakness," Ford said. "We can offer protection and knowledge to them in exchange for food and raw materials."

"Make our men bleed for them?" Blake frowned, as the doors of the elevator open and they walk out. "I am preferring to letting them learn to defend themselves. I hope to be able to leave this planet someday and return home."

The flight deck was decorated with white and blue banners and most of the crew have turned out in their best dress uniforms stood at attention waiting for the elven guests to arrive.

"Captain on the deck!" A marine yelled as Blake and Ford step into the flight deck. The crews visibly straighten up and Blake saluted the officers before telling them to be at ease.

He stood at the center of the parade, with Ford at his side and looks out of the gaping bay doors, which overlooks the sprawling base colony.

Almost a month passed since the wolves raids, the perimeter walls had just finished construction, several small apartments formed the residential area of the crews next to large plots of farmland, which grows several Terran crops and the local carr-ato variety. Several larger buildings in the center form the administrative and work offices, while dozens of warehouses and factories were built next to the ship.

Hope we can work out something beneficial to us with the elves. Blake thoughts as he eyes the approaching convoy in the distance.

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Watching the walls of the city approaching from the window of the carriage, everyone slowly realizes the scale of the walls as the vehicle stopped at the gates. Sherene tilts her head as high as trying to gauge the height of the massive walls.

The huge red iron gate, refurbished from the cargo bay doors, grinds open and the tiny vehicles drive through. Sherene stares at the orderly streets, and the oddly shaped buildings, there does not appear to be many structures around as she only manages to count less than 20.

She looks in amazement as the carriage heads towards a massive structure that appears to be built into the side of the hill. A ramp lays down on the side of the structure and huge entrance lays beyond that. As the vehicle climbs the ramp, she found herself stumped. The walls of the structure don't look like stone, rather some kind of material she is not sure of.

Frank, the hooman escort gestures her to exit as the doors at the rear opening. She stood at the exit of the carriage staring down onto a red carpet set on the floor that is so long, she couldn't imagine how much work is required to sew them. Standing at attention on both sides of the red carpet were neatly formed squares of hoomans in similar grey uniforms.

She notices among the hoomans wearing the same colored uniforms were also females mixed inside, does that means their females fight too?

The huge cavern-like interior simply boggles her mind, how did they build the ceilings so high with even having pillars to support! Magic? As she steps down onto the carpet, a band of some sorts started playing some kind of foreign music, but she couldn't see anyone playing.

Standing in the middle of the carpet, were two hooman males, both wearing white and a matching white hat with colorful bits of decorations on their chest. As she strolls up towards the two hoomans with her entourage trying not to gape at everything, two rows of hooman soldiers suddenly snap into attention and slap their thundersticks, raising them vertically.

Everyone in their party panic, startled by the display. Sherene forced herself to remain calm and tried not to show any reaction. They must be testing us if we show any fear, they will surely treat us with less respect! Other than Sherene, only Joesph remains undisturbed, raising only an eyebrow as he walks behind the princess.

"Welcome to Base Colony," Blake bows with his left hand over his chest, displaying his knowledge of elven greetings, that they have observed. "My name is Richard Blake, Captain of the UNS Singapore." He spoke almost near perfect Common Tongue mixed with some English words that couldn't be translated.

"And this is my second in commander, Commander Kevin Ford." A tall thin cold looking man with jet black hair bows in the same manner to Sherene and her party.

"Our honor to here," Sherene replies in Eng-ish and gives her best, charming smile to the grey-haired, blue-eyed gaunt looking hooman in front of her while doing a curtsy of sorts.

She then introduced her party to the hoomans in return, from Joesph to Thorn before the rest of the entourage.

Blake laughs listening to her hardworking attempts at speaking English, and said, "Speak your tongue, I believe it will be easier for you." Since all of them wear a translator earpiece, they could understand the elves.

"Thank you, my Lord," Sherene smiles and sigh in relief in the same time, learning a new language in less than two days is already very taxing to her when there are so many things to do!

"Come, refreshments have been prepared," Blake gestures and direct them towards the interior of the ship.

Sherene felt her footsteps sound strange as they walked into a hallway, she experimentally raps her knuckles against the seamless looking walls, and it rang with a metallic clank. The gods! It's all iron! She turns and saw the hooman watching her with a curious look. She quickly gave a cough and smiles, "Oh, I was just wondering about something."

The hooman Ford smiles in a way that made Sherene think of all the merchants she has met before. "Yes, as you imagined, it's is made out of iron. Steel to be more exact."

The rest of her party hearing this burst out in loud amazed whispers. "Iron? Steel? All of it!"

"Come, I am sure everyone is tired from the journey, it is better to talk while seated with some food and drinks first." Blake gave a side glance at Ford, knowing what he is trying to do.

Tired? Sherene thought inwardly, that trip in the carriage was one of the most comfortable she ever had in her life! It took less than five turns of a glass! He must be joking!

Ford just smiles in return and the party continues they way down the halls and finally into the ship's ballroom. "We will be happy to give you a tour around later."

Magister Thorn hearing that they will be given a tour around, nearly burst from excitement, he asks, "Can we see where you make your wagons? What kinds of magic you use?"

The translator couldn't translate the word "magic", so Blake and Ford was not too sure what is the professor looking elf was trying to say, but Blake politely replied, "The wagons? You mean the cars? Yes of course."

Sherene and Joesph look at each other in surprise, stunned at the thought that they could see what secrets are behind the wagons! Are the hooman serious?

Ford watch their faces, caught the looks passed between the elves and smiles wickedly, rubbing his hands. Oh, how much good stuff can we squeeze out of them!

They entered a luxuriously furnished room, the hooman aesthetic very different from her Kingdom. They appear to decorate with bright colors, like white and red. The walls were lined with a kind of redwood, thickly carpeted flooring, large soft looking armchairs set at a semi-circle with tiny tables on the side.

At the rear of the room, as large as a dance hall in her castle, held several tables with plates and dishes, draped with white cloth. She found the whole room, strangely bright, lit by some sort of magical lamps set on the walls and ceiling.

They have not even started any talks, and she is already very impressed and intimidated by these hoomans. Their mastery of magic has already surpassed anything she every learn and knew. In her heart, she felt like a child without any knowledge of the world in front of these beings!

40 - Sugar and Spice and Everything's a Lie!

As the ballroom starts filling up with hoomans, Sherene took the opportunity to speak with Joseph and Thorn at the table. "What does everyone think of the hoomans?" she asks in a low voice.

"Very fascinating," Magister Thorn said, stroking his beard. "Their knowledge clearly is way beyond ours!" Thorn gestures at the lights in the hall. "How they make lights with magic and the temperature of the room is just right. They have very good control over the elements of magic."

"Rich and powerful," Joesph gave his observations. "Looking at the quality of their clothes, the iron castle, the tall city walls, their numbers of soldiers with thundersticks and even these." He rubs the fine tablecloth. "They must have a very strong industry and a very deep treasury. But surprisingly we do not see much buildings in the city."

"Yes, they have some very powerful magicians, I wonder if we will be able to meet them," Sherene answers back. "I do find a lack of buildings in the city strange. And the city walls, who will build that tall!" She agrees to both her advisors' observation. "The question now is, what can we offer in exchange for their help?"

"That..." Joesph stammers, "We could try marriage with their lord, the hooman Captain Blake?"

Sherene glares sternly at Joesph till he coughs uncomfortably. "Marriage is out of the question," Thorn speaks up for Sherene. "We don't even know what kind of race are they!"

"So what do we do?" Sherene frowns, "Offer our lives in exchange for protection from the Empire?"

"Isn't that the same as being a slave?" Joseph speaks harshly. "Enough of our people are slaves to the Empire already, and now to another race? What if they are like the Empire too? All these are just a trick?"

"Shhh... lower your tone! Joesph! Is that the way you speak to your princess?" Thorn rebuked Joesph, as the group attracted the attention of the hoomans around them. "We are thinking of ideas!"

"Is everything ok? Is there something you are unhappy with? We will try out best to accommodate it." Blake walks over and asks them.

Blake and Ford had earlier purposely given the elves some space to talk among themselves, giving the elves the impression of respecting their privacy, but in truth, the ship's security directional microphone picked up every word and sentence they spoke, transmitting it into their earpieces.

Blake used this outburst as an opportunity to break their momentum, he more or less has understood what their agenda is all about. Interesting, he thought.

Unaware that their hosts had eavesdropped on their conversation, Sherene smiles and said, "Yes, we are fine. There is nothing to be worried about."

"That's good. Will you like a guide to the buffet table?" Blake graciously asks offering his hand to Sherene. "Would you care to be my partner?"

"Thank you." Sherene shyly took Blake's offered hand. She then turns and gave a warning look to the two grown men, warning them to behave themselves before allowing Blake to lead her towards a row of tables laden with dishes of food and drinks.

Joseph and Thorn chastened and with nothing better to do latched themselves onto Ford and starts bombarding him with questions like, how is this castle built out of iron and steel, what is tek-no-lo-gee, how does this and that work! Much to the dismay of Ford, judging from the expression he has on his face.

----------------------------------

"What do you think of everything so far?" Blake opens up the conversation.

"Wonderful," Sherene replies sincerely, "I haven't thank you for the help you sent to my people." She gave a bow, "Thank you for saving my people." She said formally to Blake.

"It is our duty," Blake said, waving off her thanks. "We just couldn't sit and watch people dying."

"Why is it your duty?" She asked, curiously to why this hooman Blake will send help to save her people.

"My people grew up learning and being taught that the strong should protect the weak," Blake explains. "Right or wrong, justice, and morals are to be upheld with honor and integrity."

"I think I understand." Sherene nods her pretty little head. Some of the words were in Eng-ish, but she understands the gist of it mostly. Like the old fairy tales of knights and chivalry, told by her mother and nursemaid when she was a little girl as bedtime stories.

"I have been waiting to ask this." Sherene points to the rows of colorful decorations on Blake's uniform. "What are these for? I saw it on almost everyone's clothes, some many, while others just one or two."

"Oh? These?" Blake peers downwards at his uniform. "They are medals." He spoke the word medal in English, as his real-time translator do not have an equivalent word. "Rewards for merit or combat." He gave a simplified explanation after seeing Sherene's blank look.

"Oh, medals!" Sherene understood after the explanation. Blake's translator picked up the new word and automatically updated the cloud server. "Than you must be a great soldier for you have many medals." She gave a charming smile to Blake.

"Amen... Eh... not really," Blake looks away, embarrassed from the million voltage smile. Her beauty overwhelming his senses. He felt light-headed, his heart suddenly beating rapidly and strangely attracted to her, with the urge to hug and protect her from all things.

"You call us as Elves?" Sherene asks, "Why?"

"Well, due to a very old story text that we have, there were descriptions of a race, that looks very similar to you and your people." Blake explains, "Especially the long ears." He stares at Sherene intently, observing every feature of her face.

"Where are you people from?" Sherene continues to question Blake.

"From Earth..." Blake speaks softly, but not soft enough for Sherene as her ears perked up.

"Ea-th?" Sherene tilts her head in confusion, exposing her fine neckline to Blake's stare, seemingly oblivious to his stare. "What is that?"

"Our home planet, from the stars... many light years beyond this planet..." Blake answers faithfully, using Eng-ish words that Sherrene could barely understand.

"Are you alright?" Sherene finally noticing Blake's face turning slightly red, leans closer to his face. She was close enough for him to smell a sweet womanly fragrance from her. He feels his loins stirring and starts to feel harder to breathe.

"Captain Blake!" A voice jolts him awake. Blake blinks his eyes in confusion and took a small step back, keeping a short distance away from Sherene. "Hello, are you going to introduce us?"

Dr. Sharon and Chief Matt stood smiling behind Blake and Sherene, with glasses of champagne in their hands, calls out to Blake.

"Oh.." Blake took a deep breath, recovering his composure. "This is Princess Sherene Goldrose of the Goldrose Kingdom." He pauses to calm his racing heart and gestures. "This is the good Doctor Sharon and our chief engineering officer, Matt Petterson."

Sherene gave a small curtsy to both the hoomans while they gave a bow in return after the introductions were done.

Sharon hooked her arm under Sherene's and drags her off to try out the food, "I'll be borrowing the Princess! You boys go do what boys normally do."

"Captain, are you ok? You face looks very red." Chief Matt hands a glass of water over to Blake as he sat down on a nearby chair.

"Something is wrong, I am not sure what." Blake checks his personal bio reading on his wristwatch. An evaluated heart rate of 134, blood pressure slightly higher than normal, body temperature up by 1 degrees Celcius, no signs of poison detected.

Blake frowns slightly, what had gotten into me? He glances up to find the princess and Sharon, happily stacking their plates with food. He admits that the elf princess is very cute and pretty, but to get lovestruck like a boy? Strange.

"Maybe it's the weather and all these." Matt gestures around the hall. "Drink some water, and let Dr. Sharon give you a once over later."

"I think so too, I'll drink more water," Blake assures Matt while trying to figure out what happened.

---------------------

"Try this! And that!" Sharon directs Sherene to the different kinds of pastries and finger food prepared specially for this event. "Oh, you will love this!"

Since young, with her education and upbringing as a princess of a kingdom, Sherene had tried and experienced all kinds of exotic and fine cooking. But this food, which she tasted, is out of the ordinary!

The sweetness and savory flavors! The perfect blend of spices and seasoning! She temporarily forgot her manners and wolfed down each dish that Sharon recommended to her.

The amount of sugar and spices used, the cost of this banquet could bankrupt a small town! Sherene was once again amazed by the spending power these hoomans have and the chef with the skills to cook such dishes! He will be in great demand by all the nobles in the whole of the known world!

The drinks which Sharon poured for her, were called fruit punch tastes deliciously sweet and tart while the bubbly champagne wine was nothing like she had ever tried before, And finally the dessert, cakes and tiny pies of fruits and cream topped with a dark brown sauce. Most of all, she fell in love with that wonderful bittersweet taste.

Cho-co-late!

41 - Kingdom of Goldrose

Finally, after the food and drinks, those involved with the discussion retired to the meeting room. The elven princess sat at one side of the rectangular of the table, flanked by her general and magister, while the humans Blake and Ford sat on the other side facing them. The rest of the people involved sat behind their respective leaders.

The princess notices the decoration of the room is very similar to the ballroom, with wooden paneled walls, carpeted flooring and magical lights hidden cleverly into the ceilings. A blue flag and a red white flag with an unfamiliar crest design stood on the sides of a huge black rectangular object set onto the wall.

She stood up and said, "I want to thank the hoomans again for coming to our aid during our time of great peril and saving our people. Thank you." She bows, and the rest of her contingent followed suit.

Ford gives a small cough and gestures Sherene to sit down. "Now with that done, we will like to get down to serious business." Ford cut straight to the topic. "What happened? We will like to know what is going on beyond the mountains. And what will your plans be next?"

Sherene glances to Thorn, who gave a slight nod. She sat rod ram straight on the chair and started narrating the events that lead them here.

The Kingdom of Goldrose was a peaceful country consisting of six cities, dozens of towns and farming villages, with a population of roughly 240,000 people living in it. It shares its borders with the Empire of Bluewood.

11 years ago, the Emperor of Bluewood, passed away from illness, and a civil war erupted between the princes which other countries sought to intervene, eyeing the Empire's territory. But the youngest prince managed to unite the whole Empire within a year time and defeated the foreign forces sent to disrupt their empire.

In a short period of four years, the new Emperor, Varacen Bluewood, conquered those countries that attacked them when they were in the civil war, enlarging the Empire. As the Kingdom of Goldrose reminded neutral despite the urging of its ministers to attack the Empire when it was in civil war.

At the same time, Emperor Varacen decreed that all non-people of the Bluewood Empire are lesser beings and that only the green-eyed people of Bluewood are the master race. All lesser people and sub-races were purged and forced into slavery.

Fearing the Empire, the rest of the kingdoms started to fortify their borders including the Kingdom of Goldrose. The Empire sent out goodwill ambassadors to the Kingdom to discuss peace and alliances, and under the urgings of the ministers, the King opened the gates for the ambassadors.

Unknown to the King and majority of the council, several of the ministers were bribed beforehand by the Empire spies, and on that fateful day, they slipped weapons into the castle and assassinated everyone in the council meeting.

With the King dead, the Kingdom was thrown into confusion, and the Empire invaded. Using slaves warriors and sub-races, they swept through the Kingdom forces using human wave tactics, overwhelming the defenses of the Kingdom.

With both her brothers dead from trying to defend the Kingdom, she rejected the Empire calls of surrender, who Emperor Varacen branded them as rebels and instead lead her people and retreated towards the sea, passing through a large stretch of dense forested land, known as the Uncharted Forest before reaching the Sawtooth Mountains and meeting the hoomans.

"That is quite the story there," Blake said after she finished. "So what are your plans now?"

"We will like to settle down here." Sherene looks at the hoomans. "And if possible an alliance too."

Blake glances at the Ford, who nods before saying, "An alliance is possible but with some terms."

"What terms?" Sherene asked, raising eyebrows.

"We will teach you some of our technology and protect you as allies, but we will not help you wage war," Blake listed out the terms. "We will not help you take back your Kingdom, but if you live within our walls, we will protect your people with everything we have."

"And if we live in your city," Sherene's heart rate beats faster as she got excited with the proposal, "We have to live by your rule?"

"Yes, your people have to follow our rules, and our technology must not be shared with others unless they are part of the alliance," Blake states firmly.

So we must bend our knees to him asking, thought Sherene. Blake had totally misunderstood what Sherene meant by rule.

"If we do not agree to your terms?" Magister Thorn spoke up.

"Than there will be no alliance." Blake flatly states. "You can settle down at any part you wish too, but not within one kilometer or 2000 paces of your measurement of Base Colony."

"How about the defenses at the Sawtooth Pass?" Lord General Joesph joined in the discussion.

"We will pull our men out," Blake said. "Our walls are more than enough to stop any enemy from attacking." He gave a bluff, "We will only help members of the alliance."

"If we break your laws?" Sherene asked, "What happens?"

"Depending on the severity of the laws broken," Blake answered, "We have a set of laws in place, that both my people and yours will have to follow. Anyone breaking the law will be punished according to the crime committed."

Blake then added a hook, "We also strongly do not support slavery in our society. If you agree to our terms, we will work out a system for both our people working together. You will still rule your people but you have to learn our ways of life, just as we have to learn yours."

Does he want me as his queen? Sherene eye widens.

The elven party sat back in their chairs and look at each other as they digested the information.

Blake than stood up, followed by everyone else in the room. "Think about it, we discuss it again tomorrow. For now, why don't we show you to your rooms, and later a tour around?"

"Thank you." Sherene nods miserably and suddenly noticed something strange with the hoomans expression. They all started looking their armbands and seems worried about something.

Blake lifts his buzzing communicator up and seeing the priority alert message flashing. Other crew members were all checking their devices as they too release the same message.

Ford mouthed silently, to Blake. An attack.

Blake frowns at the news. Should we bring them to the Bridge? Hell, why not, we did plan to show them as part of the tour later. At least this time we can awe them with our power. He thought.

"Alright, action stations people." Blake turns to the rest. "Ford, head up first. I will bring our guest along shortly, find out what is happening."

"Aye Captain," A chorus of acknowledgments replied Blake.

"Now, " Blake turns towards elves, "There is a slight situation happening now, and I will like to show you something. Please follow me." He gestures towards the door, where all the crew members had already left the room.

Exiting the meeting room, a strange voice was echoing up and down the halls, Sherene could barely understand the words, her party other than Joesph who remained expressionless, while Thorn looks around excitedly, the rest were almost panicking.

The hooman Blake gestures them to follow him and he sets off at a quick pace. Sherene wondered what is happening when they appear out of side hallway and into the main hallway. Dozens of the hoomans were rushing purposely along the way, and soon the hallway was empty except for them and their escorts.

Blake stood before the elevator and held the doors open while for half the elves to enter, while the other group enters the 2nd elevator. They seem slightly alarmed and confused as to they are they standing in an enclosed box. "Don't worry, this is a transportation device, that carries people up or down."

The looks of surprise and amazement on their faces is enough to amuse Blake. Upon reaching the correct level, the doors opened up and the elves pile out of the elevator in relief.

"Captain on Deck!" The Marine guard posted in the bridge yells out as Blake steps in. The bridge crew stood at attention till Blake dismisses them.

Magister Thorn had seen many wondrous and magical events in his life, but when he entered this room, he was dumbfounded. Crystals like mirrors reflecting some magical images and flowing magical runes of light glittered from the walls constantly. What sorcery is this!

As Sherene entered the room, they climbed a small flight of stairs before a huge panorama view appeared. Instead of walls, huge windows showed the scenery outside the castle. Two rows of tables were arranged one below each other had a thin crystal like panel, with glowing runes where the hoomans sat tapping the tiny runes rapidly.

A flat glowing table and a large chair sit in the middle of all the rest. She lookups the ceiling, seeing another one of those crystal-like glass set at an angle facing down, glowing with hundreds of fast scrolling runes. The room was dimly lighted, most of the light coming from the runes and the massives windows.

"Captain, UAV station at the Pass has picked up something new," Ford reports before activating the main display screen.

"We got incoming dragons."

42 - Dragonslayer

The General Atomics MQ-242 "Owleye" reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle is a small four by three meter angular shaped drone, powered by five 400 kW electronic turboprops, over 28 hours of operational time due to the solar coating panel which allows it to recharge it batteries in the day and has an operational ceiling height of 15,000m, yet it couldn't fly over the mountainous ridges as the Sawtooth mountain towering over 16,000m above sea level.

It could only enter by the naturally hidden pass, controlled by either its AI chip or a human operator. The UNS Singapore only carried four in its inventory and they were husbanded very carefully in its usage, once it is lost, there are no replacements till the crew has the technology or means to build a new one.

This particular Owleye has been assigned to the cover the Pass region, suddenly detects two large radar and infrared signature returns. Its brain chip immediately turns the UAV heading towards the contacts and fires an encrypted electronic signal to Base.

------------------------

The main display screen flickers over to the UAV video feed, displaying a bird's eye view over the mountain ridges.

Gasps of astonishment came from the elves, as they stared wide-eyed at the clear image. "What magical device is that!" Magister Thorn shakes uncontrollably with excitement as he walks up as close as he could towards the screen, standing behind the divider. "Amazing! Simply amazing!"

2 large winged creatures could be seen flapping their wings lazily, heading directly to the pass with several figures riding and holding onto the back of the dragon-like creatures.

Lord General Joesph marveled at the moving images, wondering if that's how the hoomans always able to spot the Empire soldiers. With such powerful magical tools and weapons, the hoomans could even take over the whole world!

Blake points at the screen asked in the Elves' Common Tongue. "What are those?" They won't so surprised to see something like that as they have already spotted similar creatures, albeit smaller, flying around the mountainous region.

"It's the Empire's dragon knights!" Joesph exclaims as he watches the video. "The trappings and banners on the dragons belong to the Empire."

Blake and Ford watching the image of the two massive looking lizards with wings, rigged with some kind of harnesses with Empire soldiers in their trademark bluecoats under a grey cuirass. "Zoom in more to that, and enlarge." Blake points.

The image enlarged and a couple of crossbows mounted on the top shoulder rigging, just in front of the wings could be seen along with several bulging saddlebags secured against the belly harness.

"It's like a flying bomber," Ford said, "Like those old world war two bombers with gunners."

"They clearly intended to attack the Pass!" Joesph warns. "They can drop some ***** that causes a fire that is very hard to put out! That's how they destroyed the city walls! It also carries soldiers who then drop behind the lines, and all those soldiers are Knights!"

"I think he meant bombs?" Blake looks at Ford who nods. "So they carry a kind of firebombs, possibly napalm in nature."

"What is a Knight?" Ford raised the question to the Elves. He wonders if it is the same meaning as he thought of medieval knights in full plate armor.

"A Knight is a veteran soldier who survived more than a 100 battles!" Joesph explains. "Not only that, they must also be weapon masters. Just one of them is almost as strong as a hundred common soldiers!"

"Don't worry," Blake assures the Elves as they watched on nervously, he raised his left eyebrows as he listened to Joesph explanation, a single soldier as strong as a hundred men? Serious? before switching to English. "Do we have target locks?"

"Aye Captain!" Weapons replied. "Ready to fire on your command!"

Blake nods. "Fire away."

The weapons officer jab the firing key and the almost instantly a pair of smoke plumes could be seen bursting out from the aft missile launchers. The two missiles raced each other towards their locked on target.

The heads of the Elves twisted sharply to the side window as they stare in confusion at the streaks of white smoke rising rapidly into the sky.

"Bring up the missiles view on to the main display." Blake orders, clasping his hands behind his back.

Two sub screens popped up, inciting more cries of amazement and surprise from the Elves.

"You enjoy doing that to them don't you," Ford said dryly.

"Haha," Blake winks at Ford, who rolled his eyes.

--------------------------

The AIM-32H Space Sparrows missiles used by the United Nations of Man, manufactured on Earth by the Ford Aerospace Industries were created as a multiple role strike system, allowing it to be used in any situation and environment, be it in point defense mode, anti-ship or submarine mode or as a cruise missile.

Having a multi-role weapon helps cuts down the logistics of supplying a naval force with a single weapon system instead of having multiple weapons.

It screams out of its launch tubes, exiting at a speed of over 100m/s. The missiles' smart brain chip digested the targeted lock information given by the combat information center within a microsecond, adjusted its flight path in midair, it then ignites its second stage booster, flinging itself towards the target.

In seconds, the missiles' speed reached Mach 3, its electronic brain picking up the infrared signature of the dragon it has target lock on, its homing radar system picking the radar returns from the dragon allowing it to be even more accurate, slams itself into the center of mass of the flying reptile, before the brain chip happily denotates its 15kg warhead of Composite-9 blast frag explosives.

-------------------------

The missile views cut off sharply as the last view showed a surprised face of an Empire soldier staring directly at the camera before the signal lost error appeared on the screen.

On the overhead view, two dense clouds of black smoke appeared and burning trails of debris rained down, followed by the dying dragons, dropping down over the mountainside, creating a large dust cloud as they impacted the ground.

"Scratch two dragons!" Weapons called out.

Cheers erupted from the humans, while the Elves blinked their eyes in panicked confusion. Two dragons dead just like that? Is it real? Or just a performance, they wondered.

Joesph broke out in cold sweat as he looks at the screen. A Knight is ranked as Class 4, a flying heavy class dragon as Class 8. A heavy class dragon carries a squad of four Knights and its dragon crew, a power more than enough to crash any fortress it attacks.

A force strong enough to deter most Kingdoms, even Goldrose doesn't even have a heavy dragon in its ranks. All wiped out in less than a turn of the glass.

He felt a shiver down his spine and glances at the hoomans cheering and the smile on the hooman Blake.

He might not understand or know hooman facial expressions yet, but that professional look of a job well done, he thought, to the hoomans, this is just like a normal day's work.

Sherene watched the whole scene like she was in a trance, if her brain was a computer, it will be overheating from the amount of information to process. The hoomans are too alien in her mind, yet they weld powers capable to destroy this world! Are they demons or angels?

Watching this performance, there is no doubt in Sherene's mind that the hoomans can uphold their end of the bargain to protect her people. Should she submit herself and her people to the hooman Blake's rule? Be his queen? What will the future hold?

----------------------------

"Dragons? Where! WHERE?" Mills practically screamed the last word out. He hops up from the sandbagged barricade and ran over to the crowded military tent set up at the rear of the Pass.

Inside the open tent, several communication devices and computers were stacked on top of each other and the operator in charge was speaking with Base. A display screen showed a patrolling UAV feed from covering the mountain pass.

As the UAV operator zoomed in the images, two winged lizard-like creatures with soldiers in Empire colors could be seen. The stationed human troops, including the Goldrose soldiers, who had gotten used to the seeing the wondrous magical tek-no-lo-gees of the hoomans, started exclaiming in surprise and fear.

"I thought you have seen a dragon before?" Bartley appeared behind Mills suddenly.

"FUCK!" Mills dramatically held his hands over his chest. "You scared the shit outta me!"

"Do you want to change your pants?" Bartley dead toned back at Mills, who rolls his eyes.

"It's a real fucking dragon! Not those pipsqueaks, wannabe lizards with tiny wings." Mills retorted back.

"Alright! You whores!" SSGT Pike's voice suddenly roars out from behind everyone. "Get to your stations or I swear to God I fucking cut your balls off and turn you into a sweet bitchy virgin and feed you to the dragons! Skewered of course, with this fucking amazing Goldrose spear like A FUCKING KEBAB UP YOUR ASSES!"

Everyone dispersed in record time including the Goldrose soldiers who could understand the gist of the tone if not the language.

"Alright, now... I officially just shit my pants..."

43 - Are you...?

Duke Sturm hammered both his fist on the wooden table top, scattering the map pieces onto the floor.

What in the thirteen hell is going on! Are two heavy fighting dragons gone?

The scout delivering the news, trembled as he kneels in front of Sturm and his lieutenants.

Sturm drew his sword and hack downwards, cutting halfway down the unfortunate scout's shoulder causing a fountain of blood to spray out.

He left his stuck sword in the body and slumps down onto his seat. His temper temporary sated, asked his men, "Do they have a powerful mage supporting them?"

"That is quite unlikely, I dealt a mortal wound to their magister. I highly doubt he has any power left to cast two level 10 spells to kill the dragons?" A voice rasped out from a fully enclosed set of metal armor.

"Lord Kean, are you sure those are level 10 spells?" Sturm asked. "Those rebels shouldn't have so much strength, won't they be using it when their cities were under attack."

"I do not know where or how the rebels have gotten such spells." The being inside the armor spoke. "But the power to instantly kill a heavy dragon requires at least a level 10!"

Sturm leans back against his seat, complementing Kean's reply. "Than all the more need to caught the rebels and force them to give up the level 10 spell."

"But my Lord," One of braver lieutenant voice out, "The path leading to the Pass, is totally blockaded by the rebels."

"And?" Sturm's green eyes glinted dangerously.

"Er... I… we should use other ways to attack, instead of rushing in headlong." The lieutenant trembled as he replied.

The officer looked left and right for help, but rest avoided his eye. He sighed and quickly came up with an idea, hoping he won't turn into another cooling pile of meat on the floor.

-------------------

After that display of spell power, the hoomans brought everyone to visit the Iron Castle.

Thorn and Joseph were practically excited, pointing and asking questions about the hoomans tek-no-lo-gees but were unable to understand anything.

Thorn kept asking about the spells that destroyed the dragons, but when shown the device, he couldn't detect a single trace of magical power, leading him to wonder if the hoomans had tricked him.

Afterward, they went around the city, showing the farms, strange blocky looking buildings with seamless looking walls and a short walk along the great wall.

The Base Colony was arranged in a grid-like design, with roads branching out to other places like the farms, factories, and the ship.

The design of the walls was very special, built in a star shape with another star overlapped the insides of the outer wall, like a compass rose.

As Sherene stood looking over the parapet, she felt very conflicted. The city itself felt very alien, with perfectly paved straight streets and perfect looking structures.

And the emptiness. There was barely anyone at all, she doesn't even see any children nor elderly. Could they be all inside the Iron Castle?

Something seems wrong, the hoomans are keeping back some things.

"Why are there no children?" She plucks up her courage and asked the hooman Blake.

Blake surprised by her question hesitates awhile before simply saying, "There are none."

--------------

Later that night after the dinner with the hoomans officers. Sherene laid on the incredibly soft mattress and comfortable pillows. What did he mean by that?

She was troubled by his words. Could be they are impotent? Or is that why he wants her people so the hoomans could mate with them?

She turns red at that thought. How do I make use of this? Should I use it as a bargaining chip for my people?

Flopping herself hard on the bed, she buried her warm face into the soft pillows and tried to fall asleep.

Yet she couldn't fall asleep no matter how she tosses and turns. Finally, she got up, still dressed in her simple yet elegant silk shift, and tiptoed to the door.

She opened the door by pressing the green rune set on the wall as she was taught and the door splits into two, one half sliding upwards while the other half slide downwards.

At the start, when the door opened, she nearly shrieks in fear, as the maw like doors opened in front of her. She thought that the hoomans finally has shown their true colors and were offering her to some demons.

Looking at the amused expressions on the hoomans especially that Blake, she felt deeply embarrassed.

She peeked left and right out of the doorway, finding no one around, not even guards and set off to find Blake.

-----------------

"XO! We got movement along the VIP corridor!" The night watch officer reports. "Putting up on visual."

The screen shows a bared footed female elf in a white spaghetti strap dress walking cautiously down the hatchway.

"Well well well… What do we have here?" Ford rubs his chin and grins evilly. "Seems like our little chick has flown the coop!"

The rest of the night watch crew in the bridge lowers their heads, choking back laughter at the way the XO is behaving. "Where's the Captain?" He asks.

"Cap, just left the Med bay, five minutes ago, heading back to his bunk." Someone replied.

"Goodie, we are so gonna have some fun!" Ford gave a laugh, rubbing his hands in glee. "Use the way finders for our lost princess to find our Captain."

"Aye aye XO!" The bridge crew gleefully chorused back.

-----------------------------

Blake left the Med Bay, feeling comprehensive, after a full medical checkup by Dr. Sharon. Base results have shown his body reacting to an unknown chemical and he also had a tiny spike in his radiation readings.

Dr. Sharon hypothesized that he might be affected by a spell, thus leading to a spike in his rads reading, increased heart rate, adrenaline, and blood pressure. "You probably got Charmed and failed your willpower save."

"What? What willpower save?" Blake confused asked.

Dr. Sharon grabs Blake's tablet and after a moment of rapidly tapping of keys, shoves it back to Blake. "Here go read these when you are free." Before shooing Blake out of her office.

Blake scratches his head as he walks back towards his bunk. He opens up the files that Dr. Sharon sent him, and several e-books with titles like Dungeon and Dragons Forever and Forgotten Realms appeared. Wow, he didn't know that Dr. Sharon was such a geek. Oh, well I just read them before I go to bed.

------------------------------

Sherene wandered aimlessly around the hallways, trying to remember the way back to the bridge when she noticed something blinking at the side of the walls. She peers closely and noticed several glowing runes appeared, that looks like an arrow.

She stares at the flashing arrow rune, with suspicion, and wonders should she follow it. As she was about to make up her mind, the flashing arrow disappears and reappears further down the hall. "Wait!" She cried and ran after the arrow.

----------------------------

Ford facepalmed as he watches the silly princess chasing after the way finder. Are they that stupid? Well whatever, as long as it is working.

---------------------------

Blake enters his room and removed his uniform and boots, laying down on his bed before flipping open his tablet and starts reading Dungeon and Dragons Forever. It appears to be some kind of fantasy setting in medieval times with magic, there were some illustrations besides descriptions of monsters and beast.

No wonder the good Doctor called those two green skins captives we got from the ruins in the holding cells as goblins. The description and drawings in this book are quite realistically similar! Blake enthralled, kept swiping the pages one after another.

--------------------------

The blinking arrow stops next to a door, and the door silents split open, revealing a dark interior. Sherene gulps nervously, thinking of all the childhood stories of demons of the 13 hells. She steps into the door and the door silently slid shut behind her.

-------------------------

"Hehehehe..." Ford smirks evilly. "Good work people. Now just pretend nothing has ever happened tonight..."

--------------------------

Sherene suddenly feels a chill running down her spine. She shivers and hugs herself close, before walking deeper into the room, where a tiny glow shone from around the corner.

She peeks around the wall to see Blake half-naked laying on the bed with his eyes glued to that magical device, he appears to be engrossed in reading something.

She shyly shuffles quietly with her bare feet closer to Blake. In the dim light, she could make out his body features, which appeared to be similar if not the same as her race, as she used to watch her brothers and father train half naked in the training yard.

Her eyes end at Blake's left leg, his upper thighs ended in a stub, connected to a dull gray skeletal prosthetic leg frame. Which Blake currently is using his skeletal leg to scratch an itch on his right leg.

"Ohh..." Sherene gasps out in surprise at seeing his prosthetic leg. "What is that?"

"WAA?" Blake jumps up in fright, grabbing his service Glock 88 from under his pillow and nearly squeezing off a shot at the whitish figure hiding behind the bulkhead.

"Princess Sherene?" Blake yells, "What are you doing here? Wait, how did you enter my room? I nearly shot you!" He places his pistol on safe.

"Th-the spirits led me here..." she whispered timidly, suddenly realizing that she is alone in a room with a half-naked male.

"What? Spirits?!"

44 - A moment of Peace

"So what are you doing in here? Blake pops the translator earpiece into his ear before grabbing his shirt. "How did you get in?"

Sherene turns away from Blake as he dresses, "I-I followed the spirits here. They lead me here…"

Spirits? What is she talking about? Wait… "Do you those green blinking arrows?" Blake's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Ho-how did you know?" Sherene spins around surprised.

Blake groaned. Oh, those assholes in the bridge. Somebody is gonna get hurt real bad!

"Nevermind how I know. What are you doing here?" Asked Blake as he plots his revenge against the night crew.

"I-I have something to ask you." She shyly peeks around the corner.

"Alright, come on in." Blake had dressed up properly, in a shirt and shorts and went to turn on the lights. He enters the tiny bar counter and poured himself a drink.

"Can you drink alcohol?" Blake asks Sherene who shyly tiptoed into the room. She looks around and finds his windowless room very similar in layout to her given room.

A simple bed on one side of the wall, a bolted on desk and chairs on the other side. A door that leads to the wash area. Except for the inclusion of the bar counter, everything is almost exactly the same.

Blake gestures her to a chair and she sat down like a cat ready to jump away in a moment's instant.

Blake chuckles seeing how nervous she looked and hands her a glass of tequila with a splash of artificial lime juice.

"Here, it is a little strong. Something to warm you up." He puts a shot glass in front of Sherene.

She looks at the tiny vial crystal-like cup in wonder. How much must these crystal cups cost! Sniffing the clear liquid emitting a strong sweet alcohol scent. She took a mouthful and coughed hard as the liquid burn down her throat.

"Hahaha, that's not how you drink that." Blake demonstrates as he poured a shot for himself, drowning it down in one go.

Sherene was on the verge of tears, there was so much that happened today and now she just made a fool of herself, spraying and coughing the drink all over the table and on herself.

Blake hands her a towel and wiped the mess on the table with another. Seeing the elven princess looking like she was about burst into tears, Blake tenderly reaches out and pats her head, knowing what she had gone through, trying to save her people while having to put up a strong front and unable to grieve for her family.

"You did well princess. Your people are finally safe. Your family will be very proud of you." Blake comforted the elven princess patting her head and let her lean against his shoulder. "Don't worry now. You are safe now."

Sherene finally unable to hold back her tears, finally cried her heart out on Blake's shoulder

He carried her as gently as he could onto his bed and covered her up with a blanket after he wiped her tears away. The elven princess had cried herself to sleep and but there was a peaceful look on her face as her head laid on the pillows.

Damn. This princess is so much trouble. And the night watch is IN TROUBLE. Blake shook his head before turning the lights down and settled down on his work chair, flipping open his tablet to continue reading Dungeon and Dragons Forever.

-----------------------

Lyonel was hungry and scared, his thin frail body sore from the constant beating the Empire soldiers doe out, frequently and randomly to whoever that caught the blue-coated soldiers eyes.

He crouched down low, trying to hide and hopes that the bluecoats would ignore him as they walked by.

"Take this boy and that girl." A whip scored across his barely covered body. What amounts to clothes had been turned to rags in the past few weeks or days, which he totally could not remember.

He gave a gasp of pain and fear, as the whip left a red swab on his back and legs kicked him. "Get up filth!"

He dragged himself up, holding back the pain and tears and stood shiver in the cold. The weather had started to turn slightly chilly, with hints of winter approaching.

The blue-coated soldier drew a dagger out and stood before Lyonel, grinning wickedly. He closed his eyes tightly, wondering if it will take all the pain and suffering away and instead felt the ropes tied to his neck parting.

He opened his eyes and saw the noose around his neck cut away. "Get together!" Another kick sends him sprawling towards another group of half-dead prisoners.

Rubbing his sore and blistered throat, Lyonel found himself herded along with a sizeable group of people with others joining them at different times.

He noticed almost all the people chosen were mostly sickly looking or even ugly. Are the Empire soldiers marching them to be killed? He knows that the Empire chooses the best among them to be sold as slaves, while the sick and weak looking ones are left to be worked to death.

The blue coats forced marched them throughout the night and a better part of the day, before allowing them to slump down and sleep where they have fallen.

Lyonel saw many new and old faces, mostly the old and weak, and those that collapsed during the march were given a few kicks to get them moving again, if they could not move anymore, they get a few stabs of the spear and left to rot.

A bucket of cold oat porridge with bits of congealed fats floating on the oily surface was dumped in front of the group Lyonel was in, the people around him still with strength quickly crawled to the bucket and scooped handfuls of the watery porridge into their mouths.

Lyonel managed to squeeze his thin hands into the bucket, scooping out a small handful of soggy oats and unidentified fats and he quickly swallowed his meager dinner, before someone shoves him away.

That night everyone laid together to sleep, sharing body warmth against the cold night. And the next morning, the soldiers roused them up and feed them another water porridge before they set off at a grueling pace again set by the soldiers.

By the time the sun reached the peak, the distant jagged outline of a massive mountain range slowly came into view of Lyonel.

----------------

Sherene slowly woke up, opening her eyes in the dim light. She sighed comfortably, rolling in bliss to the soft bed while wrapped in the warm fluffy covers, before remembering that she was in the hooman's iron castle.

She sat up and stretched, feeling surprisingly relaxed and recharged. Her unique pink gold hair spills down her shoulders like a waterfall, framing her stretching figure perfectly. And then she spotted Blake dozing off on the chair behind the table.

"WA-waa-what are you doing in my room!" Sherene yelled in surprise and anger, tossing a pillow directly at Blake, jolting him awake. "How could you enter a maiden's room without permission!"

"Huh?" Blake found himself chased out of the room by a furious pink hair princess and stood staring blankly at the closed hatch. "What is going on?"

He scratched his head, ignoring the curious stares and whispers of his crew passing by, and double checked the nameplate on the hatch. <Captain's Quarters> It stated clearly.

Wait did I just got chased out of my own quarters? Blake thought in confusion. He knocks several times on the hatch and waited for a reply.

"Go away! Y-you pervert!"

Impatient, he punches in his key code and the hatch slides open. He walked in and saw the elven princess searching the room madly, turning his neatly kept quarters into a mess!

"What in the world are you doing? Blake demanded.

"Where are my luggage! My clothes!" Sherene absent-minded reply while flipping out the drawers and lockers. "Why are you in my room again! Have you no manners to barge into a ladies room?" She fumed, placing her fists on her tiny waist.

"What your room? You are in my room!" Blake yells back. "Have you forgotten?"

"What?" Sherene froze while she processed the information. "Oh… the spirits!" She smacks her forehead as she remembered.

"Go-good morning Captain Blake…" She gave her best smile while her ears turn bright red in embarrassment. "I-I hoped I did not disturb your sleep!"

"STOP!" Blake raises his hands up in horror as he recognizes the smile on her face. Oh, shit its that SMILE! Please don't fail my willpower to save! He tried to turn away from her look.

Sherene tilts her head in confusion seeing Blake who shouted stop but just stood there suddenly grinning like a fool at her.

"Ar-are you alright?" She asked Blake, with that silly strange weird look in his eyes. Her heart beat in panic as the way Blake stares at her is creeping her out.

"Oh, I am not too good." Blake replied in a daze, "But you can make it better!" He gave a creepy smile.

"I am so sorry!" She cried in a panicky voice, her face and ears red and quickly escapes out of the room.

"Nooo! Come back! Make me better!"

45 - Battle of Sawtooth Pass

The camp was bustling with activity like a kicked hornet nest. Blacksmiths using pedal-powered grindstones sharpened dull and nicked blades. Soldiers oiled and polished their armor, checking their leather straps making sure nothing requires replacing.

Duke Sturm stood watching the routine activities of his men and smiled. The sky was clear and beautiful, what a day to start a war.

He had gathered over three thousand fighting men and with the humiliated 3rd Lancers, he has a fighting force of over 3,600. While over another 1.500 fought against the green skins and protected his supply line in the Uncharted Forest.

Now to see if the plan works.

----------------------

Coming to the edge of the forest, Lyonel limped and lean against a great wood. The massive trunk appears to reach into the cloudless sky, its leaves provide some shade to the ragged elven prisoners.

"Now you filth! Listen up!" An Empire soldier with a blue cloak fastened against his ornate armor yelled and points up the winding rock path along the mountain slopes.

"This is your lucky day!" The soldier grins wickedly. "I will count to a hundred. If you reach the pass beyond the mountain, you get to live."

And he casually drew his sword before cutting down an unfortunate prisoner nearest to him. "After I counted to a hundred, we will start killing you!"

"So if you want to live…" The rest of the prisoners were stunned, watching how that soldier just killed a person without batting an eye.

"Run!" The soldier finishes with a shout, pointing his blade to the path.

With that shout, everyone jolts to action. They ran and ran, hearing the Empire officer counting down behind them.

Lyonel stumbled as fast as he could. With barely any food for the past few days, his legs sore from the constant marching and his feet torn and blistered. He pushes on, desperate for the hope that dangled in front for him.

The path quickly flooded with hundreds of prisoners, trying their best to climb the mountain path.

The path soon narrowed, allowing lesser and lesser people to squeeze together, while the mountain slopes turn steeper. Screams cried out as people got pushed or slipped down the slopes, their broken bodies rolling to a rest at the foot of the mountain.

A horn blew and echoed down the mountain, Lyonel and the people all turn back to towards the source of it and saw a column of marching soldiers clad in blue, storming instep towards their rear.

Seeing this the people at the rear screams in panic and shoves the people in front of them, trying to escape the doom marching towards them.

Lyonel like many others suddenly found new strength from the fear gripping his heart. He screams and cried with fear and panic, pushing the people around him to get to safety.

The Empire soldiers worked like a mechanical clockwork machine, marching forward every hundred paces and killing whoever is in their way before stopping and waiting for another two turns of the glass before continuing.

In this way, they herded the prisoners towards the Pass. By the time they could see the pass, more than half the morning had gone by and less than half of the prisoners remained.

-------------------

Staff sergeant Pike folded his arms as he stood behind the UAV operator. "How many?"

"Quick estimate by the computer puts over 3,500 in the rear group while the forward group slightly below a thousand." The operator wearing a bulbous beetle-like control goggles headset replied.

Pike frowned, watching the live feed from the display screens. It shows the blue-clad soldiers advancing and chopping down the rear ranks of a group of elves in rags before allowing them to escape again and repeats the whole process again.

It's a bloody human shield tactic. They are trying to force the Goldies from breaking ranks to save their people while using them as shields to get as close as possible. And at the same time killing the refugees the Goldies' morale as they watch their people die.

If only we had some mortars or even artillery. Those babies will wreak havoc among that tightly packed infantry square.

Pike walks out of the tent and watched both his marines and security sections deploying into the sandbag bunkers while the Goldies under the direction of their commander, Rathia, formed up in a defensive shield line covering the main road while a loose skirmish line form out of archers using a variety of bows and crossbows lined up behind the men.

The frightened and tired elves, looking like zombies hobbled as fast as they could towards the Goldrose shield line for safety. Once the civilians went past the bend, the Empire soldiers were immediately exposed, and the humans open fired with the single PK-299 stationed to defend the Pass.

A simple dugout covered with sandbags and a simple roof made out of local wooden logs topped with more sandbags provides a line of sight to the bend and the approaches to Pass. The tripod mounted HMG spew hundreds of bullets, tearing the neat Empire soldiers' formation into pieces of meat.

Rathia sighs, "I really admire your weapons. If during the siege of the Capital, we have even one of your thundersticks, we would have held the walls."

Pike gave a grunt, watching the Empires toppling over like puppets with their strings cut off. He uses his binoculars and watched the dying blue-coats.

A typical Empire soldier wears a high collared blue jacket and pants with a metal cuirass and leather innerwear, topped off with a pair of knee length leather boots and a pot-shaped metal helmet.

They are equipped with a short stabbing sword, and either a shield or a halberd. Some even carried crossbows slung across their backs.

Their officers and sergeants wear a cloak and also a helmet crest to be easily identified. Blue for officers and red for sergeants.

Suddenly the entire line of Empire soldiers vanished in a cloud of black billowing smoke. The machine gun immediately ceased fire to conserve ammo.

"What's that?" Pike asked, more curious than concern.

"A smoke spell," Rathia explains, looking nervous. "The Empire uses them at times to screen their forces from arrows and hide their soldiers."

The unnatural dense cloud drifts closer to the rear of the fleeing elves, skeletal faces appeared within the smoke, screaming in soundless horror. It slowly swallows up the fleeing elves and stops short of the pass as if it hits an invisible wall.

Leering faces could be seen as they attempted to push past the magic barrier set up by Magister Thorn. "Mages to the front!" Rathia commanded.

Several robed individuals carrying staffs hurrying through the ranks of the soldiers and started their offensive spells.

"NO! Pull them back!" Pike hurriedly yelled at Rathia. The past few days had opened his mind to the mystical ways of the elves. The few surviving mages, could conjure fire, water or move and shape the earth in ways that confounded his mind.

The humans accepted the existence of magic with ease and wonder. In fact, Pike has proposed to Lt Frank, about using combine arms and magic for defensive and offensive tactics.

Rathia looked at Pike with surprise, in the few short days they known each other, he had respected the hooman soldier greatly. He turns and watches the dark cloud with suspicion.

"Back! Mages to retreat!" He decided to trust Pike and commands his mages to retreat behind the shield wall.

Less than a second after mages reentered the shield wall, hundreds of crossbow bolts flew out of the magical smoke and slams into the raised shields, while some unlucky souls who did not ready his shield, cried in pain as the bolts pierced their bodies.

A roar from hundreds of throats rose from within the smoke, and suddenly hundreds of Empire soldiers broke out from the smoke screen and slammed into the unprepared shield wall.

"What the fuck!" Pike saw the disaster unfolding at the center of the lines. It appears that the enemy charged through the refugees under the cover of smoke and advanced right up their noses!

"Fuck the civees!" He cursed on the command network. " Open fire into their flanks and stop their charge! Or they will swarm us all!" he ordered.

Bursts of fire erupt immediately from the bunkers, knocking the blue-coated soldiers down. The HMG opened up again, sending bullets stitching into the smoke, preventing more enemy troops from reinforcement the front.

Cracks of thunder and lightning ripple out from the rear of the Goldrose lines, scorching armor and shields, and the shock rupturing hearts and cooking organs.

Suddenly a giant fireball slams into the bunker on the left, setting the whole structure into flames, dancing figures wreath in flames could be seen running out before collapsing to the ground.

"Enemy mages!" The Goldrose soldiers yelled as dozens of fireballs rained into their lines.

The smoke from earlier had dissipated, revealing the enemy force behind. The magic barrier was destroyed by the simple use of the smoke, laced with magic energy which slowly drained the barrier allowing the Empire mages to cast their spells.

Pike narrowed his eyes as he saw the havoc caused by the fireballs. Fuck magic, this is ridiculous. He wasn't prepared for that, even as he saw what wonders magic can do from the Goldie mages.

"Drake! You better blow those S.O.B mages to hell now!" Pike yells into his comms, "All units are to spread out! The enemy has area effect weapons! Show them what the United Nations of Man Navy and Marines are made of!"

"HOORAH!"

46 - Enemy at the Gates

Duke Sturm lean lazily on the saddle of his dragon and watched his troops emerged from the smoke and smash into the four-man thick shield line, catching the Goldrose soldiers in surprise.

He smiles when he saw the shield lines buckling under the impact of his troops, but soon he frowns when he saw lines of fire ripped into his men, tearing them to shreds.

He gestures to his runner and commands, "The enemy's barrier should be weakened enough by now. Order the battle mages to begin their assault. Destroy those spell constructs first." He points to the sandbag bunkers spewing fire.

The battle mages under the cover of the smoke, chanted their magic and gestures, creating several magical circles that glow in an unnatural red light.

The magic smoke allows anyone to view out of it, but it blocks sight from outside, preventing both normal and magical sight from viewing into the cloud thus allowing the Empire soldiers to charge up mostly unmolested.

The blue coats ignored the slaves in front of them, marching double time, they just ruthlessly trample whoever is in the way and sought to reach charging distance with the Goldrose lines.

The battle mages dressed in blue leather trench coats finally finished chanting their spells. The magic circles floated in front like a hologram, merged together with one on top of each other, and completed the spells.

Balls of fire grew into existence over the center of the magic circles hovering in the air. The temperature in the surrounding instantly heats up from the number of fireballs created. Another gesture from the mages and the massive fireballs flung themselves out like rockets, arcing into the sky and dropping downwards onto the middle of the Goldrose lines.

Duke Sturm nods, watching at least one fireball torching the magical construct, silencing it. The screams accompanied sound like sweet music to his pointy ears even from a fair distance.

"Target the enemy mages. Once their mages are down, victory is at hand." Sturm smiles happily, thinking of the little princess. The secrets to the level 10 spells and payment for his two flying dragons, I will squeeze it all out from her body. I hope she doesn't break so fast and can keep entertained.

-----------------------

Drake laid prone over the observation post that was prepared days ago. A smart camouflage all-weather netting provides some shade and concealment from the enemy.

The netting blocks all forms of thermal and electronic signal from emitting out, forcing the observation teams to communicate only with direct laser signals.

He deployed his bipod and rests his 22" long suppressed heavy barrel M7 DMR against the sandbags and zeroed his sights. "See anyone worth killing?"

The Goldrose soldier lying prone next to him, peers out of the tripod-mounted binoculars. Both sides had reached an agreement days before to work together to defend the pass, and this particular goldie was assigned to partner with Drake.

Drake used the time to teach the goldie soldier on how to be a spotter over the past few days of sentry duty when they two were partnered together.

"Uh, the smoke, I can't see anything," Kont replied. He wore an old leather armor instead of his plate mail, allow him more comfort to lay prone, while his sword and uncocked crossbow laid at his side.

"Try the infra. It works." Drake continues to make minor adjustments to his scope.

"Ahh… I see something but it's hard to find anyone!" Kont glued his eyes on the binos, sweeping left and right. He sees a huge blob of red, orange, yellow against a background of grey and white tones.

"Damn." Drake cursed. He set to thermal and sees the huge blob of color mixed together, making it hard to find individual targets.

Suddenly balls of fire erupt from among the defenders and his comms crackles, he left a receiver outside the netting, his comms connected by cable to it. "Drake! You better blow those S.O.B mages to hell now!" He hears Pike shouting in the comms. "All units are to spread out! The enemy has area effect weapons! Show them what the United Nations of Man Navy and Marines are made of!"

"The smoke is gone!" Kont yelled excitedly.

"You see where those fireballs came from?" Drake asked as he scanned the battlefield, ignoring the burning figures, knowing some of them were friends.

"There is more smoke behind. I think they are there!" As to validate Kont's words, another volley of fireballs erupts out from the smoke cloud behind the Empire soldiers.

"Got it, help me pick the targets." Drake track through the smoke, seeing a massive heat signature within the smoke.

"Eh, all the way to the right, a fireball just came out from there." Kont describes as best as he could, "About two-seven-three." He read the numbers out in Eng-ish, his numbers taught by Drake too.

"Copy that," Drake said in English and homes his scope towards that direction. He spots a heat spot that appears to be gaining heat, while a lower temperature vaguely human-shaped blob appearing below. He held his breathe and gently squeezed the trigger and watched the orange-yellow blob collapse down.

"I think you got him!" Kont yells in excitement. He had watched how this hooman kills with his strangely quiet thunderstick, different from what the other hoomans use when they first arrived at the Pass. "There! About eight or ten paces to your left. I see something like a people shape!"

Another hushed pop and an empty cartridge spins out from the ejection port, hits the rocky ground with a pinging sound, seemingly louder than the gunshot.

------------------------------------------

Mills moaned in pain, his Marine BDUs melted and glued against his charred and peeling skin. He laid beside the smoking bunker. He tried to draw in air, but his badly burnt lungs barely work, each attempt to breathe feels like someone searing him with hot irons.

He briefly remembers firing at the blue coats when the order came. Next thing he knew was a blinding flash of light and heat, and he saw himself and the rest inside the bunker on fire. Before he knew it, he was lying down here, trying to breathe with his half cooked lungs.

After a short rest, Mills pushed himself up with great effort, biting back the scream that is forming in his throat and growls instead. He looks at his hands, seeing them blackened and oozing some clear liquid. Fuckers gonna pay. Picking up his rifle, he ignores the fresh waves of pain, his superheated rifle scorching his already burnt skin, further cooking his flesh.

The blue coated soldiers with the help of their mages' fireball attacks had managed to force the shield line into disarray, splitting the soldiers into tiny squares of resistance, while the bulk of the Goldrose soldiers attempt to rally at the rear.

Mills barely could see clearly, his eyes half boiled by the heat and flash, he props himself against the side of the sandbag and drags his rifle against his side, ignoring the tearing of his skin. Mind over matter! MIND OVER MATTER! Remembering what his drill sergeant brainwashed them to do during boot camp.

He sees the blurry blue figures moving past him, probably seeing him as a corpse. Mills cursed, turn me into a bbq yeah? I fucking make you into swiss cheese! And he sat there and open fire with his M7A1.

------------------------------

Bartley manned the PK-299 HMG with fitness, firing short accurate bursts into the rushing tide of blue coats when he saw the bunker Mills was in went up in flames. "Oh Mills!"

He detached the PK-229 and reattached it onto his exo-frame, ignoring his surprised loader, and hooking the ammo feed into position while he climbs out of the MG bunker and charged down towards Mills.

Bartley used his larger build and shoves through the disrupted Goldie shield wall, ignoring the waves of heat caused by the falling fireballs and stood alone facing the charging tide of blue coats who were less than ten meters away from him.

He heaves his PK-299, braced himself, and held down the trigger. A meter long muzzle flash spewed out, and the space in front of him instantly clears, dozens and dozens of blue coats tumbled down lifeless or dying. He rotates his weapon left and right, giving a good wash of bullets on both sides before he charged forward.

"Mills!" He roars, as he stopped for the fourth time, his HMG tearing the advancing bluecoats to shreds. he spots a blackened figure lying against the bunker walls, firing his rifle sporadically. "Mills is that you?"

"Wassup Big Guy? I just overdid my suntan." Mills rasped out, coughing out blood. "Fuckers couldn't even do my tan right!" He pops off another burst at a group of blue coats charging towards them.

Bartley went down a kneeling stance and torn that group up with a burst of his HMG. He removes a morphine injector from his medical kit and jabs it against Mills's arm, who almost immediately sighs in bliss.

"Medic! I got survivors at the Bunker Two!" Bartley speaks into his comms, he did a quick check and found another two barely alive, gasping for air like a fish out of water. He kept a wary eye around while waiting for the medic to arrive. Most of the crossbow welding Empire soldiers were quickly taken out by Bartley before they could fire their bolts. "You be ok when we get you to Doc."

"Fucking hell, I want a refund on this fucking tan job."

47 - Alliance

"What's the situation?" Blake entered the bridge and stood next to sleepy-eyed Ford.

"Bad," Ford manipulated the view on the screen, showing the Goldrose battle line in disarray, dozens of skirmishes broke out among the gold and blue-clad soldiers. "They are attempting to reform another shield line at the rear."

"What happened?" Blake stared at the screen, "Are those incendiaries?" Pointing at balls of fires going off here and there.

"No, apparently those are magic spells." Ford swipes the screen upwards showing an area shrouded with smoke. Several balls of fire emerged from the cloud and rained down the defenders. "It's much more powerful than what they experienced in the ruins."

"That smoke is magic too?" Blake observes the unnatural smoke cloud. "Weapons." He called out.

"Aye Sir?" The weapons officer answers.

"Open Missile One. Target," He points to that smoke cloud on the screen. "Fire when ready."

"Aye aye, Sir! Opening Missile One!" The weapons officer punched in the missiles arming codes and target coordinates. "Missile One launch bay opened, ready to fire!"

Blake nods, and the weapons officer hit the firing key. A whoosh and a smoke trail erupted from the Missile One's hatch.

"Isn't that a bit overkill?" Ford asked, "Our munition stores are badly depleted."

"Those magic fireballs are killing our people. If we can stop them from casting spells, our people won't die." Blake stated. "I would rather deplete all our munitions than let more of our people die."

"Aye aye, Captain!" Ford and the rest of the crew stood up and gave a salute after hearing Blake's words.

---------------------------------------

"Good! It's about time! Prepare the 3rd to charge!" Duke Sturm ordered. "That giant there," He points to a large man, with a large crossbow-like weapon, that spews thunder and fire. "Kill him and take that weapon to me!"

He had watched the battle from a safe distance, using a finely crafted ornate telescope made from master craftsmen. He had observed the thundersticks those strangely clad men were using and was highly intrigued by them. What kind of magical weapons was those, he wondered?

The 3rd Lancers had formed up at the rear of the infantry, impatient to push through, thirsting to rush in to kill the Goldrose soldiers, to wipe away the humiliation they had received and to seek revenge for their captain.

Hearing the horn sounding, the war dragons snorted and chomped at their bits, kicking off the ground with their clawed fore and rear legs and charged through the lanes the infantry had opened up for them when a loud roar shrieked from the skies and the whole world turned white.

----------------------------------------

The Space Sparrow missile flew straight towards the targeted coordinates before arcing vertically upwards and the brain chip redirects its thrusters, flipping the missile 180 degrees, and went into terminal mode, impacting, with just two centimeters off target, the explosion deformed the terrain, creating a small crater and billowing smoke and dust. The shockwave, followed by pieces of rock and stone fragments rained among the Empire soldiers, some fast and large enough to break bones and dent armor, and sent the nearby soldiers flying, rupturing their organs and bursting eardrums.

The Empire's celebrated 3rd Lancers with an illustrious history of over 30 years literally ceased to exist as they were almost in the epicenter of the long-range missile strike, those that were caught at the edge of the explosion, suffered a major loss of hearing and internal injuries while their mounts went mad with fear.

Sturm's war dragon reared up and started thrashing in fright. Sturm managed to kick off his spurs and leaped off the back of the dragon as it thrashed about in panic, landing with a roll before the shockwave and smoke cloud reached him. The dragon than bolted away along with hundreds of other dragons, all foaming in the mouth and white-eyed in terror.

"That level 10 spell!" Sturm dusted his coat, taking out a silk handkerchief to cover his nose and mouth from the dust cloud, while his lifeguards quickly surrounded him, protecting him with their shields. "I must gain possession of it at all cost!"

---------------------------------------

Pike receiving information from Base about the missile strike, quickly informed Rathia to pull his scattered men back and reform up behind. The missile strike stunned the entire Empire army, it had perfectly wiped out the entire battle mage platoon, leaving nothing behind.

"Form up!" Pike shouts at the defending marines and crew using this lull in the battle, pointing to the main entrance of the Pass, where several chevaux de frise or wooden spiked barricades were being set up to create a chokepoint at the entrance next to a simple berm with a firing step, raised before with the help of the Goldrose mages acted as a wall. "Fall back quick!"

The Goldrose soldiers humped their shields and filtered through the barricades and gathered together forming up again into a shield wall, while Marines, security, and crewmen followed behind them. Pike saw the huge figure of Pvt Bartley firing his HMG single-handedly, while the other he held onto the handles of a stretcher, covering the rear of a group of medics carrying wounded.

"Pvt Bartley, hand over that stretcher to others," Pike orders. "Go set up your weapon back at the MG bunker!" He ignored Bartley's abandonment of his post, seeing he saved three lives out of the four in the bunker.

"Yes, Staff!" Bartley let the support crew carry the other handle and ran off back to his previous post.

"Rathia, how are your men?" Pike asked as he stood next to him. "Will they be able to handle another charge like that?"

"They will hold," Rathia said with confidence. "We will rather die than let those Empire soldiers come and steal and kill our people."

"Good."

----------------------------------

Sherene, Joesph, and Thorn entered the bridge under an escort. They were told politely and firmly to follow the escorts to the bridge as their attention is needed.

Seeing the big screen again, Thorn sighs in admiration, before his brain processed the images. "Is that Sawtooth Pass?"

Sherene and Joesph stared at the carnage going on on the screens. "What happened?"

Blake glared at Sherene, who lowered her head shyly and whispered very softly, "sorry..."

He shakes his head at her before answering the question posed by Joesph. "General, the Pass was attacked, your soldiers and mine are currently defending it."

"Show the playback on the secondary screen." He instructs a bridge operator, who replayed a video recording of the battle viewed by the UAV.

"What?" All the elves eyes went wide, "Is this the past? You can view the past?"

Ford shook his head and whispered sharply, "Stop making fun of them!"

Blake smiles and whispered back, "I still haven't get back to you about last night! You wait!"

"Haha, what happened?" Ford smiles and acted blur. "Did something good happened?"

Blake shakes his head and turns his attention to the elves. "What are those?" He points to the smoke screen and balls of fire.

"That's a smoke spell, used to conceal troop movements mostly," Joesph explains. "And those look like fireballs. Very common spell."

"Yes, a very common spell just needs a longer time to set up and cast, but it is quite destructive and flammable." Thorn elaborates more. "Our mages uses lightning spells more, as they are faster to cast and uses less magic."

The video then showed the missile strike directly into the smoke cloud, causing an even larger cloud and shattering the nearby soldiers like tiny broken sticks, effectively halting the Empire advance.

The elves sucked in a deep breathe when they saw the destruction wrought against the Empire's soldiers with one spell. A legendary Level 10 spell!

"I asked you here, not only to ask about the enemy spells," A new word he learned from reading Dungeon and Dragons Forever, "But also to talk about the offer of an alliance." He points to the main screen, showing the blue-clad Empire soldiers retreating.

"I will like your answer now," Blake stated flatly. "I do not want to waste the lives of my men for nothing."

Sherene clasps her hand hard together and stared up at the hooman Blake. He is like a totally different person to her. Who is he? Someone who cares or someone who wants power? She looks at him standing there with his hands behind his back, waiting for her answer.

Sherene looks at her advisors, both of them gave a slight nod, encouraging her to follow her own heart. She sucks in a deep breath and before letting out with a deep sigh and walked up before Blake.

And kneeled down, "My people are yours to command. I pledge loyalty to you and your cause, my Liege." Joesph and Thorn also kneeled. "We are yours to command." They intoned.

"Wait... what?" Blake was stunned. "Is the translator broken or something?" He looks at Ford in confusion. "Is it some alien culture thingy?"

"What did you do last night, Captain? You stud!"

48 - Counterstrike

Lt Frank leaped off the cab of the half-track as it braked and armed personnel deployed off the rear of the tailgate. He nods to Staff Pike who waves him over to a camouflaged tent, turns to Cpl James. "Get the men organized."

Lt Frank entering the tent saw support staff operating comms and updating the situational map on the middle of the tent. A Goldie in an ornate silver armor with their trademark golden robes stood looking at the tactical map with great interest.

"Welcome, Sir!" Pike gave a salute and inviting Frank towards the table. "This is the Goldrose commander, Sir Rathia." He introduces the officers to each other.

"My pleasure to meet you," Lt Frank gave a Goldrose salute, fist to horizontal to his chest. The goldie commander smiles and saluted back. "I brought 43 men with me and whatever ammo we can spare." He said to Pike in English.

Pike nods, and indicates onto the map, speaking in Common for the benefit of Rathia. "We managed to hold the gate into the Pass," He points to the map, "The missile strike had destroyed the enemy spellcasters and a large portion of their cavalry."

"This 'me-sell' you hoomans possessed, what spell level is it??" Rathia curiously asked. Pike used English for the word missile as they don't have a similar word except for arrow in Common.

"Spell level?" Both Frank and Pike looked at each other confused. "What do you mean?"

Rathia looked at them in surprise, "You don't know what is spells levels, but yet possessed such powerful spells and magic?" He thought the two hoomans were joking with him but seeing their clueless expressions, "You really have no idea?"

"Alright, spells are classed into roughly 10 levels. Starting from level 0, are street tricks, that almost everyone can do and required almost no magic power." Rathia demonstrates, snapping his fingers and a shower of sparks bursts out.

"Damn. am I glad I forced everyone to watch that potter movie and that ring movie," Pike kept his face expressionless while Frank jerks back in surprise.

Rathia frowns at Frank's reaction, before continuing, "Level 1 spells onwards reflects the strength, casting time, and magic used. The more magic and casting time used to prepare a spell, the higher the rank of the spell will become." He roughly explains the idea of spell levels.

"So the 'mages' you have, what are the level spells they used?" Pike asked as he digested the information.

"Mostly level 2 to 3," Rathia said. "Combat magic is normally limited to around that level, for it takes time to prepare and focus. Unless you have plenty of time to prepare, like the Empire's battlemages. Those were level 4 to 5 fireballs."

"Your thundersticks artifacts are as powerful as a level 5 spell or even higher!" Rathia drones on, "And that spells that killed the two dragons, they should be as powerful as level 8 or even 9!"

"I-I see," Frank nods, slightly amused to think that modern weapons as magic, but in a way, technology is magic to some. "How many casualties?"

"3 dead from our side from the fireballs, 1 from an unlucky crossbow bolt in the face. 5 others suffering from second to third-degree burns. The Medics should be prepping them for transportation back for treatment." Pike said. "The Goldrose side took the worst of the blunt."

"We lost over 80 men, with another 200 badly wounded, most of which will not make it past the night." Rathia sighed as he gave the sad news, "However, we rescued over two hundred of our people, and the Empire had paid a dear price for that."

"I have isolated the rescued people," Pike said, "Most of them require medical treatment and are badly malnutrition."

"We should allow them to be reunited with their families!" Rathia insisted. "I do not understand why you want to hold them."

'It's for their own safety and for our healers to treatment first." Pike explains, calming Rathia down.

"Have we located their camp?" Frank asked, "UAV couldn't spot it?"

"The path is too open, it is hard for our scouts to follow them back," Rathia said. "Your magical all-seeing artifact should be able to follow them."

"No, due to the weird composition of the tree leaves here, the thick canopy blocks line of sight, infra, and electronic signals," Pike explains using English to Frank, while Rathia listens on in confusion at the strange words.

"Than we need boots on the ground," Frank said. "Direct laser the target and guide in a missile strike with laser communications. Let's nip the problem in the bud."

"Yes Sir, I will form a strike team."

-------------------------------

Blake sat in his office, massage his forehead, as he tried to make sense of what the princess has done. She sat like a timid mouse on the chair opposite his table, not daring to look at him in the eye.

"So you meant to say, you want me to rule over your people?" He clarified again for the fourth time with her.

She nods, wondering what is wrong with this hooman, doesn't everyone wants to be king? Why is he acting like its a troublesome thing?

"Oh my god, my head hurts," Blake groans, while Sherene tilts her head at him in confusion. It's already hard enough to get the base up and running, and now this hot potato landed in his hands.

"Alright, I will look after your people, but you are to lead them." Blake decided, "I will not be your King or Emperor or whatever you have for a leader. We work together and not you under me."

Work together? Under you? Sherene eye widens, she blushed and looks away in embarrassment. "Y-yes my liege," she muttered.

"Wait, NO!" Blake groans again, "I meant, you govern your people! And I did not mean sleep with me or what!" What a mess!

"Anyway, for now, I will have workers construct living spaces for your people." Blake sighs at the misunderstanding of the languages. "Please prepare your people for departure to the Colony."

"Y-yes my liege." Sherene stood up and gave a bow.

"N-no, you don't have to bow or call me my liege." Blake's headache getting worst. "Just call me Blake. or Captain if you want to be formal."

"Yes, my Captain Blake." The princess gave a half bow before retreating out of his office.

"What mess have I gotten into," Blake moans his fate.

"Sir?" Ford knocks at the open hatch. "Permission to enter?"

"Come in," Blake waves him in. "Any new updates?"

"Yes Sir, Lt Frank had just submitted plans for a night infiltration team, they plan to paint the enemy camp with a laser and direct call in a missile strike."

"Will the forest canopy allow the missile to lock on?" Blake leans back in his chair, gesturing Ford to the seat vacated by the elven princess earlier.

"They plan to use either a wired network or direct laser communication to guide the missile in." Ford replies, "Accuracy will be within a hundred meters plus-minus."

"Approved, but make sure that if it goes south, they are to abort the mission," Blake ordered, "No unnecessary risks are allowed."

"Yes Sir," Ford made a note in his tablet. "Good and bad news, which first?"

"Bad, I guess?" Blake sighs. What got be worst than an emo princess who can turn me into a blabbing idiot?

"Small arms ammunition and medical supplies are in critical levels, we have to ration usage of them." Ford reads off the details from his tablet.

"Noted, what else?" Blake asked.

"Good news, we found what you told the survey teams to look for." Ford flips his tablet over and displays a map. "A series of cave openings were discovered here and here." He points to the southern cliff hills. "Salt like crystals were found inside the walls of the cave. Sample testing shows a high concentration of potassium nitrate."

"That's good news," Blake thought, "And the designs of a black powder cartridge?"

"The Marine armorer said that black powder is highly corrosive, and if used in our weapons, they will foul and break down with no means of proper repairs." Ford checked his notes, before showing a drawn wireframe diagram of a rifle that looks similar to civilian hunters used.

"He came up with this bolt action design, the metal parts must be treated with anticorrosive coating and the rest is mostly wood," Ford explains.

"Bolt action? Will it effective against a giant wolf?" Blake asked, "They almost literally can stop our current weapons."

"Yes, it should be even more effective due to the black power loads' low muzzle velocity. We have to increase the caliber of the bullets, giving more mass to it. Our current ammo could not penetrate but got still deal enough internal damage, so a .50 caliber round even with lower muzzle velocity can deal enough punch to inflict internal injuries."

"But we need a someone who has a chemistry background to help come out with the formula for the primers and improve the black powder, hopefully into smokeless." Ford continued. "For now we are thinking of using electric triggers for firing the black powder loads."

"When can we see a prototype?" Blake asked.

"Once we start having people to mine the saltpeter, we can start to produce and test the black powder loads." Ford said, grinning, "Well, you are now the King of Elves, you can get your new elves to start working in the mines."

"Oh right! I haven't pay back for you for that shit you did yesterday night!"

49 - Infiltration

The soft moans of the dying could be heard, as Lt Frank lead his small team of Marines down the steep slope. The pitch black darkness illuminated slightly by the twin waning moons allowed Frank and his team, wearing night vision goggles to pick their way softly and slowly along the treacherous slopes.

Franks' team detoured around the battlefield via the slopes, ignoring the dying Empire soldiers. UAV reconnaissance had spotted several heat signatures at various parts of the path, most likely are Empire's sentries and scouts.

The only way to avoid getting spotted even in this dark night is to travel along the slopes, using them as cover. The Goldie commander thought that they are crazy to attempt such a thing but agreed to support Frank and his team as much as possible.

The lead Marine, Pvt Koing after reaching the point where they plan to rappel down to the foot of the mountain, aims a blocky pistol at the wall. A dull thud and a puff of super compressed air, and a hardened steel stake punched into the rock firmly. Koing than attaches a belay device and rope to it before giving it a good tug to test.

He turns a gives his team of three a thumbs up and hooks up his harness to the ropes and device. Once ready, Frank gave him a nod and started to rappel down the slope as softly as possible.

Frank watched Koing descend down into the darkness, even with his night vision which turns everything into a green shade. The little moonlight given off by the moons make visibility is tough, granting them less than a hundred meters of vision.

A double tap from the comms signaled to Frank that Koing had reached the bottom, he pats Lcp Cooper on his shoulder, indicting him to go down. A soft jingle and another dark shadow disappeared down the slope.

"There," Frank whispered, "Last known location of the retreating blue boys." He points towards a massive bluewood tree. "UAV spotted them heading in that direction earlier."

"Go silence, avoid contact." Frank instructed, "Lethal force as last resort. Clear?"

The other two nods. "Dog Actual, to Sierra, proceeding into mission area. Cover our asses, over."

A double tap in the comms replied to Frank's message. He waves his team forward into the dark looming forest.

Traveling into the forest, they found a large number of tracks caused by the matching boots of the Empire's soldiers, allowing them to follow their path easily. Once in a while they crawled and detour around sentries hidden in the trees. Frank updated his tactical map on each sentry location each time one is encountered.

The thick canopy blocked all light from stars to the moons from penetrating into the forest, limiting the viewing distance of their night vision to less than 40 meters. Finally, after almost an hour of sneaking around in the forest, they spotted a glow from the distance.

The trees opened up to a large field, the sky still covered by the outstretching branches of the trees, providing a natural ceiling, sheltering the Empire camp from the weather. Hundreds of tents spread out among the trees, lit by burning braziers set twos by twos.

Dozens of cookfire, with blue coated soldiers sitting around, could be seen and drifts of conversation could be heard from the camp. Frank and his team, lowered their night vision sensitivity, allowing them to see almost as bright as day. "There," Cooper whispered. He points to an extravagant tent set in the middle of the camp, where dozens of banners were propped up around it.

Frank nods, and using the zoom function of his goggles, observed the tent. "Looks like their head honcho." He continues to observe a while before satisfied and gave his next instructions. "Let's fall back some distance. Copper, set up the laser spotter, Koing go up that tree there and deploy the transmitter."

Both men nodded and started they pull back till a safe distance while keeping a line of sight to the tent. Copper removed a laser spotter from his back and hit among the tree roots, sighting in with the binocular looking device, targetting the extravagant tent in the middle.

Koing with the help of Frank boosted himself up the tree branches and slowly and as quietly as he could, climbed up the branches one by one, while Frank kept watch, holding one end of a cable.

Finally a couple of tugs from the cable, Frank hands it over to Copper who plugged it into the spotter. A short while later, a <signal online> appeared on the side of the screen and he armed the spotter.

----------

Almost a hundred kilometers away, a message appeared in the main tactical display, <Target Accquired>. Blake nods to the weapons officer. "Use Saturation Bombardment Plan C. Fire!"

The weapon officer keyed in the preloaded bombardment instructions and hit the fire key. The missile launchers lit up the Base Colony, like fireworks, with six missiles screaming to their destinations.

----------

<Strike Inbound> Appeared on the spotter screen. "Incoming!" Cooper whispered loudly, and Frank jerked the cable several times to warn Konig. As they were less than 600 meters away from the strike zone, they quickly braced themselves against the tree, covering their ears and opening their mouths.

Suddenly the screams scramjet engines roared overhead and the night turned to day. The six missiles following the bombardment plan C, hit within a circle around the targeted location, dealing an area effect bombardment, destroying everything within a 300-meter radius.

After the earth-shaking explosions passed, Koing slid down from the tree, rolling the cable in his hand up. "All done?" He grins in the dark.

"Wait," Frank crouched behind the tree root and observed the bombardment. "What the... ?" As the smoke slowly dispersed, an eerie glow appeared, covering the tent, while the rest of the terrain became pitted and cratered from the missiles. "Fuck magic! Fall back now!"

Horns and rallying cries could be heard from other parts of the camp, suddenly dozens of lights appeared floating around the camp and lit up the dark forest, casting long shadows.

Frank and his team abandoned all stealth and hurried to put as much distance as possible. Shouts could be heard from behind them as they ran through the forest. "Think they found us!" Cooper pants.

A whistle and a thud, the tree in front of them poked a quivering arrow. "No shit!" Koing cried. The three of them turned as one and fired single shots at the shadows moving behind them. Their M7A1 fitted with silencers popped with each shot, dropping their pursuits. "How did they find us so fast?"

"Magic! FUCKING MAGIC!" Cooper yelled. He shot another shadow that appeared from behind a tree, sending it tumbling down and saw it was not human nor elf. It was man-shaped but seems to be made out of smoke, two holes could be seen in its misty body. "What the fuck is that?"

"Back! They can be killed! Keep firing!" Frank ordered, "Koing, Copper move!"

The two marines disengaged and ran a short distance before turning around and provided covering fire to Frank, who ran past them and they repeat the maneuver until nothing is following them.

"What are those things?" Koing asked as they keep running through the forest. "Ghosts? Spirits?"

"I don't know." Frank pants as he answered, "All I know is that the target is not eliminated. It's protected by some kind of spell."

Sounds of hooves could be heard from the rear as they ran, "Shit, incoming cavalry!"

-------------

SA Corpsman June washed her hands under the simple tap fitted into the jerry can. She stood up and wiped her hands dry before rubbing her hands with hand sanitizers. She looked around the crowded tent, rows, and rows of badly abused elves, most of them feverish with infection set in their torn feet.

She exited the tent and entered the next tent, nodding a greeting to the young handsome looking Goldie soldier on guard. The number of elves in this tent was the same as before, all lying on the beds, asleep while waiting for treatment and aid.

After providing triage to over half the elves in the tent, June soon noticed something strange. So far she treated over 40 of the elven people, and all had major wounds on their bare feet. But she found some of the elves here barely had any signs of injuries on their feet, not only that, they appeared to be in better health than the others.

Feeling her heart beating faster, are they spies trying to sneak in? I better report this quick! She thought.

She smiled at the handsome face laying on the bed, watching her and turned to leave, pretending she wanted to go grab more medical supplies, when suddenly an arm whips around her throat and choked her from behind. June panicked and thrashed around, kicking the nearest bed and its occupant off to the floor.

The sleeping elves woke up to the clamor and screamed for help, the Goldrose sentry outside dashed into the tent only to be tackled by two other elves. June's last sight of the sentry was him getting stabbed by his own sword before she blacked out.

50 - Knights

Lord Kean cracked his neck and stretched his lean muscular body. He looks at the female laying on the floor wondering what manner of creature is this.

He squatted down next to the unconscious female and observed her closely. She looked well fed, with none of the imperfections of the skin, if it wasn't the short ears, she looked almost like a normal person. Such a pity.

The clothing on her that appeared to be a cut out from a single piece of material, the fabric rich and finely woven with a cross in red sewn on the upper sleeves.

What matter is this creature? He tilts his head in thought. Did these filth low blood mate with some other sub races?

He gave a spit and turned his attention to the exit of the tent. The rest of his men drenched in blood had finished off all the filth in the tent, stood waiting for his commands. Their self-inflicted injuries to blend in with the slaves already healing as they cast healing spells on themselves.

"My Lord, we are ready." A tall grunt elf armed with the dead soldier's sword greeted Kean.

He nods to his men, 10 in all including him. "You all know your duties! Kill everyone who resists, we are here to destroy their camp and hold the Pass for Duke Sturm."

"How about her?" His subordinate indicates the unconscious female.

"Kill her," Kean than remember watching her providing treatment to the people in the tent. "No, wait, keep her alive. Bring her with us, even without magic, her healing arts are quite good. She will make a valuable slave for her skills."

Flashes of lightning lit up the tent and followed by a series of thunder rumbled in the distance. Even the Gods are watching and blessing us. Kean smiled, "Let's go!"

"FOR THE EMPIRE!"

-----

Machinist mate Petty Officer 2nd class Ivan Pavlo sat on the driver seat of the half-track packed at the side of the encampment. He took a drag of his last remaining few sticks of cigarette, blew a smoke ring out of the window and hands it over to Sgt Raman. who accepted it.

"What the hell are we doing here?" Raman complained for the third time since they hid here to secretly smoke a stick. "I am sick of this place, no women, no drinks, nothing."

"Didn't you see those 'elves',?" Ivan propped his feet up against the steering wheel and leaned back in the chair. "They look fantastic! Hotter than a Russian girl. Might need to fatten them up a bit, but damn are they good looking." He gave a soft wolf whistle.

He signed up with the Navy after the Court Judge gave him a choice, prison or military service. He got caught jacking cars, stripping them down at his own garage and selling them to customers after doctoring them as 'clean' parts.

'Yeah, I admit they are pretty hot," Raman agreed, "Damn, don't know what the Captain is doing, inviting them over and all that shit. They are just uneducated barbarians, we should just make them follow our lead."

"Oh yeah, great idea," Ivan muttered, removing a small bottle and swallowing its contents in a gulp. "Ahhh... that hits the spot."

"Is that alcohol?" Raman stared at Ivan's bottle. He licks his lips as he stares greedily at the bottle.

"Here, made this myself." Ivan hands the bottle over to Raman, who quickly drowns the contents down. "Hey, don't finish it all!"

"Damn, it burns all the way down. It's good!" Raman smacks his lips, handing the bottle back. "Anymore?"

"Damn you greedy svin'ya!" Ivan cursed in Russian when suddenly some commotion could be heard from the isolation camp. "Huh? What's going on?" He peers out of the side window.

In the distance, lightning lit the night sky, followed by a series of rumbles.

-------

Kean's men slipped out of the tent and rushed towards the exit of the camp. They memorized the layout of the camp as they were brought in earlier in the day. Several people headed towards them, seeing them covered in blood, started questioning them what had happened only to have their necks twisted or hearts crushed.

Pushing on, they reached the camp entrance, where several of Goldrose guards and a couple of those short-eared beasts stood. Arcs of lightning flares out from the leading Empire soldier's fingertips, blasting the guards away.

Suddenly thunder and fire erupted from the short-eared beasts, sending a couple of his men spinning away. Kean raised his hand and muttered a quick chant, and spray his fingers out, blocking the fire from the beasts' spells.

Sparks crackle across his magic barrier, each blow knocking him back slightly, Kean raises his eyes in surprise, as his barrier can block spells up to level 5 without any issues. He felt his magic power draining with each fire hitting his barrier.

His remaining men split into action, tossing spells at the beasts, sending them scrambling to cover, giving Kean a respite from the barrage of spells he blocked. "Kill them all! Make it quick!"

Rushing forward without any regards for their lives, his men rushed the remaining few guards who fought back bravely but were overpowered instantly. His men are all knight class soldiers, proficient in all known weapons and magic.

He watches as one of his men fired a magic bolt, sending the black and grey clad short-eared beast flying. Kean walks over to one of his fallen men, his body broken from the spells welded by the thundersticks. Several holes leaking blood could be seen on his body, Kean flips the body over, seeing the large wounds at the back.

What an amazing spell. Their spells enter your body and explode inside, making healing impossible, how marvelous! "Collect their thundersticks! It must be sent to the Ministry of Magic to be studied!" He ordered his men.

Lord Kean stood at the gates, watching his men scattered into the night, heading towards the enemies headquarters and laughed, enjoying the cries of pain and screams of the dying. "Kill! Burn! Rape! It is a good night for mayhem!"

-----

Pike with his arms folded stood watching the UAV feed, waiting for the infiltration team actions. He smiled when he saw the laser message came in, updating Base of the target and calling in the missile strike.

He walked outside the command tent and looked in the direction of the enemy camp, and minutes later, several flashes of light could be seen followed by several claps of thunder like rumble. "That's what you get for messing with the Marines, fuckers!"

He turns towards the tent only to spin around when several distant gunshots woke the camp. "What the hell?" Picking up his comms, he speaks into it. "Report! What is happening? Who is firing?"

"Staff! Gunfire reported from the isolation camp!" A support staff poked her head out of the command tent. "The sentries are not responding!"

"Damn! Order everyone to stand to! All camps are to go on lockdown! Shoot anyone who doesn't comply!" Pike orders, "Get the rapid response team to head to the isolation camp now!"

The layout of the camps was arranged with the defensive works at the Pass, then at the rear, the military camps for both the elven and human troops. Next to the military camp was the hospital area and isolation camp for the new arrivals, traveling further to the rear down the slopes at the foot of the mountain is the elven refugees camp.

Pike rushed towards a Jeep parked next to the command tent, "Son, get me to the isolation camp! And make sure your weapon is loaded!" He woke the off-duty driver who was napping at the driver seat.

"Yes, Staff!" The crewmate started the engine and reversed the Jeep before driving down the rock path to the rear. As they arrived in the rear, bodies littered the area and several tents were on fire, while arcs of lightning could be seen striking at the soldiers who rushed towards a group of elves clad in rags.

"Fuck! I should have tightened security on those elves!" Pike leaped off the Jeep. "Get to cover." He told the driver who happily drove off somewhere safe.

"All units, we got enemy contacts inside the isolation camp," Pike spoke into his comms. "Contacts are highly dangerous with magic. Do not approach, shoot to kill! Repeat, shoot to kill!"

-------

Lamelath laughed with glee as he toasted several Goldrose soldiers with a lightning bolt, enjoy the burnt smell raising from their bodies, reminding him of roasted meat. He licked his lips as he dodged a spear thrust from another soldier, and riposte with his borrowed blade. The Goldrose army prefers a curved, single-edged blade as opposed to the Empire's short stabbing swords, making it slightly weaker in stabbing attacks.

His borrowed blade hit the chest plate of the soldier and it slid like a hot knife through butter, much to the surprise of the soldier. His look of surprise as he died with the blade entering right through armor and heart earned an amused chuckle from Lamelath. He had imbued a spell onto the sword, making it able to cut through almost anything.

He leaped into another group of soldiers who attempt to spear him, cutting them down with his enhanced strength and agility. He stood there posing, with dozens of soldiers in a semi-circle around him, none daring to approach him. "Come on! You low lives, come bow before the master race!"

"Master race?" A grizzly looking short-ear male pushed past the crowd of soldiers and stood in front of him. "You? Don't make me laugh."

"Than die, beast!" Lamelath bent his lean body forward and sprint forward towards the short-ear.

That short-ear male shooked his head and raised his hand, his fast movement surprising Lamelath who has cast Speed and Quick Reflex on himself, the black object in that short-ear hand appeared magically in his hand.

It must be another of their thundersticks! He felt time appeared to crawl, he twisted his body to dodge that weapon, knowing that as long as he dodges the first attack, that short ear is done for.

Only to see a flash of silver coming from his bottom left, he glanced down to see a silvery blade coming from his blind side. Noo! He twisted his upper body backward, narrowly avoiding the slash that would have taken his head. He grins and wipes the thin trickle of blood on his neck, "You missed!"

"Oh really?" Pike shrugged and fires point blank at that crazed looking elf face, blowing his brains out. "Dodge this."

51 - Tech vs Magic

"Up!" Lt Frank shouted as he covered the other two Marines, firing aimed shots between the trees, knocking off a rider from his mount. "We are almost out of the forest!"

"Up!" Cooper yelled, and Frank turned and ran leaving Cooper and Koing to cover him. Cooper wearing night vision, sighted his weapon on another rider, and fired, sending both rider and his giant croc tumbling down. "Damn, they aren't giving up!"

Frank slams himself over a massive tree root and heaved his weapon up. "Up!" He yelled out. Thank god for their enhanced genes, if not a normal, untrained and enhanced human won't be able to carry over 45kg worth of equipment and run nonstop for over 30 minutes.

The UNM Marines when undergoing basic military training were injected with body-enhancing drugs, increasing their muscular strength, reflexes, and stamina. Some units, Frank heard even had bio skeletal replacements, further increasing their abilities.

"I see the end of the forest!" Koing shouted, as he vaulted over another tree root and landed at the edge of the forest, seeing the green mountainous slopes under his night vision.

"Dog Actual to Sierra, do you copy over?" Frank activated his comms. "Come in Sierra!"

"Sierra to Dog Actual. I see you over," Drake's voice came in slightly distorted but understandable via the comms.

"Under heavy pursuit! Requesting immediate support and extraction over!" Frank yelled into his comms as the trio dashed across the open ground and hit the rocky path, heading towards the location where they dropped their belaying kits.

"Dog Actual to Base, mission failed, repeat mission failed," Frank made a report back. "Target has some kind of barrier protection, missile strike has no effect, over!"

"Roger that Dog Actual, RTB immediately," Base responded.

"Damn, where's our support!" Frank cursed, as several balls of light lit up the mountain slopes, exposing their location. "Get behind cover!"

-----

"Come on," Drake whispered to himself as he laid prone on his poncho, his M7 DMR barrel and part of his scope poking out of the camo netting, over 600m away, watching his fellow Marines running to cover. He tracks his scope to the edge of the forest, just as several balls of light lit the area up like flares and dozens of croc cavalry bursting out from the trees, charging right at the exposed Marines.

"Many dragon cavalries!" Kont cried out in excitement as he laid next to Drake, using the bino to spot. "Eh, Six-two-three meters.. six-one-five... They are closing fast on your friends!"

"Right," Drake had earlier zeroed his rifle scope to 600m. He tracked the nearest croc-dragon thingy and gently stroke the trigger, feeling the slam of his rifle butt against his shoulder. A second later, the creature topples over, flinging its rider off its saddle.

"Good hit!" Kont cried, "Look 10 paces to your left!"

Following Kont amateur instructions, Drake still managed to snipe the targets he is calling out. Damn, I need to properly teach him how to spot properly. He focused his attention back to sniping.

-----

Frank ducked behind a large boulder and popped up to fire at the charging cavalry, sending them toppling with each hit. Cooper joined in firing at the enemy as reached Frank's spot, while Koing dropped to a kneeling position and fired.

The Empire cavalry unable to close with the three humans, broke and retreated back into the cover of the trees. Checking his ammo, Frank nodded towards the cliff side, "We need to climb back up, we can't go by the main path. I am sure they will be waiting for us there."

"We got incoming!" Koing warned as dozens of figures appeared from the treeline. "LT whatever you want to do, better do it fast!" He fired at the massing soldiers.

"Base to Dog Actual, stand by for missile strike in 10 seconds!" Frank's comm crackled. "Danger close over!"

"Down down down!" Frank shouted to his men. "Incoming! Danger close!" He braced himself against the rock, covered his ears and opened his mouth. The other two marines also ducked down and copied Frank's actions.

By opening their mouths, the pressure wave caused by the explosion will not rupture their eardrums as the air in the various body cavities moves with the pressure wave.

Shortly after a bright flash and a ground-shaking rumble knocked them down, the blast of the explosion set their ears ringing. "Go!" Frank got to his feet unsteadily, shaking his head to clear the ringing of his ears. He looked over the rocks and saw the edge of the forest swathed with flames and smoke.

-----

Lord Kean stood at the shattered gate of the camp, his left hand gripping the neck of the female he captured earlier, dangling from his side.

"What is taking so long? Have not the enemy been destroyed?" Kean impatiently questions his underling beside him.

"I will find out what is taking so long my Lord," His man bowed and disappeared into the night and returning in a short while. "My Lord, they have encountered more resistance than anticipated."

"Tsk, can't even do anything right," Kean grumbled and headed towards the Goldrose camp, dragging the female along.

"What's this?" Kean asked in anger as he reached the entrance, seeing three of his men sheltering behind a magic barrier. "What are you doing?"

"My Lord!" One of the men called out, "There magic is too strong! We can't advance!" The barrier suddenly burst into sparks and another Knight brought up his magic barrier to block the shower of magic spells raining on them. "We can't see where they are casting their spells from!"

"What?" Kean could hear the thunderous crack of the thundersticks and the sparking impact of the spells on the barrier. Sweat could be seen glittering from the burning tents on the caster's face as he focuses all his power in maintaining the spell. Two of his men lifeless bodies laid out on the ground, riddled with bloody holes.

Kean dropped the girl and strolled up the gate into the Goldrose camp, ignoring his men cries of caution. He weaved a spell in his hands, chanting rapidly as he focuses his magic into his palms. Sparks exploded around him as the enemy spells impacted his barrier, draining its power with each hit.

Tossing out his hands, several magic circles appeared, before merging together and completing the spell. A massive ball of fire grew into shape and Kean quickly fires it off into the camp, once he has done that, he lowers his body as low to the ground as humanly possible and dashes after the fireball.

Using the light of the exploding fireball, he saw several figures hiding behind stacks of bags. He charges in a zigzag manner, dodging their thundersticks' spells. He leaped over the bags, watching the eyes of the short-ear beasts turn round in surprise and lands behind them. A quick sweep of his hands and a couple of heads flew off, blood squirting out of their severed necks like water fountains.

The rest of the soldiers froze, staring wide-eyed in fear, watching Kean lick his bloodied fingers, before raising their thundersticks up to cast their spells. But Kean had disappeared, leaving the four soldiers in confusion, and screaming in terror as a soldier arced his back sharply, his chest plate bulging unnaturally and vomiting blood, legs dangling in the air.

Kean stood behind the twitching body, his right-hand half penetrated into the back of the soldier, gripping his heart. He frowns slightly at the body, looking at the black cloth-like armor of the soldier. His hand has the power to punch through plate mail, but he could only penetrate the back armor of the soldier and not out of it. "Interesting,"

"BACK!" Karl screamed, following his own words, putting as much distance as he could. This guy is way more dangerous than those green skins! He ripped a flashbang out from his front pouch and tossed it at the elf standing there, illuminated by the flames.

Kean dropped the body and out of reflex, snatched the tube-like object thrown at him from one of the retreating soldiers. He looks at it in admiration, its workmanship exquisite with perfectly cut circular holes that lined the tube walls when it blew up in his face.

"Urgghhh!" Kean screams in pain, covering his face with his hands. His eyes blinded and his ears deafened by the loud explosion, he stumbled around in a daze before feeling something punched him hard in the chest and the world seemed to disappear.

-----

Pike watched the sun rising over the treetops, turning the skies into a splash of purple orange. He turned and look at the smoky remains of the attack several hours before and headed towards the field hospital.

"Staff!" A medical personnel greeted Pike as he ducked his head into the medical tent.

"How are they?" Pike gestures the wounded in the tent. "What's the count?"

"This way please," The medic led Pike to the rear of the tent, out of hearing from the wounded. "14 wounded, they will heal over time but we got nine dead." He sighed and flips the page of the notepad he was reading from. "The Goldies got another 31 dead and 12 wounded, and the civees we rescued, another 52 dead from the attack."

"Fuck!" Pike cursed. "How about the enemy? We got a prisoner right?"

"Yes, he suffered two GSW, one to his collarbone, shattering it. And another to his left lung." The medic explained. "He's out of danger at the moment, both shots over penetrated his body. If he was wearing armor, he wouldn't even be alive to be captured."

52 - Recovery

Blake sat at the head of the meeting room's table, his fingerings forming a tent shape under his chin. The elves as new allies were also included in this meeting. He started the meeting when everyone had settled down in their seats.

"Alright, the last few days were quite a test. We had lost men and elves to enemy attacks and also we retaliated back." Blake looked around the room, catching the eyes of everyone. "Chin up people, we beat back a force over three times our weight." He spoke in elvish for the benefit of the newcomers.

"Let's start the meeting. Status on our forces?" Blake asked Lt Frank.

"Yes, Sir," Frank stood up, the combat action he led had matured him, giving him more confidence than before. "Our current Marine combat strength is at 25, with one KIA and two WIA, while the supporting security section's strength is at 93, with 12 KIAs and 17 WIAs." He paused and flipped his notes, "Under Lord General Joseph command, he has a total of 970 soldiers of varying equipment. In the course of the last few days, his command had suffered 111 KIAs and 215 WIAs."

We lost 3% of our current manpower in just 2 days of fighting while the Goldies lost almost 10 times the amount! Blake mentally calculated. He looks at the princess next to him, knowing she will be greatly affected by the news.

Sherene lowered her head in sadness, when she heard the number of deaths, struggling to keep her eyes from tearing and smiles in gratitude as Blake places a calming hand on her arm.

"He also has erm, 14 mages under his command." Flipping his notes again, Frank continued, "We captured over 137 POWs, all of them wounded but not life-threatening. 43 of those creatures they called war dragons and over 400 sets of swords, spears, and armor. A total of 372 confirmed kills and another estimated 900 kills from the missile strikes. 900 is the low end of the estimation, we calculated that as high as 1,800 deaths to be exact. That's all for my report."

Joesph was surprised at the efficiency of the hoomans. He knew they were good but this is out of expectation. From the numbers of soldiers to kills and death, they are highly organized! While some of the things they said, he couldn't recognize, but he managed to guess its meaning.

Grayson stood up and did a quick report "The census as of this morning for the elven civilians joining us stands at 2052, the security working with the elven mages had screened them to prevent another incident like the day before from happening. The total number of elves including the soldiers is at 3039." Finishing his part, Grayson sat down.

QM Chen stood up next, "We need to watch our ammunition expenditure or train the troops to fire more conservatively. We expended over 40% of our existing stores of small arms munitions over the past three days, at this rate we will be fighting with swords and spears soon."

"Understood," Blake said, "I have a plan for that problem which I will go through with everyone later."

Chen nods and continues, "In the past week we fired off 10 AIM-32s, while the action with the wolves we burn eight missiles. Now we have left a total of 82 missiles in our inventory."

"The elves had brought along several of their domesticated animals which will help out with manual labor and transportation. They have 184 of those giant crocs like creatures which they called land dragons, 142 of those woolly 'muffalos' and over 300 small chicken-like wyverns which they breed for eggs and meat."

Blake glances at his tablet on the images of the land dragons which truly looked like some kind of docile giant dark blue crocodile with huge packs saddled on its back and sides, while muffalos look like a giant furry grey-blue buffalo with a face that reminds him of a kids show in the past using puppets. The chicken-like wyverns looked look a tiny fat fluffy white dragon with feathers instead of wings.

SA Alice who used to be from hydroponics made her report next. "For food, the elves had told us that they just barely have enough to support their own people over winter, which according to the elves is coming in a couple of months time. And because of that, we have to prepare too, if we want to fed over 3,000 people in the future. I propose we build several greenhouses to allow hydroponics farming and if possible convert part of the ship for indoor farming."

"Ok, submit a plan for that," Blake ordered. "Next?"

PO Letts who was in charge of construction spoke next, "We laid down plans for new accommodations for the new arrivals, and should be ready for them to move in, in about three to four weeks time. Also, we plan to beef up the defensives at the Pass, with a double reinforced concrete wall layout and heavily fortified bunkers that can provide better protection from fireballs. I wonder if lightning rods work against their lightning spells?"

"Get it tested with Magister Thorn," Blake ordered, turning to the Magister, "If you are willing to?"

"Of course, of course!" Thorn looked excited and lost at the same time, trying to figure out what these hoomans are talking about all afternoon.

"I propose we build more wind turbines to help power our growing future needs and also to charge the Point Defense lasers." Chief Matt spoke next. "Our reactor remaining fuel won't last, so we need new forms of energy generation. If will be best if we can dam up the river up north and build a hydro dam, it will provide more than enough power for our lasers."

"Ok, please look into it." Blake replied, "Dr. Sharon? You are awfully quiet today."

"Ahem," Dr. Sharon cleared her throat, rolling her eyes at Blake's comment. "Medical is totally swarmed, I haven't slept for days, so pardon me for being quiet." Her remark made the others chuckle, "Supplies are almost gone, I saved up some of the supplies for serious cases in the future, while I am back to using spit and tape for the less serious cases. So expect the wounded to recover in weeks or even months rather than days with advanced medications."

"No luck in finding any native plants with medical properties yet?" Blake asked.

"Nope, but with the elves here, I plan to grill them about their medical knowledge." Dr. Sharon gave a cold smile, making the elves feel a chill down their spines.

"Alright everyone, from the security side of things, I want everyone properly screened. We made a mistake, letting the refugees into the camp, lucky they were isolated for medical reasons that we managed to lower casualties. So let's not make the same mistake again."

'Next, prioritize food production and for the upcoming winter season. Submit your plans for your ideas and I will review them. Alice, recruit among the new arrivals with farming and animal husbandry skills to help you"

"Chief Gale, I want you to start producing heavy tools and if possible to replicate more fabricators out."

"Chief Matt, work on the plans for the dam and wind turbines. See which is more feasible or if we have the resources to go both ways."

"Letts see what you can do with the defenses against magic, work with the good Magister here."

"Dr. Sharon, I think you know what to do, right?" Blakes looked at everyone who nodded and making sure everyone understood his instructions.

"For the Pass, improve the defenses asap, I want 24 7 UAV scouts overhead. Anything that moves, I want it tracked and reported, clear?

"Alright I need everyone to work together, we are all in the same ship now. So if it sinks, we all drown together, best is we work together to survive." Blake encouraged everyone while earning blank stares from the elves. They probably don't understand a word I said.

"Final item, I will need people with mining or construction experience," Blake listed out his requirements to everyone including the elves. "Princess, please find out if any of your people are miners have mining experience, I need their help."

He nods to Ford who activates the display screen, displaying a map of the area. "We found several caves here," He points to the southeastern side of the hills. "I want to set up a team of miners and a relay station here."

"Caves?" Matt asked, "For what?"

"Saltpeter," Blake clarified, "We can make black powder with it and also it is used as fertilizer."

"Black powder?' Matt looked surprised, "Our guns able to handle it?"

"No, that is why we are designing a new weapon, but first things first. We need to have a source of niter." Blake explained.

"Eh, my Liege," Magister Thorn raises his hand like a schoolboy and asked, "Can I be allowed to learn your magic?"

Everyone laughed around the table, leaving the elves in confusion and slightly embarrassed.

"We do not have magic, in the same sense as you can cast magic," Blake explains. "What we have is science and technology." He further explains, "Our power comes from the understanding of how the world works."

"I-I see," Thorn looked crestfallen.

Blake feeling sorry for the old man said, "You can view our library, we have books teaching you about science and technology. And we also like to learn and understand magic from you."

Thorn brightens up as he heard Blake's words. "Of course! I will teach you all I know about magic too!"

"Any more requests?" Blake asked the other elves.

"Yes, my Liege," Joesph stood up and gave a salute, "I like to learn from your warriors, and your ways of war."

"Frank, see to it," Blake ordered. "Princess?"

"Can I follow you around as you work? I want to learn your ways too," Sherene spoke shyly.

"Erm, ok," Blake scratched his head, thinking is it a good idea. "Sure..."

"Alright everyone," Blake claps his hands together, "Get to work! The enemy won't wait for us to get ready!"

"YES MY LIEGE!" yelled the room, before bursting into laughter at Blake's expense.

53 - A time to Grief

A surprisingly quiet week passed by without any attacks from the Empire forces, and scouting parties sent to investigate found the previous campsite empty. The Empire forces had already retreated.

The Pass now had a two stories tall concrete wall, with a gate made from recycled cargo airlocks, large enough for two wagons to pass through side by side. The front of the gate were several chest high concrete barriers placed in such a way that forces anyone walking to travel in an 'S' path.

A second wall, hundred meters away was under construction, planned to be even taller than the first wall. Block towers of reinforced concrete and steel covered the ends of the wall, allowing soldiers to fire at the approaches.

The tents were gone, replaced with more concrete buildings designed to survive bomb blasts lined the rear of the walls, which served from barracks to storerooms and offices. A couple of wind turbines were under construction to provide power to the Pass defenses.

A simple paved road made of crushed rocks linked the Pass all the way back to the Base Colony. The elves refugees' city of tents had days before dismantled and the inhabitants moved into the walls of the colony.

-----

A huge crowd gathered over the top of a small hill, located outside the walls. The skies slightly cloudy and gloomy, the weather starting to turn colder, even the trees are starting to shed their leaves. People from both races stood silently and respectfully as coffins bearing the dead of the UNM crew and soldiers carried by bearers to their final resting place.

All the humans that turned out worn their dress uniforms and lined up in parade manner saluting the dead for giving their lives. Marines snapped to attention and raised their weapons, firing three volleys in a final salute, while a bugler blew a sober tune to give a final farewell. Flags were folded and handed over to Captain Blake who will help safe keep it till they can return home to their next of kins.

Blake gripped the folded flags tightly, vowing in his heart to not let any more of his men die. He spoke to the crowd. "Since we had arrived here, we suffered many losses, friends, family, and colleagues. Yet we did not grief or fall into despair, nor gave the dead a proper burial. We fought on and carried on with our duties. For that, I am proud of you all. Today, we are here to grief and honor our dead and give peace to them."

"Go peacefully, know that you men had exchanged your lives so that others could live on. You will always be remembered. Thank you."

The elves stood at the side, watching the hooman ways of honoring their dead. Days before, during the night, they had stacked their dead over firewood and sent them off into the heavens, where they will become one with the stars.

Sherene sighed as she watched the whole ceremony. We had caused unnecessary deaths to these hoomans, will they blame us in the future for it?

-----

In the city, hundreds of colorful tents lined up in perfect rows occupied a portion of the empty and unnaturally flat ground within the walls. Chatter and laughter could be heard from the tents as the people gathered in groups to exchange words or share a meal.

Lyonel struggled with a pail of water, trying to not spill any water out of it, as he navigated through the colorful rows of tents. Finally reaching his tent, he pulls the covers back, "Aunt May! I brought the water back!" And he sets it outside the tent and covers it with a wooden lid.

"Lyonel! Why aren't you still resting!" A plump motherly figure with an apron around her waist and a shawl covering her silver-brown hair appeared out of the tent. "The hooman healers told you to rest more!"

"I am fine! It's almost three five-days! And I want to help out!" Lyonel smiled at the middle-aged woman. As he does not have any known blood relatives here, the people in the Iron Castle arranged those children to stay with other families who are willing to accept them.

"Come in, I have gotten two bowls of meat porridge from the cook tents!" She fussed over him. Lyonel knew that she had lost her own child in the war, and treats him as her son.

"I heard that the hoomans are telling everyone to join classes." Aunt May places a bowl of still steaming hot porridge on his hands as they sat on the folding beds with a simple wooden crate as a makeshift table.

"Really?" Lyonel slurped the hot meal down, enjoying the salty taste of the porridge. "What kind of classes?"

"Language, maths, 'se-sign'?" Aunt May struggled with the unfamiliar word. "Also they are looking for people with work or skills experience in various industries."

"I want to be a magic soldier like those hoomans!" Lyonel mimic the gun actions of the hooman's thundersticks.

"No!" Aunt May nearly upsets her bowl as she stared in anger at Lyonel. "You are not allowed to join the army!"

"But…" Lyonel opened his mouth.

"Go to school and study your letters!" Aunt May said, cutting off Lyonel's objections. "You are still a child, wars are not for you! Finish your food before it gets cold. I still have to go to the Aid Station to help with sewing coats for the coming winter."

"Yes aunt," Lyonel quickly finished his meal, thinking that once he grows up he will join the army.

-----

Blake sat in his office, reading a list of reports in his computer, while Sherene sat at another table, tapping gingerly at the keypad, learning how to use the computer,

"How are you doing?" After an hour of approving and reviewing reports, Blake asked Sherene.

"I-I am fine!" Sherene's eyes glued to the screen, as she focused on the tutorials Blake gave her to do.

"Oh…ok," Blake watched the princess's intense focus at the computer. Oh well, back to work.

Reports of the Empire movement has shown them retreated out of the forest. At least that's one headache less. The defensive works were half completed, another week or so, it will be fully operational. Another couple of nests of those green skin goblins were discovered, and Goldrose soldiers supported by Marines were dispatched to handle them.

Schools were also opened up for both humans and elves to learn from each other, in the way of languages, culture, and skill. As they only have so many sets of translator devices, it is also better to learn how to speak and write Elvish than to rely on the device.

Classes teaching basic maths and science were also prepared to help train the elves into a basic workforce. While classes on farming, metalworking, and others were given to those already with experience in the related fields.

With the deaths of his crew, he has to get the natives trained with some basic elementary knowledge so they can operate machinery and work in the factories or farms. He also needed to get the Goldrose soldiers trained to handle firearms once they have the means to be produced.

A knock on the hatch woke Blake from his thoughts, He looks up and sees Ford stand there, with a tablet in his hands. "Come on in."

Ford enters the office and looked at Sherene who barely gave a glance at him, engrossed in her computer. He raises an eyebrow at Blake who shooked his head and gestures him to take a seat.

"New report for the saltpeter mines." Ford hands the tablet over.

Finally, the most important report Blake wanted to read appeared. The progress report of the mining station for saltpeter.

He reads the report which stated the number of worker recruited, the progress of the construction of a camp for the workers, the amount of niter mined and currently transported.

He scrolls to the bottom of the report, looking for the amount of processed potassium nitrate.

"We only managed to process a few kilos of that stuff currently," Ford explained, seeing Blake reading the bottom of the report. "We set up a distilling plant at the south end of the Base, and a laboratory for experimenting with it. There are only eight crew members who actually scored pretty well for their chemistry when they are still in school, so I roped them in as our chemists. They should be coming out with a batch of usable gunpowder anytime soon."

"That's great news. Any troubles?" Blake asked,

"Not at the moment. The guys are still figuring out the best way to distill the stuff and also plans for a milling plant to be connected with the wind turbines." Ford said.

"The computers archives has no records of this stuff?" Blake was sure that the computers have all the information they needed.

"Yes and no," Ford explains. "The computer only listed the chemical formulas and very basic information of its compounds and not ways to manufacture or extraction. It does not give every step by step information, so we have to experiment and test everything. And most of the crew are not really educated in sciences, especially chemistry."

"I see," Blake frowned, "We couldn't get the AI to simulated stuff out?"

"We lost most of its processing hardware when the ship blew and whatever remained got further damaged when we crashed." Ford shrugged, "The techs are working on restoring its systems as much as possible."

"Oh ya, the elves are saying those caves are dragons caves, by the way," Ford added as an afterthought.

"What? What kind of dragons? The docile ones or the giant flying ones?" Blake raised his eyebrows at Ford.

"Big flying ones."

54 - Goblins

"There is no need to be worried from what the elves were telling us about the caves," Ford said as he looked towards Sherene who was still super engrossed with the computer. "Apparently, those caves are all abandoned by the dragons from what they could see."

"Are they sure of it?" Balke asked. "If more of those things come back to the caves and seeing us messing around their homes, things can get real bad."

"Well, the elves sent a few of their experienced hunters to check it out and found the caves abandoned without any recent traces of dragons," Ford clarified, "But the more worrying thing is those green skins."

"Goblins?" Blake rubbed his chin, "Why?"

"They found old tracks of goblins around the caves and reminds of cookfires in the deeper parts. The hunters said that it could be the goblins use the caves as a winter retreat." Ford explained. "I have taken the liberty to increase the number of Goldie guards to cover the mining station."

"Good." Blake nods, "How about the Bluecoats? No sign of them yet?"

"Nope, the scouts follow them as far as they could before they pulled back due to the number of goblins in the forest." Ford scrolls through his tablet, "Well, recent UAV recon flights are also not picking up any unusual activity."

"And our friend?" Blake crossed his fingers and rested his chin on it. "How is he recovering?"

"Well, Doc says he going to get better," Ford rubbed his face. "The Goldies placed some kind of restraint on him that prevents him from using magic. He is still unconscious, so we couldn't question him yet. As for the corpsman, she's doing fine, back to work already."

"I see, make sure our guest doesn't run away, he's too dangerous," Blake ordered, "If he resists, use deadly force."

Ford nods, "Anything else?"

"Yeah, I plan to expand out along the grass plains for farming and rearing of animals, using the current road to the Pass as an anchor point." Blake brought out the map of the area on the display monitor in his office. "I plan to build a few fortified communities along the road for the workers and farmers to take shelter and holdout in an event of an attack."

"Good idea, with the increase of people inside the walls, there isn't much space for farming and animals. Planning division is going nuts," Ford chuckled, "Well, the labor force from the elves are helping out once nicely, especially the hunters and foragers, we shouldn't worry about food for the upcoming winter months."

"Great, now all we need is new weapons and training for the elves and we will be all set."

-----

The spray of salt water drenched the men as they hoist the sails of the two-masted squared rig. "Faster with the sails! Tack into the wind!" A dark complexioned middle-aged elf, with a faded red bandana and his ears, hung several gold rings yelled over the crash of the waves against the ship. "Helmsman! Bring the ship towards the wind!"

"Aye Captain!" The helmsman spun the ship's wheel, causing the ship to shudder as the wind blew into the sails.

Omaj Tinka, the captain, and owner of the trade ship, Wave Dancer, looked to the rear of his ship, seeing three dark dots at the horizon. He frowns and called for his slave mage. "Come here, boy! Make me a far-seeing eye!"

A skinny elven boy, no older than 15, dressed in a pair of undersized sailor's slops and an oil skin coat. His bright brown eyes narrowed in concentration as he held his hands up, forming a circle and started chanting. A small bright blue magic circle appeared, forming over his hands before the air shimmered and appeared to thicken.

Trader Omaj stood behind the boy, adjusting the direction by turning his shoulders, and peers through the boy's hands. The magically thicken air, bends the light and allow Omaj to see objects far away. The image between the boy's hands looked like a magnifying glass, displaying the three ships chasing them.

"Damn! Those are raiders! Goblin pirates!" Omaj saw the green skins working the oars at the side of the makeshift contraption they called a galley. The crudely stitched patchwork sails made out of animal hides or people skin billowed with an unnatural wind.

He looked at his map, his ship currently traveling in a channel, between an uncharted land and a large island, dominated by a series of volcanos that appeared dormant. He cursed, thinking that if it wasn't for the storm earlier, he had to make landfall to repair his ship, or he won't be stuck here.

They call this area the Goblin Sea, as there are thousands and thousands of those vile creatures that preyed on both sea and land. Hundreds of years ago, many nations attempted to colonize the land here but were set on by the savage goblins and their larger cousins.

The nations formed an alliance and marched into battle only to be defeated in the unknown lands. The goblins had stolen skills and technology from the defeated settlers and surprised the Allied armies, who thought of them as beasts.

Goblins armed with crude weapons like spears and knives, attacked from the forest en masse, overwhelming the Allied forces. The nations retreated and instead fought a defensive battle until the goblins exhausted themselves. Since then, they called the goblin's army as the Green Tide, as they appeared like an ocean of green, as thousands and thousands of the creatures attacked the city walls.

As for the ships, some unlucky trader or settler must have their ships raided and captured while they were beached or landed, many many years back. The goblin's pirate ships are considered outdated compared to his Wave Dancer while several at times a captured ship could be seen crewed by the vile creatures.

"Boy! Cast your wind magic on the sails!" He cuffed the boy's head. "Hurry! Or I feed you to the pirates!"

The boy took a deep breath and started chanting a spell to create wind, but due to his low magic power, instead of a strong wind, a breeze was formed instead. "What are you trying to pull!" Omaj kicked the boy away. "Useless piece of shit! An egg wyvern has more value than you!" He aimed another kick at the cowling boy.

Omaj ignored the crying boy and yelled, "Ready the stern bolt throwers!" The three goblin ships were slowly but surely catching up to them. His men, hearing his order rushed to the poop deck where two man-sized bolt throwers covered in oil canvas stood.

Removing the canvas, the men locked the arms of the ballista into position, while others carried meter long wooden shafts topped with bronze bolt heads. Another crew attached a bowstring made out of animal sinew to the arms and hooked it up to a claw.

Two crew members started to clank the winch, pulling the bowstring into its armed position, and another crew loaded the bolt into the flight groove, sitting the bolt against the claw.

"Ready!" The bolt thrower team leader shouted out when his bolt thrower is loaded, followed by another "Ready!" from the second team.

"Get here, boy!" Omaj yelled at the boy again, making him scrambled over to the bolt throwers, the crew members casting looks of disdain at the boy. "Set up your far-seeing eye again! Don't fail me or I whip you till the skin of your back is gone!"

The boy repeated his spell and luckily it held, enabling the bolt thrower team leaders to adjust their aims.

"The goblin ships are in range!" The first mate of Wave Dancer yelled. "Do we fire, Captain?"

"Yes! We need to delay them enough until we can escape!" Omaj glances up at the sun, which was hanging at almost 40 degrees angle in the sky. "At least another five hours to sundown! Once the night comes, we can escape from them!"

"Ready as you are and fire!" The first mate yelled to the team leaders.

The bolt thrower leaders made a few more minor adjustments and waited for the down roll of the waves before pulling the firing lever, and with a snap and crack, the bolts flew off towards the lead goblin ship. Using the far-seeing eye spell, the team leaders observed their shots, while the rest of the crews worked the wench to reload the bolt throwers.

"Down two notches and left three notches!" The leaders ordered their crew to adjust the throwers. "Ready!"
"Fire!"

A lucky bolt, flying out of one of the throwers with a speed of 158 meters per second, arced through the sky, traveling over 300 meters before slamming down at a perfect angle amidship, nailing several rower goblins together, sending them crashing to the back with the rest of the rowers.

The port side crude rowing oars snapped, forcing the ship to turn suddenly to the starboard side, causing confusion to the goblin crew.

The Wave Dancer crew yelled in triumph when they saw the lead goblin ship spin out of control. "Aim for the other ship!" Omaj yelled, smiling in joy. He ruffled the boy's hair and cheered along with his crew.

"Sail ho!" The lookout in the crow's nest suddenly yelled down. "Sails ho!"

"Ca-Captain!" The helmsman called out in sudden panic. "Two more goblins raiders has appeared!"

55 - Pirates of the Goblin Sea

Omaj's face paled as he ran across the slick decks of his ship, looking over the bow. Another two of the distinctive goblin ships appeared in their way, attempting to pinch them between the two fleets.

The sharp bows and twin patchwork sails hanging over the fat and low wooden hulls charged towards the Wave Dancer, like some kind of fat shark, the oars flashing in the late afternoon sun. Goblin drums could be heard over the crash of the waves.

"Where did they come from?" Omaj yelled angrily at the lookout in the crow's nest. "Where have your eyes gone to!"

"They just appeared out of nowhere! I swear!" The frightened lookout yelled back down. "They won't there at the beginning!"

Omaj cursed the gods for his luck. He was about to give new commands when a massive splash of water erupted from the port side of Wave Dancer, he leans over the side and saw a couple of drowning goblins. "They are in range?" He ran back to the poop deck and shoved the bolt thrower leader away from the boy.

Bending over the boy, he peers into the far-seeing spell. He sees the flat low decks of the goblin's ships stood a crude looking catapult, a couple of the goblins climbing into the basket armed to the teeth.

"Make ready! Prepare for boarders!" Omaj yelled to his crew, who started to open the weapons locker to grab cutlasses and shields. "Bowmen! Once in range fired as they bear!"

The waves are starting to subside as they reached the middle of the channel, allowing his bolt throwers to be more accurate but it is also the same for the goblins.

An ear-splitting screech sounded from overhead made everyone looked up, seeing a green blur smashing itself against the solid mast, leaving a smear of yellowish blood against the wall before what remains of the creature slid down onto the deck.

And another screech, followed by more. The lucky ones hit the sails and dropped relatively safely onto the decks, only to skewered by the crew of the Wave Dancer. "Furl the sails!" Omaj knew that they couldn't outrun the ambush, and the only way is to fight.

The other two goblin ships that appeared in their front with the wind towards their sails soon arrived within range as the Wave Dancer was getting tangled with the other pirate ships.

They turned and presented their broadsides, firing more of the goblin catapults, sending more green living missiles towards the Wave Dancer.

Dozens of goblins crashed in glee onto the Wave Dancer, their eyes wide in ecstasy and bloodlust as they doped up on some kind of magical drug, screamed in joy as they allow themselves to be flung over the water and onto the enemy ship.

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" A goblin crackled wildly in glee as it landed right on top of an elf crewman, his body cushioning its drop. The goblin sunk its teeth onto the neck of the dazed elf and rammed the bone shiv in its hand into the side of the unfortunate elf. "Wakakakakakakaka!"

Omaj expertly looped the head off the crazed goblin riding his crew member, but it was too late, the dying seaman flopped onto the slick decks covered in his own blood. "Protect the bowmen and the bolt throwers!" He yelled to his crew.

His crew quickly formed in a shield line, around the archers and the bolt throwers, as goblins rained down among them. The Wave Dancer which is built similarly to an old Terran brigantine mounts four bolt throwers on each broadside and two more each at the fore and aft of the ship, enabling the ship to fire at least six bolts per broadside.

As the goblin ships attempted to close in, the Wave Dancer fired off a broadside of six bolts right into one of the goblins' galley, shattering the twin masts, turning the decks yellow with goblin blood and dismounting two of the six catapults mounted on the decks of the galley.

"Drop the sails! Bring us about!" Omaj roared to his crew. His men quickly release the cables to allow the sails to unfurl, while the helmsman spun the wheel, bringing the ship into the wind,

The agile elf brigantine maneuvered smoothly out of the way of a goblin galley that sneaked up from the aft of the Wave Dancer and attempted to ram them from behind. The ramming attack failed and instead, the goblin rowers who kept their oars out desperately rowing to increase their ramming speed, had the oars smashed to bits as the galley's starboard hull scrapped against the aft hull of the Wave Dancer.

The oars splintered by the force of the collision broke ribs and sent arm length splinters flying all over the row decks, slicing flesh like paper, drenching the decks with goblin blood. Howls of pain and suffering drifted over from the goblin's galley.

"Burn them!" Omaj yelled over the din of clashing swords and waves. The archers placed a clay tube, filled with a flammable liquid onto their arrows and fired at the stricken galley at their rear. The clay tubes exploded upon impact against the wooden hole and a thick foul smelling sticky tar oozed out.

"Boy! Burn them!" Omaj shoved the boy towards the railing. "Quick!"

The frightened boy raised his trembling hands and started chanting in a small voice, forming a tiny red magic circle, which ignited a tiny spark, landing on the galley.

Omaj cursed, watching the poor performance of the mage slave he purchased from the Empire since the start of this journey. He spent over 60 gold royals on the boy and felt cheated by the slave merchant who sold him. "What can you do right?" Omaj kicked the boy, sending him groaning in pain. "Again! Or I throw you instead, over to the goblins!"

The boy got up shakily onto his feet and leans against the railings for support, raising his hands, he focused his magic again, and a red magical circle appeared as he chanted. This time, a shower of sparks flared out over the widening expanse of the two ships, some of them landing on the galley and which a sudden whoosh, the galley decks coated with the black sticky tar burst into flames.

The goblins screamed in fear and tried to beat the flames out, using seawater, but the flames were too hot and spread too much. The thick clouds of black smoke choked the goblins who attempted to put the fire out and soon the whole vessel slowly burnt down to the waterline.

"Now, that is the way!" Omaj voiced his approval to the boy. "Do well and be treated well. Fail me and suffer the consequences!"

With the rear three galleys disabled or destroyed, Omaj focused his ship weapons to the forward incoming two galleys. "They must have some kind of shaman on board if they can avoid detection for so long!"

The snap of the bolt throwers rang constantly as Omaj ordered his ship to present their broadside to the approaching goblins. His archers shooting down any suicidal flying goblins that tried to land on his ship while the rest of his crew stood ready to cut down any goblins that landed or manned the bolt throwers.

The sky slowly turned purplish and red as the sun slowly sets across the horizon, and the sea around the Wave Dancer floated bodies and broken wooden parts. Predators from the ocean circled as they feast their bellies full on the aftermath of the battle.

Another galley burnt in the distance, spewing thick black smoke and the rearmost goblin pirate had retreated, leaving the battle with a loss of four galleys.

"Captain," A serving boy hands a ladle with fresh water to Omaj, who gratefully accepted it and drown its contents in a gulp. He scooped another serving and splashed the water over his head, cooling himself and wiped the sweat and the soot off his face.

Omaj looked at the slowly drifting and burning hulks of the goblin ships and frowned. They managed to fight off and destroy the creatures but in the process of doing so, had damaged the repaired mast, meaning they have to make landfall again to cut a new mast.

This journey is making him lose more money than it is worth! And with winter coming, the trade winds will change, making the journey even longer. He thought of all the bolts of silk, grains in wax sealed clay jars and ingots of copper and iron stored in the hold.

"Captain, we have 15 dead, and 24 wounded." The first mate reported a bald elf with an old scar across his face. "Could have been worse, if the boy's magic hasn't saved us at the last moment."

The shaman on the goblin side fired a flaming spell, which burnt their sails and mast down. The boy managed to cast a wind spell that extinguished the fire before it spread, but it had taken all his energy and he has collapsed afterward.

The shaman was later killed by archers who saw what the boy did and even if he was a slave, the boy is still part of the Wave Dancer's crew and he had saved the ship.

"Well, his magic is still so weak, he has to improve his power if he wants to become a freeman and have a place in this crew!" Omaj turned to look at the concussed boy laying on the deck.

-----

"XO! We are getting reports of smoke along the sea on the Southside!"

56 - Magic 101

Blake looked at the plans for the gunpowder mill, it was to be powered by wind energy with the use of a wind turbine.

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the number of files in his computer he has to approve. Food, water, shelter, tools production to the war with the Empire.

He looked at the princess who laid on the table with her head over arms, her glossy hair spilled over the keyboard.

He got up from his chair as quietly as he could and draped his jacket over her shoulders just as his communicator beeped urgently, waking the princess up.

"Eh, I got to go," Blake said awkwardly and shuffled hurriedly out of the room.

Sherene pulls the jacket closer to her body and smiled sweetly at Blake's retreating back.

-----

Magister Thorn had a wonderful 5 day week. He had followed several hoomans around, learning their words and observing their 'tek-no-logee'. The study of the natural world is so fascinating! He absorbed the textbooks teaching about physics like a sponge.

Using what he learned about physics, he tried applying some principles to his magical spells, successfully creating new and more powerful spells!

And the thunder sticks used by the hoomans, are just basically using some alchemistic formula to propel a projectile out, similar to a crossbow but many times deadlier!

Thorn couldn't imagine the look on Joseph's face when he shows him his new spells. Thorn just couldn't wait to meet him later in the day. It will be priceless to see his expression!

But before that, Thorn was currently teaching a class of hoomans on the understanding magic.

"Magic is formed from six basic elements. Fire, air, water, earth, light, and death. Each element draws power from their respective element." He explains in a mix of Engish and Common.

"Fire magic is mostly chaotic and destruction based spells, water magic is usually manipulating and control spells, air magic harness the power of natural power of wind and weather, earth magic is the control of nature and growth, light magic involves healing and restoration while last of all death magic controls the realm of the dead and decay." Thorn tried to explain in simple terms to the hoomans.

"To cast spells, we draw magic from inside our bodies or gather from the surrounding energy if there is plenty of magic around. Or we use a stone of power, a pure form of crystallized magic energy, which I believe, you hoomans named it as 'Mana stones'." Thorn held up a crooked staff capped with a green-brown crystal the size of a small chicken egg. "I searched the word 'Mana' in your 'com-puta' and found it meant 'Power' in some language of yours."

"Using these stones, we can draw upon more magical energies than what a normal people body can hold," Thorn displayed a sparkling burst of light and magic show. "Of course, there are some freaks who are born with more energy than ten people combined."

"Magister Thorn?" Dr. Sharon raised her hand up like a schoolgirl and asked, "Does the color of the stones represent anything? And how is it found?"

"Ahh..." Thorn stroked his beard, putting down the staff. "There are only four classes of magical stones found naturally, Fire, water and earth type of stones." Under fire type, the color is mostly red to orange, while water is mostly blue, air type stones are mostly translucent. And last of all earth type stones are either green, yellow or brownish in color." He displays his staff topped with the green-brown stone. "Of course, there are also different quality and clarity!"

"The stones are formed naturally in certain creatures with magic affinity to the elements. Like the wind wolves that you have encountered before," Thorn explains, "The wind wolves have a natural affinity to wind, granting them a layer of moving air around their bodies, which make arrows and bolts harder to penetrate their bodies!"

Exclamations of surprise and head nods could be seen around the classroom, as the hoomans started chatting among themselves. "That's why AP rounds don't really work on them!" He vaguely heard some hooman saying that. AP? What is that? He wondered.

"Some creatures, like dragons, can have their blood crystalize into what we called 'Bloodstones'. these 'bloodstones' contains a lot more magic power compared to a normal 'Manastone." Thorn, liked the way the hoomans named the stones of power as mana.

"How about light and death magic?" Dr. Sharon asked again. "Are there no mana stones formed naturally for those? And those green skins why they don't have stones on them?"

"Light and death magic is extremely rare, the magical energies are unable to crystallize due to the day and night!" Thorn explained excitedly, these hoomans are more excited to learn compared to his apprentices and those students in mage school! "There is no full day of light or darkness, that allows a creature with affinity to either one to form the stone."

"So you meant that as long as a creature with affinity to light, say gets exposed to sunlight all the time will slowly have a light stone created?" Dr. Sharon clarified her thoughts with Thorn. "So if the creature gets sunlight for weeks or months constantly, they will create a light stone if they have an affinity to light magic? Correct?"

"Yes YES!" Thorn hopped in excitement, "But it is impossible to do that! There is only so much sunlight per day! When the sun goes down, the gathered magic is consumed over the night, thus there is no leftover magic to crystallize! And light magic dispels death magic, so it is the same for creatures of death affinity!"

"As for green skins or goblins as you called them, they are similar to us, people who have what we called colorless affinity, meaning we can cast either element of magic. Like us, their magic is constantly being used and does not accumulate into stones."

"There were plenty of experimentations by the other countries to create light and death stones over the course of history, but they all failed." Thorn droned on. "Death magic is taboo by most if not all countries as they involved plenty of deaths to occur or live sacrifices."

Dr. Sharon frowned in deep thought, does that means we can artificially create light or death stones? "Hmmm..."

"Moving on!" Thorn excited rubbed his hands, loving the attention the class of hoomans is giving him. "Each person's body has a natural born storage of magic energy that is collected and stored. It gets replenish over time, but if you spend all the magic energy in your body, you get what we call 'Magic fatigue' which can cause extreme tiredness or in some cases, the person falls unconscious."

"Magic is classed in 10 levels, each level is identified by a magic circle and its color," He looks around the class, seeing everyone taking notes attentively. Oh, I love these students! Most of his previous years of teaching, the students mostly ignored him or sleeps in class!

"The power of the spells depends on the size of the circles, which is dependent on the caster's amount of magic power too. So if you want a more powerful spell, you need stones to help increase the amount of magic." He displays a level three spell, invoking three magic circles floating over his hand as he chanted.

The magic circles were the size of dinner plates and emitted a green glow, Thorn finished the spell and the whole room suddenly felt warm and cozy. Dr. Sharon immediately felt her tiredness disappear and strangely relaxed.

"This is a simple energy restorative spell. I did not spend much mana on it, it will only last a short time before disappearing." Thorn used the hooman word for power. "This spells creates an area of effect that anyone is inside is affected by its power. It helps restore stamina, but it cannot be used too often, as the body still requires rest to naturally recover. Too much Restoration, the user count break his own bones and suffer injuries still as they overtaxed their bodies."

"So this spell is just an illusion of the mind? Tricking it to think that their body is not exhausted?" Dr. Sharon asked again. "How about healing spells?"

"No, not an illusion, it just takes energy from the body!" Thorn explained. "Like it uses other energy from your body to give you stamina and strength!"

Wow? I think he means, stored energy like fats and stuff. Won't this be a great way to lose weight? If we could package this and sell on Earth, we will be rich! Dr. Sharon thought to herself. "How about the energies in the stone? Will they deplete?"

"Ahh, here's the interesting thing," Thorn grinned like a Cheshire cat. "The stones do run out of mana but it can slowly replenish the lost mana over time!"

"Wow is that some kind of solar powered magic casting wonder wand?" Someone in the back joked, causing some confusion to Thorn who did not really understand what solar means.

"Erm, it just recovers on it own over time," He explained again over the laughing class. "A stone like th-."

A sudden blare of alarm cuts into his lecture halfway, followed by a magical announcement coming from the ceilings, "All hands stand to, Condition Yellow! Repeat Condition Yellow!"

57 - New World

"Lower the longboat!" The bosun yelled at the crew, "Handsomely now, lads!" Lit by storm lamps, the crew struggled with the hoist to lower the longboat over the side of the Wave Dancer and into the water.

"Captain, it's dangerous for the crew to row in the dark," the first mate advised his captain. "Not to mention trying to make landfall in the goblin-infested waters."

"That's why we must make immediate repairs to the ship, so we can get underway before the sun comes up," Omaj explained. "When dawn breaks and the goblins spot us still here, they will swarm us with their ships."

The Wave Dancer was currently anchored several kilometers offshore, her crew working to get the longboat down, to transport a work party onto shore to cut an everblue tree down.

"Make sure the men know the risks, the faster we rebuild the mast, the earlier we can get away from this godforsaken place!" Omaj said to his first mate.

A mighty splash and the cheers of the crew signal the boat had safety dropped over the side. The work party started climbing down the cargo net rigged to the side of the side and onto the longboat.

"Two trips to bring everyone over." The bosun reported to Omaj. "Guards and all, Sir. "Do you want to refill the water barrels if freshwater is found?"

Omaj nodded in the dim light from the storm lamps. "Once the boat sets off, douse all lights. And ensure all crew to be on silent watch."

"Aye Captain!" the first mate left the upper decks and started instructing the rest of the crew in a low voice.

Omaj looked up at the twin waning moons and prayed silently to the fickle goddess of the sea, for protection against the goblin pirates.

-----

"What are they doing?" Blake stood at his usual spot on the bridge, with Ford at his side. "Why are they lowering a boat over?"

The Owl Eye UAV hovered at an altitude of a hundred meters, it's quad motors struggling against the strong sea wind to stay stable, the main propeller on standby mode.

Its triple sensor lens spun once and focused on the moving figures on the anchored ship, displaying the whole scene in green light, to the observing humans.

"It appears that the mast of the ship is down," Ford points to a dark empty section on the deck of the ship. "They seemed to have fought a naval battle earlier."

"Well, I am not surprised," Lord General Joesph said. "The sea and lands around these areas are notorious for goblins. That's why we were quite surprised to see your city built here."

"Ready? We didn't encounter many goblins." Blake frowned. "Are they that dangerous?"

"Well, they are mostly a nuisance but as a massive army, yes, unless you are behind a high wall, with lots of arrows and bolts," Joesph explained. "Settlers had attempted to settle down here hundreds of years ago but were driven off by the green skins," Joesph explained the history of the area to Blake and Ford. "Several nations banded together in an alliance to destroy the goblins were instead defeated."

"With their ships captured or razed, the defeated remnants fell back deeper into the lands, over the mountains before building a city fort to defend against the Green Tide." The bridge crew stopped work as they became absorbed in Joesph's story.

"That was how the People founded the first city in this land. Seven different nationalities united in one goal, to survive in the new world."

"So what happened?" Ford asked.

"Our ancestors fought off the goblin hordes, and slowly expanded, growing stronger, but soon they faced creatures beyond their understanding and facing internal turmoil, before finally split into dozens of small kingdoms after the death of the first King."

"Is that how the Goldrose Kingdom was formed?" Blake asked.

"Hahaha, no! We Goldrose are from the direct bloodline of the first King! He who united the defeated and lost allied armies. King Legon Goldrose!" Joesph proudly said.

"Our princess is the 34th descendant of King Legon!" Joesph stated. "But sadly, she is the only final descendant of that proud lineage."

"I see…" Blake and Ford looked each other with a raised eyebrow. "Interesting..."

"Cap, the boat has landed on the beach," a bridge crew reported the movements of the unknown ship, interrupting their thoughts. "It unloaded the people and is returning back to the ship."

They turn their attention back to the screens, observing a dozen men spreading out from on the beach, heading towards the forest.

"Strange, if you said these lands are all goblin infested, but we really did not see much of them around," Blake spoke out his thoughts to Joesph.

"I am not very sure. We choose to escape here as we planned to make use of the goblins to keep the Empire off our backs." Joesph replied. "Rarely had anyone came so far, we relied on maps that are hundreds of years old!"

Both Blake and Ford frowned and looked at each with a worried look. "So where have all the goblins gone to?"

Joesph shrugged in a very human way. "I have no idea. The goblins tend to like to live deep underground in caves or ruins."

"Alright, no point worrying about that now," Blake said, "Let's focus on these strangers. Lord Joesph, do you have any idea where they came from?"

"As we are a landlocked country, not really, but they might be merchants from the isles." Joesph stroked his chin. "The Isles are famous for their ships and merchants."

"The Isles?" Ford asked, "Is it on the maps you shared with us?"

"Yes, but the maps are not very accurate nor detailed like yours." Joesph looked embarrassed. "We do not really have much knowledge of the seas around these lands."

Ford nods and opened the scanned Goldrose map, interposing over the current area mapped by the humans on the main display.

All the way up north of the Pass laid the old Goldrose Kingdom, and further up their borders stands the Empire, and another two nations to the northeast and east of Goldrose, the Meccan Kingdom, and the Foral Kingdom.

The entire continent is similar in shape to a pear, with several clusters of islands to the southeastern part of the continent. The Isles laid around that cluster of islands.

The interesting feature is that the entire continent appeared to be surrounded by a ring of mountains, with a giant inland freshwater sea in the middle of the continent. The nations appeared to walled in by the mountains. The elves named the land as the New World.

Another two continents laid south of the New World, where their ancestors came from were labeled as the Old World. "Do you know how far are the distance between New and the Old World?" Ford enquired Joesph.

"Well the old texts said, as much as 20 5 day weeks or more," Joesph replied.

"Why didn't you return to the Old World?" Blake asked, "And did the Old World send any more ships over?"

"Well, from what the old history texts wrote, our ancestors were too busy trying to defend as the goblin horde to devote much attention to the Old World. Outposts and forts built in the untamed lands get overrun easily if not garrison enough or supply lines get constantly raided. Therefore the decision to stop sending men to their deaths was made." Joseph explained. "I am sure it is the same for the other nations."

"Hmmm, so there is no news of whatsoever of the Old World?" Blake asked again to which Joesph shook his head.

"We have no contact with the land where our ancestors came from for over hundreds of years," Joesph said.

Blake thought to himself, so they have been cut off from the whole world, living in this ring of mountains, like a frog in a well. Blake gave a look to Ford who nodded, signaling him that they will talk about this later in private.

"Sirs," the tech reported from his station. "The boat has returned with another load of passengers and is currently beached on the shore."

Blake nods, "Keep observing, inform us of any changes." He turns back to Joesph and asked, "What do you know of the people from the Isles?"

"Mostly from merchants, they are supposed to be the remanents of the defeated allied fleet. The surviving warships and supply ships with their sailors escaped to the islands and settled down over time." Joesph narrated the history of the Isles as much as he knows of and remembers.

"It's said that they have the blood of the sea in them, making them great sailors and merchants," Joesph explained. "They rarely come to do trading in Goldrose, mostly dealing with Meccanians instead as they have a seaport nearer to the Isles."

"So there is a high chance they are traders?" Blake points to the image on the screen. "If we contact them, we start some trading."

58 - The Untamed Lands

The beached crew of the Wave Dancer stumbled along the coast in the dark, trying to find a suitable everblue tree, using the help of the boy, who managed to conjure up a ball of light, providing some form of illumination to their surroundings.

Finally, the ship's carpenter declared a tree that was suitable for the mast, and the crew carried tools over and started sawing the ironwood tree. The guards fanned out in a circular formation, protecting the crew while watching out for monsters.

The boy yawned sleepily, his job was just to maintain the light spells constantly to provide enough light for the crew to work with. He sat against another tree, his eyelids felt like lead weights as he fought off the sleep demons.

The crew hurried their work, working fast to finish cutting down the tree and stripping the leaves and branches off, fueled by stories since childhood about the horrors that ran amok in the untamed lands. They worked strangely quiet in the night, other than the occasional grunts and huffs, no chatter could be heard, afraid that they might attract the attention of hostile creatures.

Even without chatter, the sawing and the eventual felling of the tree echoed mightly throughout the forest, causing the bird wyverns to cry out in surprise from their nest, sending a huge cloud of birds flapping away in anger and fear from the trees.

Everyone froze, even the boy snapped away and alert, they all stared into the depths of the forest, feeling the darkness creep up into their bones. The guards fingered their weapons and ready their round wooden shields, while the ship crews holding felling axes stood nervously peering around them.

Time passed slowly, a turn of the glass, followed by another, and the crew and the guards slowly relaxed, some even started to joke around themselves, patting each other over the backs for scaring themselves.

As the men turned their attention to the felled tree, the sudden snap of a twig, froze everyone again. Turning towards the direction of the sound, they readied their weapons again, "Hey you two," The bosun ordered in a low voice, "Go check it out!"

Demal had joined the Wave Dancer as a guard for adventure and coins. It was the second voyage he signed up for, the first providing him with enough coins and stories to provide for and entertain his four younger siblings for some time. So when the call at the port for crew came again, he signed up and gotten the job easily as he has worked with the Wave Dancer before.

He rubbed his sweaty palms against his salt crusted pants and heaved the dagger-ax up, pointing the sharp end towards the direction of the sound, while his friend and fellow guardsman, Qoman held up the burning torch in his left hand and a short sword on his right.

They advanced step by step carefully deeper into the forest, avoiding as much of the loose twigs and leaves scattered all over the forest floor. Leaving the contours of the mage light, they entered the dark forest, the feeble light from the burning torch trying to cast away the darkness around them.

"You see anything?' Demal asked in a low whisper, bending low with his polearm held out perpendicular to the ground. His eyes slowly adjusting to the darkness, but the flickering shadows cast from the light by the trees appeared to be taunting him, making him imagine monsters hiding behind the trees.

"No, I don't see anything at all," Qoman lifted his smokey torch higher, trying to light the area more. "What's that?" He heard a rustle of leaves to his right and he spun around. "You heard that?"

Demal looked back towards the rest of the crew, feeling the urge to run back into the protective embrace of the lights cast by the boy mage. "What are you doing?" He turned back around as the torchlight from Qoman appeared to dim.

Only to find Qoman missing, just a burning torch marking his previous spot. "Oh, my goddess!" Demal prayed, he slowly backs toward the rest of the crew, his eye wide in fright, "I should have listened to mother and stay home!"

He took another two steps back, trembling and bumped against something on his back, and felt a breath of warm, rotting air washing over him, looking up, he saw in the dim light, a row of yellowing dagger-like teeth, the mouth salivating and opening impossibly wide. "I am sorry mother!" he cried before disappearing into the maw.

-----

"The sailors are under attack," The UAV operator in the bridge reported to the command team. "No visual on the infra and most of the canopy is blocking the sensors from penetrating."

"Night vision?" Blake asked the operation, watching the hues of color appearing and disappearing on the main display, "Anyway to see what is attacking them?"

"Sir, there is an 87% chance of the attackers are the giant wolves." The operator replied as he tapped several keys on his control panel. The live images the UAV managed to get through from the breaks in the canopy showed very little.

"Are we gonna send help?" Joesph asked, "They getting slaughtered."

Ford raised an eyebrow at Joesph and asked, "So we send people into that, with a high chance of some of them not going to make it back alive for what? To find their remains?"

Joesph's face turned red, "But we can't just abandon those men to their deaths!" He argued with Ford. "If we save them, it will also be easier for the Isles' merchants to trust and work with us!"

"So you are now willing to send your men to their deaths or you want to borrow our power for that?" Ford snapped back.

"Enough," Blake cut through the argument, "Both of you! We will send a team down when the day breaks. No point in wasting lives in the dark and in unknown territory. Besides, it has ended." Blake gestures to the screen.

The imagery showed bodies slowly cooling and fading into the cooler background temperature. "Lord Joesph, please go prepare your men for departure at the barracks, we leave at dawn," Blake ordered.

"As you command, my liege,' Joesph gave a salute and left the bridge while Ford glared daggers at his back.

"You are too soft," Ford muttered. "Why do we need to help everyone we see?"

"Yes, I know, we are not a charity organization," Blake smiled at Ford's temper. "Bullets and medical supplies are not free, but it is good to have a debt owed to you. Makes negotiation easier."

Ford shrugged, "Our bullets and medicine are not unlimited you know?"

"Think of it as an investment?" Blake turned to Lt Frank who stood watching the tactical display map quietly.

"Lt? Why so quiet the whole night?" Blake enquired. "What's your thought on this?"

"We have been trying to track the wolves for some time now, but haven't been successful at all. And they had been very quiet too, almost no signs of any wolves at all." Frank leaned over the table as he calculated the distance of the encounter to the base.

"We might have forced them off their usual hunting grounds, they are probably trying to stock up for winter, and those men just nice made a nice juicy meal for them." Frank gave his assessment.

"We probably won't find much remaining there, well, chances of any survivors doesn't look good, and yeah, I would rather do this in the day than at night." Frank gave his thoughts, "Also, Cmdr Ford is right, we can't keep doing charity for others. The men are tired and we are low on beans and bullets. Very low."

"Heard and received, LT," Blake nodded. "Make the men ready, depart in the morning."

"Yes, Sir!" Frank gave a salute and left the bridge.

"Boy's pretty sharp for his age." Ford commented, "He will do good in the future."

Blake agreed, "Yes, we really need that gunpowder mill up and running asap. The problems this world keep throwing at us, it's like some kind of timer of bad stuff, and we keep running out of time."

-----

The boy huddled into a ball, hiding in a hollowed trunk of an everblue. He covered his mouth and nose with both his hands, trying to stifle his sounds of breathing. The crack of twigs and dried leaves draws closer, and he prayed to the goddess in his heart.

Just as the sounds of heavy footfalls neared him, a scream of fear echoed down the dark forest, and the huge creature spun around, racing off towards the unfortunate soul. Howls followed by more screaming could be heard from where the boy hid.

Feeling his heart almost exploding from the tension, the boy quickly took several deep breaths to calm himself and with trembling hands, cast a tiny barrier around his hiding place in the trunk which helped to mask his presence.

Thus he hugged his knees toward himself and prayed, hearing screams and howls till fatigue consumed him into darkness.

59 - Survivor

Floodlights lit up the mustering square outside the concrete barracks, both the elves and humans formed up according to their respective squads, both races had been doing joint exercises lately, devised by Staff Pike.

Lt Frank stood watching the men forming up and doing roll calls, "Why are there like so much missing marines and security? What happened?" He noticed the number of reporting strength is lesser than the usual.

Sgt Collins shook his head, "Those dumb asses had all reported in sick,"

Frank turned, surprised, "What happened? Some kind of virus?"

"No, Sir!" Collins replied, "Recently they have been dared by the survey teams to eat the stuff they brought back without going through proper checkup first, those arseholes thought it was funny."

"What?" Frank looked pissed, "Are they that stupid?"

"Bunch of kids," Collins shrugged, "Lucky no one is badly sick from the inedible stuff, Doc is quite pissed off too. She's threatening to give anyone else who tried food that is untested a major enema with her largest syringe." Collins grinned.

"Hahaha," Franks laughed along, "Well hope those punks learn their lessons. When Staff Pike gets back from the Pass, hahaha, they are so going to hell."

Collins grinned wickedly, before turning his attention back to the roll call. "Alright LT, all here, except for those reported sick."

"Brief the men, by 0600, all units are to be loaded up and ready to move out at any moment," Frank ordered.

Collins gave a salute and jogged off, yelling for the NCOs to gather up. The integrated squads now consisted of a single marine, acting as an in charge and a security personnel as the 2nd I/C and the rest of the ten men squad were filled by the Goldies, armed with swords and up teched short ranged repeating crossbows.

The marines turned in their M7A1s and instead carried the 5mm PDWs and everyone also started carrying a sword or a machete with them along too. They used the armory diamond grinder to grind the Empire's short swords into a hacking blade design which the crew preferred.

The Goldie soldiers treated the machetes as some high tier godly weapon as it could cut through armor easily due to it mono blade edges, while the sharpened swords have a better edge compared to before, much to the crew's amusement.

Two half-tracks painted in a digital camo scheme of blues, greens, black and greys, accompanied by another two more jeeps in the same color scheme, rolled into the muster ground. Five squads will set off to the site where the sailors were last seen once the sun is up.

Frank stood inside his office in the barrack's admin building, watching the men milling around by the newly arrived vehicles, and hoped that the mission will go well, which will bond the human and elven soldiers, closer.

-----

"Ahoy the ship!" The bosun yelled from rocking longboat, of the 30 odd sailors who went down to shore, only nine survived, including the bosun. "Lower the hoists!"

The bosun had fled the instant he knew that there was something very wrong, thus he managed to survive with the eight others left watching the boat at the beach.

"What happened?" The Captain yelled down from the side of the hull, "Where's the replacement mast?"

"Sir, it was terrible sir!" The bosun after climbing back up the ship reported. "Monsters ate all the men! I was barely able to escape!"

"What?" Omaj cursed loudly, thinking quickly, his ship without the top mainmast will lose some speed, especially if they want to run from the goblin pirates. "The carpenter? And the boy?"

The bosun shooked his head and didn't dare to meet his eyes.

Omaj slammed his fist against the wooden railing, losing the ship's carpenter was a serious hit, the boy slave is just money, which can be earned back, but without the ship's carpenter, if even if they have spare spars to repair the topmasts, they can't!

"Bring up the longboat, we will take a chance at running pass the goblin pirates before the sun is up!" Omaj ordered, "Clear the decks! Prepare to go silent sailing!"

TThe crew of the Wave Dancer jumped at his orders, quickly retrieving and securing the longboat back in its berth. The anchor was raised up while other hoisted the sails down, catching the morning breeze. The ship's navigator directed the helmsman softly and the ship slowly started moving off, the figurehead of a lady dancer dipped into the waves, forming a small bioluminescent bow wave.

-----

The boy jerked awake suddenly, feeling his back cold and damp with morning dew. He sat listening to the surrounding of the forest, trying to sense if those monsters are still around. Finally gathering enough courage, he peers his head out of the hollowed trunk, peeking over the tree roots.

Seeing and hearing nothing, except for the sounds of insects and animals waking up from the morning sun, the gloomy and dark forest slowly lit up as the first sun rays pierce through the trees' canopy.

As the world slowly brightens around the boy, he felt the peaceful forest totally different from what he had experienced last night, like it was all a dream. He squeezed his aching body out between the roots and stretched his joints and muscles, feeling them cramping as he stayed in the same position for hours.

Finally feeling better, he set off towards the area where they last fell the tree. Picking his bare feet over the wet morning mild dew, he skipped over patches of bloody scraps, a testimonial to last night carnage and found the work site.

Bloody bits of body parts littered the site, with dark stains of coagulated blood sprinkled all over the area. He started to quickly gather up equipment and gear from the litter around the site. He grabbed a fallen cutlass and an abandoned oilskin knapsack. filling it with wet sea biscuits which had fallen off from somewhere or someone, a waterskin, lamp oil held in a tiny wooden cask and a cracked storm lamp.

He looped the cutlass into the cloth band around his pants and bundled his feet with scraps of bloodied cloth to protect them and hurried off without another look at the bloodied site.

As the boy headed deeper into the forest, he stops and cast a simple spell, which several specks of green light appeared and point towards a direction. Gritting his teeth, the boy waved the spell away and set off, all the while keeping his ears and eyes open for any signs of the monsters from the night before.

"I will take my revenge!" He said to himself as he pushed his frail body deeper into the forest, stopping here and there to take a short break or a drink of water and a bite of moldy biscuits.

-----

Collins gripped the side handle of the jeep as it bounced along the flattened grass, the lead jeep had cut a swath through the tall swaying grass which the other vehicles followed. The fresh sweet smell of fresh cut grass assailed Collins's nose, making him want to sneeze.

As they approached the edge of the forest, Collins turn on both his motion and heartbeat sensors attached to his harness, the high-powered ultrasound device used doppler-shift discrimination and wifi signals to filter out moving objects from stationary background objects and then displayed them on a small monitor with beeps to indicate positive returns of movement or heartbeats.

The lead vehicle rolled to a stop and the rest followed, "Alright! We are here!" Collins spoke into his comms, and leaped off the jeep, landing with a crunch on the grassland. "Form up in your squads!"

The rear tailgate of the half-tracks opened up and the men exited and formed up into their squads before heading into the forest. "Keep a 15-meter distance from each squad! All men are to have a line of sight to each other!" Collins called out in a mix of Common and English. "Move out!"

Three squads deployed into the forest while a single squad was left behind guarding the vehicles. The men spread out, supported by a motion and heartbeat tracker from each squad. Not long after, they arrived at the site of the massacre.

Collins looked up at the thick canopy, while his radioman walked around, trying to contact Base, before coming up to Collins. "Sarge, we can't get a proper signal out, we have to deploy a fixed line up to the trees over the canopy if we want a proper signal."

"Roger," Collins turned to the men checking the area out and yelled. "Alright make a quick sweep of the area, see if there are any survivors, and see if there is anything useful to salvage back!"

The men and elves went to work, combing the area, calling out to see if there is anyone still alive and picking up equipment from the ground.

"Want not, waste not," Collins said to his radioman, "Damn, these guys got torn up pretty bad," He poked at a bit of bloody gristle with his machete which the local insects and flies had started to feast on the carnage.

"SARGE!" Someone yelled, "I got a heartbeat reading here!"

60 - Return

Duke Sturm freshened up as much as he could in a side room after he landed riding the courier dragon onto the dragon platform of the top of the castle. The past three-five days of traveling by flying had been taxing for him, as he was flying non stop from one way station to another, switching the tired courier dragons for fresh ones.

The ornate double doors, flanked by two of the Emperor's Lifeguards stared impassionately at him as he approached deeper into the inner castle. The doors opened admitting him into the study of the Emperor, making him sweat more as he walked in to face the consequences of his defeat.

Duke Sturm bowed and went down on his knees and greeted the Emperor, "Long live the Emperor, your humble subject has returned."

"In defeat, no less," The Emperor snorted, "Your blunders had made the 3rd Lancers suffered so many casualties, that they might as well ceased to exist anymore!" He pounded the ironwood table in fury. "What do you have to say?"

Sturm did not dare to look up, keeping his head lowered to the ground, "The rebels had a very powerful mage and strange magical artifacts with them, my Majesty! Level 10 spells and artifacts as powerful as level 5s!"

"My Spies reported that you lost two heavy war dragons, over a thousand fighting men, and of course the entire 3rd Lancers of over two thousand men!" Emperor Varacen read from a roll of parchment. "You even had the enemy attack your headquarters!"

Sturm hearing the report cursed inwardly. He wanted to report directly to the Emperor, downplaying the loses and defeat. "Your Majesty, the enemy hit my troops constantly with Level 10 spells, we couldn't do anything about it!"

"This lowly servant managed to survive by using up a family heirloom artifact if not, this servant would have perished too!" Sturm explained as sweat gathered around his brow.

"I know what your artifact is capable of," Emperor Varacen leaned back against his throne. "Show me!"

Sturm dug into his inner chest pocket and removed out a piece of finely wrought crystal pendant attached to a silver chain. A eunuch approached Sturm with a piece of silk cloth set on a tray, and Sturm placed the cracked crystal pendant onto it.

The eunuch carried the tray with the crystal pendant and bowed to the Emperor, who picked up the pendant. The design of the pendant was made out of several runes carved out on the delicate silver wire, while a large diamond-like stone was set in the middle.

Emperor Varacen lifted the pendant up against the light from the windows, seeing the stone had turned dull and a crack had split the stone in half. "Level 10 spells you say?" He continued to examine the stone closely.

"Yes, your Majesty! The spells killed the dragons with a single strike and also the 3rd Lancers! I was lucky I had a light stone for protection!" Sturm explained. "The rebels have allied with some inferior creatures, who possessed some kind of weapon, an artifact that can constantly cast fire and thunder spells, each spell kill scores of men, in less time taken for a turn of a glass!"

"Hmmm," The Emperor leans against his throne lazily with an arm propping his head, "What happened next? I thought Sir Kean was leading the Knights, could he have failed too?"

"H-he had fallen in battle with the creatures," Sturm explained, "We set a trap for the rebels, hiding Lord Kean and his men with the slaves we released into the rebels. He was supposed to attack at night but we lost his magical life link and with the level 10 spells destroying our camp, I-I ordered the troops to retreat..."

"You meant you got scared and ran away with your tail between your legs?" Emperor Varacen mocked. "All these efforts and nothing to show at the end of it all. And you still have the guts to appear before me?"

"My Emperor! I deserve death for failing you!" Sturm frantically bows and bang his head against the gold inlaid marble tiles, causing blood to flow from his forehead.

"Enough!" Emperor Varacen waved Sturm to stop, "Don't dirty my floor."

"Th-thank you, your Majesty," Sturm straightened back on his kneeling position wobbly.

"What to do now?" The Emperor tapped his finger on the armrest of his throne as he watched Sturm kneeling in front of him. His main army is currently preparing for a spring offensive to invade Meccan once winter is over.

"Return to your lands, I want you to raise another army. and prepare for a spring offensive against the rebels," Emperor Varacen finally said. "Do not fail me this time, it's your last chance. I will send someone along with you, SHE will help you to wipe out the rebels and their allies."

Sturm kowtowed to the Emperor, praising him for his wisdom and leniency. He climbed up to his feet and retreated out of the room.

"Bring the witch here," Emperor Varacen spoke and returned to his work.

"Yes, my Emperor," A voice appeared out of thin air, followed by a slight breeze as the presence that
spoke disappeared.

A short moment later, the doors opened again and a hooded woman dressed in an oversized dark blue trench coat, flanked by two of the Emperor's Lifeguard walked in.

The Lifeguards bowed and shoved the individual forward to her knees and stood next to her, ready for any threatening moves she might make.

Emperor Varacen with his head propped against his hand spoke, "I have a task for you, satisfy me with your work and I will release more of your people."

The hooded female kept quiet, watching Varacen with her wavering golden eyes.

"Ha! Good, I like your defiant spirit," Emperor Varacen smiles wickedly, "Go with Sturm and settle the rebels, I want you to bring to me the Level 10 spells and the magic artifacts. Do it, and some of your people will be freed."

The hooded female, stood up, ignoring the Lifeguards' attempts to stop. Emperor Varacen waved the guards away, "Go and complete your tasks, I am sure you will not fail. You know the price of failure!"

She glared at Varacen for while before turning and walking out of the room, with the guards bowing to the Emperor and chasing after her.

"My Emperor, why do you keep someone like her," The mysterious voice appeared out of nowhere. "Just place a slave controller choker on her and she will do your bidding easily."

"Haha, then where's all the fun in that?" Varacen grinned, "I want to slowly break her spirit bit by bit."

-----

"SARGE!" Someone yelled, "I got a heartbeat reading here!"

"Squad one, on me!" SGT Collins yelled, running over to the voice. "What do you have?"

"There, 40 meters away in that direction!" The security crew pointed to a clump of dense tree roots in the distance. "No movement but picking up heartbeats. The signal is weak."

Collins turned and directions his men to spread out, before approaching the direction of the signal. He brings his own tracker up and the "Beep, beep, beep," audio grew faster and faster in his ear beads as he neared the target.

Collins paused and ensure everyone is in position and waves a couple of the elves forward into a flanking position. He gestures another elf to follow him and together they circled around the tree roots, finding claw marks gouged most of the roots into shreds.

He peers through the cracks to find a body slumped, half hidden in the dense roots. "Sir? hello?" Collins called out, but there was no reply nor movement from the body. "Go, pull him out slowly, he might be wounded."

The elves put away their crossbows and climbed over the roots, slowly and gently pull the elf out. An elf with greying brown hair was gently lifted out and placed on his side on the forest floor. His salt crusted clothes stuck to his back were a bloody rip could be seen.

The medic standing at the back rushed forward when they placed him down and started to check his vitals. "Breathing is shallow, the heartbeat is weak, no fever needs an immediate blood transfusion."

He pulls out a plasma transfusion from his kit and inserted a catheter into the arm of the wounded sailor. The rest of the elves hovered over, watching the medic do his work, marveling at the magical "tek-no-logee" of the hoomans.

"Quit standing around like some idiots!" Collins yelled at the milling elves, "Spread out and watch the surroundings!" Collins shooked his head, as the elves jumped to his command and dispersed.

"How is he doing?" Collins asked the medic.

"He's stable for now, but we need to get him to a medbay to fix his part." The medic held up the drip and waved for his assistants to bring a stretcher over. "He's lucky that the salt in his clothes is helping him in preventing infections and clotting most of the wound."

"Good work, send him back on the jeep" Collins stood up and walked back to the site, "Alright, everyone keeps searching around, it's gonna be a long morning!"

61 - Green City

"Captain, the sailing ship is exiting our area of operations. The UAV won't be able to track them much longer." The operator reported as he piloted the UAV from his console. "Do you want to follow the ship?"

Blake looked at the map, calculating the distances between the ship and the Base. "Alright, follow it till the UAV has 40% power remaining and return to base."

"Aye, Sir."

"I think we need to launch another UAV to recon these islands south of us," Blake pointed to the map. "Need to find where are all the goblins are hiding, especially if their ships."

Ford nodded, "We can set up a UAV controller at the mining station, should give us enough range to cover the islands." He looked at the map. "The islands look like they appeared to be formed by volcanic activity."

Ford scrolled through his tablet, "We got to wait till tomorrow afternoon to launch. "Currently we have one UAV on standby and the remaining UAV is under maintenance. For the other two, one is trailing the ship and another is covering the Pass. The UAVs are all booked out."

"Noted. Send the techs first to set up a UAV controller at the mining station. once maintenance is completed, we can fly the UAV over." Blake said, "Saves us some time."

Ford nodded and went to his own console, and starting assigning new jobs and missions for the crew.

As the morning breaks, Blake was woken up by an aide. He took a nap at his office sofa, informing his aide to wake him up when the day breaks. He washed up in the toilet, feeling refresh and headed back into the bridge.

"Sir, the Search and Rescue convoy has departed, ETA, one hour twenty minutes to reach the area of operations." A bridge crew informed him as he asked for a status report. "The sailing ship has left the channel an hour ago and there is no sign of any goblin ships around."

"Got it, thanks," Blake accepted the daily report from the crew and sat down on his chair, reading the full report while his aide handed him a mug of steaming caffeine.

-----

"Hey Mills? How ya doing buddy?" Lambert pulled a roller chair over to the tank, where Mills was submerged in. The greenish fluid bubbled as oxygen was pumped into the tank constantly. "Mills?" Lambert rapped against the clear plastic.

Mills floating inside the tank had his burnt skin removed by laser and now is recovering in the 'Fish Tank', a biochemical cocktail of polymorphic drugs, nanites, and healing assisters. Wearing a breathing device, Mills opened his eyes in the tank, seeing Lambert and a few other marines wearing medbay gowns gathered around the tank.

"Hey there, pretty! How's the vacation?" Lambert joked. "You look like a newborn baby!"

Mills gave him the finger, his wounds mostly recovered and restored by the medical soup. He pressed the big red release button and the top of the tank opened. Mills slowly climbed out from the tank with the assistance of built-in steps and sat on the lid, removing his mask and breathing hard.

His lungs had to be reconstructed due to him breathing in superheated air that turned his lungs into middle raw steaks, over 80 of his skin was burnt away, so did all his hair. His cornea had melted and had to be removed and repaired, even his voicebox was damaged.

"Wha- are you ba-stards doing her-e? He rasped, breathing hard as the climb had used up all his stamina.

"Hey, take it easy," Cooper said with concern in his eyes. "You just got some new lungs, take it slow man."

Mills nodded, out of breath to make any response. The rest of the marines climbed up and carried him down gently from the tank, putting him down on a bed.

"So, what are you all doing here?" Mills asked again after he rested. "Skiving?"

"Hahaha," The whole gang laughed, "Well not really skiving, we just had a bit of disagreement with the local food here."

"You meant untested and inedible stuff?" Dr. Sharon entered the bay. "You all could have died!" She fumed. "Why did you do that for? Have you guys have no sense?"

"Eh... Mdm, the surveying team dared us to taste test the stuff they bring back in exchange for credits to the VR E-Room," Lambert scratched his short cropped hair in embarrassment.

"What? For more credits to use the entertainment room, you guys can bet your lives?" Dr. Sharon roared. "Do you think this is funny? I got more important cases to deal with rather than you kids! If you want to die that much, I can help you!"

"Sorry, Mdm!" The whole gang straightened into parade attention. "No more dares, Mdm!"

"Alright, I take your words this time around," Dr. Sharon lowered her voice, her temper cooling down after giving the marines a piece of her mind. "Now go back to your beds and rest, and don't disturb the rest of the patients!"

"Aye aye, Mdm!" The whole gang dispersed from the bay, giving Mills a wave and a wink. "See ya around Mills!"

Dr. Sharon shook her head, wondering what is in the brains of those marines, air? "How are you feeling now, soldier?" She turned her attention to Mills.

"Bett-er, Mdm," Mills replied, "My in-sides feel itchy all the ti-me,"

"That's good, means you are healing up fine," Dr. Sharon took out a penlight and shone into Mills' eyes, checking his irises. "Your corneas look better, after another few more days of treatment in the tank, you should be fully recovered, but you need to do some physio to restore your stamina."

"Thanks, Mdm," Mills replied, "I thi-nk I slept more than en-ough. Ca-n't wait to get out of he-re."

"Take it easy, soldier," Dr. Sharon said while going through his medical readouts. "Rest more, and don't get into trouble like your friends!"

"Yes, Mdm." Mills meekly replied.

-----

"Captain, SAR reports that they have found a single survivor." Comms officer Clara looked towards Cpt Blake. "They are on their way back."

"Sir, UAV has spotted more sailing ships off the coast, they are heading for the elven ship." The UAV operator called out, "Looks like goblin ships."

"How many?" Blake asked, turning his attention back to the tactical screen.

"Four, fi-seven. Seven ships, Sir!"

Blake looked at the screen, watching seven ships with oars pursing the elven vessel. I don't think they will be able to catch up with the elven ship, Blake thought.

True enough, less than an hour of trying to close up with the elven ship, to no success, the goblin pirates turned around and head back to where they came from.

"How much power does the UAV have left? Blake asked the operator.'

"57%, Sir."

"Follow those goblin ships," Blake ordered. "See where is their hideout."

The operator wearing the VR bulbous helmet, piloted the UAV towards the retreating ships, keeping a distance of one kilometer away in the sky. After another hour of tracking, which the pirates headed seawards along the island, looped into a natural cove.

Blocked from view by the dormant volcano, a city appeared on the opposite side. The only way to spot the city is to fly over the volcano or travel around the island.

Several large makeshift piers stuck out like skeletal fingers along the sheltered cove, dozens and dozens of galleys berth next to the piers, and some larger ships, most likely prizes that they have captured. Sunken ships of all shapes and sizes could be seen in the clear water, their rotting masts jagging out from the waves.

Dozens of dry docks could also be seen, lined the coast with skeletal frames of even more ships under construction. Hundreds and thousands of goblins could be seen moving around the ships and the city streets.

Behind the backdrop of the busy harbor, a massive ramshackle city could be seen with crude dwellings made out of mud and wood sprawled haphazardly along the coast all the way up to the volcanic mountainsides. Cave openings could be also seen, dot the sides of the dormant volcano mixed with what appeared to be farms of some kind.

"Oh my god," Blake stared at the screen. "How many goblins are there!" He tried to count the number of ships laid tied up against the piers and gave up when he reached 40. He noticed most of the ships appeared to be badly in need of repairs.

The whole bridge crew stared in fascination of the goblin city. "There must be thousands and thousands of them!"

"Sir, UAV power is below 40%, do you still want to UAV to continue its mission or return to base?" The operator reported.

"How much power is needed to return?" Blake asked the operator.

The operator ponders for a while before replying, "Sir, due to the strong winds here, flying the UAV back will eat up roughly another 35% of remaining power or more."

"Damn, alright, pull back the UAV for now," Blake said. "Fire up the standby UAV, I want eyes on that city!"

62 - Interrogation

Blake's footsteps echoed down the dimly lit hatchway, as he walked down into the deepest level of the ship. Exposed wall panels and empty compartments showed how the ship had been salvaged for parts and materials.

Blake climbed down the final set of stairs, his boots clanging against the metal plating of the decks and came upon a checkpoint manned by a marine and two security crew members.

"SIR!" The three men stood at attention and saluted to Blake.

"At ease," Blake returned the salutes. "The prisoner is awake?"

"Yes Sir!" the marine replied. "XO Ford and the others are all inside waiting for you sir!" He gave a nod and the security crew unlocked the hatch, spinning the door wheel manually to slide the hatch open.

"Carry on," Blake said before he ducked his head and entered the hatch into the lockup.

Cubes of clear armored glass separated evenly around the room. A small crowd could be seen gathered around a single glass cell.

Blake waved away the salutes of the two sentries on duty and walked between the rows of cells, passing by a cell where two goblins were squatting down and drawing on some bones.

He reached the group gathered before a glass cell, where a single elf dressed in an orange prisoner one piece sat on the small bolted bed staring blanking at the glass walls.

Gathered around the cell were XO Ford, Dr. Sharon, Princess Sherene, Lord General Joesph, Magister Thorn and a few aides.

"He can't see us?" Sherene asked Dr. Sharon. She waved her hand in front of the glass wall at the elf prisoner.

"No, he can't, these walls are optical armored glass, we can control what he sees. Now it's set to mirror mode, so he can't see us but we can see him."

Dr. Sharon explanation confused the elves, "What kind of sorcery is that? Is it even possible?"

"Captain, you're here just in time," Ford noticed Blake approaching. "We are about to start the interrogation."

A young man in an officer uniform saluted Blake, "Sir, I will start the interrogation, but I must stress one thing, we have no ways to verify any truth of what he says."

First Lieutenant Tavor first joined the crew as part of the intelligence department of the ship, before that he was a graduate from Naval Intelligence. This was his first assignment onboard a space-faring ship which ultimately landed him here.

So far he had been working on gathering as much information regarding this world as possible.

Standing before the glass wall, Lt Tavor pressed his palm against the glass, and a handprint scanner tallied his prints before a door slides open.

The prisoner worn a pair of leg cuffs and collar imbued with runic carvings jerked his head in surprise, seeing a hooman entering.

Tavor dragged a chair into the cell with him and the mirror door closed seamlessly without any traces.

Tavor set the chair down at the corner of the cell and set down, watching the elf without any expression.

Finally, after a while, the elf broke the silence, "What creature are you?"

"A human," Tavor replied in Common tongue. "Do you have a name?"

"Hoo-man?" The elf observed Tavor closely, "What manner of a creature is that?"

Tavor shrugged, ignoring his question. "Do you have a name?" He repeated his question.

"I am Sir Kean Uther, Lord of the Order of the Fall Knights," Kean stood up proudly, "You will release me or face the consequences!"

-----

The Goldrose elves recoiled backward upon hearing his name and title, causing Ford to ask, "Is he famous?"

"Fa-famous?" Joesph looked at Ford with his eyes widened in shock. "That's the Lord of Death, himself!"

"Wow? That title is so corny," Dr. Sharon quipped making Blake and Ford to choke back their laughter.

"He destroyed countless villages and towns, and even captured an entire city of hundreds of thousands people with just his Order of Knights!" Joesph explained.

-----

Tavor press his ear bead with his hand, listening to Joesph's description of Kean. "So you are the Lord of Death?" Tavor held his two fingers up making a quote gesture.

"Now you know what you are dealing with you low life, release me at once and I will spare your life!" The elf spoke in an arrogant bearing.

"Now, now, there's no hurry for that, tell me about the Empire? Tavor said. "I am very curious about your country."

"Why must I listen to you low life scum, you must be some kind of bastard breed, your ears are not even the same as people!" Kean raged, "Your mother got raped by goblins and had you as a bastard child?"

"Haha, no not really," Tavor smiled at the elf brightly in spite of all the insults that were thrown at him. "No seriously, I like to know more about the Empire."

"Why do you want to know more?" Kean's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Well," Tavor leans forward and whispered, "I am thinking of defecting to the Empire! But I want to know what kind of place the Empire is like and is it powerful enough to protect me from my own people!"

Tavor looks around the cell and spoke in a hushed whisper, "You know how powerful the spells my people have, so I want to know if the Empire has the power to stop those spells! If not why would I want to defect to your country!"

-----

"What? Is he serious? Sherene had her face almost glued to the glass walls, she spun around in anger, "You are his lord! Are you going to let him betray you?"

Blake held his hands up to calm the fuming princess, "Chill out! It's a ploy! Hush now and watch the show!"

-----

Kean looked at the hooman in surprise, maybe I can make use of this hooman to escape and also get the strange weapons and spells from him. "Why do you want to defect?"

"They sent me here to die, I want to stay alive so I can get my revenge!" Tavor said simply. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend?" Kean repeated those words back to himself. "I see," He nodded and smiled, "Very interesting!"

"So what can you offer and what do you want to know?" Kean sat back on his bed, leaning forward and whispering back.

"Spells that can one-shot dragons, those thundersticks you saw and how to create more of them," Tavor replied. "Also a way for you and me to escape to the Empire's borders."

"Good! You get me those, and I promise you under the name of the Order of the Fall Knights, I will grant you protection, lands and even a noble's title in the Empire!" Kean promised in a solemnly manner. "What do you want to know about the Empire?"

Now we are talking! Tavor thought gleefully to himself, dumbass. "Tell me about Empire armies? How strong are they?"

Unknown to the elf inside the cell, the humans had laced his food and drinks with a serum that relaxes the user brains, making them more talkative, like a weak form of a truth serum. It makes the user think he is in control of what he is saying and doing.

And so Kean happily answered all the questions asked by Tavor the whole day, thinking of how he managed to win over a hooman with powerful magic and weapons.

-----

Blake and the rest of the group filed out after three hours of hearing the prisoner talk about the Empire troop strengths and weakness.

Blake decided to call it a day and left the rest to Tavor and his intel department to handle everything.

Joesph caught up with Blake and said, "My Liege, if what he said was true, how are we about to withstand the full might of the Empire? A standing army of over half a million soldiers!"

Blake slowed his steps and said, "There is no point in worrying about that now, we have other worries that are present in front of us now, we can only solve those first and be able to focus our preparations against the empire."

Blake stopped and turned, forcing the whole group to stop. "Alright, here's a gag order! No one is to spread the word about the strength of the Empire's army. I know half a million is a lot, but we can't have panic spreading among the people! We will plan on how to handle this in a proper way, understand?"

"Aye, Captain." "By your order, my Liege."

"Good, now we have today's problems to resolve, let's get back to work. Once Lt Tavor finishes his interrogation, we will have a meeting on this." With that Blake and his team left the area.

-----

"Oh my god!" Petty Officer Ivan Pavlo froze as he heard what the Captain said. He was behind a hidden section of the hull, refilling his illegal makeshift still, making potato vodka, when he heard footsteps approaching.

Half a million of those crazy blue elves? And the Captain wants to fight them? He thought in a panic to himself, we are so fucked!

63 - Dissent

Petty Officer Ivan sneaked a peek around the corner, seeing no one around outside the armory, he whispered, "Raman! You there?"

Sgt Raman hearing his name stuck his head out of the armory hatch, "Ivan? What's up? You got a new batch of vodka?" He grinned.

"Ye-no, I mean I got something more than that!" Ivan entered the armory and looked around, making sure no one else is inside and shut the hatch.

"What's wrong?" Raman narrowed his eyes in suspicion, wondering what is wrong with Ivan.

"I got some really bad news man!" Ivan said nervously and poured out what he heard earlier from the lower decks.

"Seriously?" Raman widened his eyes in surprise at the news. "That's true?"

"Heard those stuffy elves and the Bossman himself said so," Ivan nodded, "Don't tell anyone else, man!"

"We need an exit plan," Raman said after he sat down and thought for a while. "We can't stay here anymore."

"But how are we going to survive out there?" Ivan asked. "You wanna go over to the Blue Boys?"

"We might not have to," Raman waved Ivan closer and whispered his plan into Ivan's ear.

"You understand?" Raman asked when he finished explaining his plan. "You know what to do?"

"You sure it will work out?" Raman asked, "I am not too sure about it."

"Come on, we will be like kings!" Raman said confidently. "Just follow the plan."

"Got it," Ivan nodded, "Once my side is done, I will contact you."

"Tell no one ok?" Raman said as Ivan opened the armory hatch and looked around outside before leaving.

Raman smiled contently as his plans are finally placed into action.

-----

Blake entered the medbay and found Dr. Sharon speaking with the sailor the Search And Rescue team brought back two days ago, laying on the hospital bed.

"Doc?" Blake called out, "A moment of your time please?"

Dr. Sharon paused her conversation with the elf and walked over to Blake.

"How is he?" Blake asked.

"Well, other than the torn muscles at his back, he's doing quite well. Gave him a blood transfusion and he woke up today." Dr. Sharon replied.

"Is he lucid enough for some questions?" Blake asked, watching the greying elf dressed in a medbay gown lying on the bed.

"Yes, but don't excite him too much, his stitches might come off." Dr. Sharon advised, leading Blake over to the bed.

"Hello Amar, this is Captain Blake, he has some questions for you," Dr. Sharon introduced the Captain. "It's alright, he's a friend."

"He-hello, sir. I try my best to answer as much as I can and know of," the elf appeared to be anxious about short-eared people.

"It's ok, I just want to know what is your role in the ship, where did it depart from and its destination," Blake spoke calmly and slowly. "And what happened along the way."

"Oh, alright, I am the ship's carpenter, from the merchant ship the Wave Dancer. We left the port of the First and is headed towards the Bluewood Empire's port city of Duhal all the way north with a shipment of iron, copper, cloth, and seeds." Amar said, "We hit a massive storm off the coast of the Goblin Sea before stopping for repairs."

He adjusted his lying position in the bed and continued, "Due to the storm forcing us to make landfall, our ship had to pass through the channels between the Goblin Islands and the mainland, if not we normally avoid sailing this area."

"We got ambushed by five goblin raiding ships but we managed to fight them off, but in the process of doing so, the topmasts were badly damaged and we didn't have any more spare spars for a jury rig."

"The Captain ordered us to make for land to cut down some trees for repairs but we got attacked by monsters!" the old elf moaned. "Am I the only one left? Is the Wave Dancer still around?"

"Sadly you are the only one we found, as for the ship called the Wave Dancer, we saw her sailing away," Blake said.

"Oh," the old elf looked crestfallen. "I see."

"Why couldn't you sail back out over the islands and avoid the goblins?" Dr. Sharon asked.

"The currents in the channel are quite strong, and from what I heard, the slave mage boy the Captain bought couldn't cast a proper wind spell," Amar explained. "And with winter approaching the trade winds will change, the ship could be stranded in the open sea."

"I see, thank you, Amar." Blake said. "Rest more and don't worry, we will help you find your way home after you have recovered."

"Thank you, kind sir!" the elf thanked Blake, who waved it off. "If you need to ask me more questions, free feel to, You are my saviors."

"How are the wounded?" Blake asked as he left the ward, "Let's visit them." and he followed Dr. Sharon around the medbay.

-----

Ford stood watching the topography of the island they dubbed as Goblin Island, several icons were interposed over various locations, indicating points of interests.

Shipyards, docks, warehouses, barracks, housing etc, were labeled on the map. All courtesy from regular UAV flights over the past two days.

A total of 73 goblin ships were counted with another 24 more under various stages of completion, their positions littered all over the map.

'If only we had some fighter-bombers, we could burn the place down,' Ford thought. The only way into the harbor is by the hidden cove and a landing force from the volcano side is too exposed.

The rest of the island is covered in lush ever blues and sandy beaches. 'It will make a great place of a resort for some R and R.'

Ford frowned in worry, 'Half a million troops to our North, a bloody goblin stronghold to our South and god knows where are those giant wolves are hiding.'

He looked at the numbers entered in the logistic system database on supplies and housing. At least we managed to stock up on enough supplies to last over the winter.

The womenfolk of the elves had been helping out with foraging and even using the lifeboats' landing parachutes to make extra coats for the coming winter.

The crews had stripped the electronic heaters and laid kilometers of wiring underground, connecting the heaters with the power generators, providing heat for the cold nights.

Hopefully, the construction of the public housing for the elves could be completed within the month and everyone will have a warm roof over their heads.

Ford admitted that the elves might look slim and pretty looking, but they are quite hardworking and earnest in their ways.

'At least we have some good news,' he thought, swiping his tablet screen on the gunpowder results. The few crew members he had drafted into becoming elementary chemists came out with a sulfurless black powder. 70% niter and 30% charcoal and ignited using an electronic fuse for firing.

The use of sulfurless black powder will not only reduce the amount of fouling and corrosion to the metallic parts of the weapon, it will also reduce the amount of smoke produced.

And of course, they do not have to go mine sulfur in the volcanic areas. Charcoal could be easily made by burning wood in an enclosed container and at the same time, the byproducts of heat could be used to boil water for steam to generate electricity.

And without sulfur in the black powder mix, makes it safer to handle. But the problem with sulfurless black powder is the high ignition temperature required.

The addition of sulfur helps to reduce the black powder ignition temperature, meaning a spark would ignite it easily, whereas, without sulfur in the mix, a simple spark won't be able to ignition the black powder at all.

Not only that, they still do not have a proper percussion cap or primer developed yet. The amateur chemists are still figuring out how to synthesize out mercury fulminate.

Lucky, so far the test results with the electronic firing look promising but the problem is the production of the electronic firing fuses, as they don't have stores of lithium for making batteries for the fuses.

Either that or a manual crank is required for creating an electrical current to ignite the black powder. Which will greatly reduce the rate of fire of the bolt action rifle designs they were planning on as the shooter would be required to clank the dynamo several times before squeezing the trigger.

The fabrication team will have a prototype soon, once that is settled and all kinks worked out, it will be put into production and the training of the elves will begin.

The marines and the security teams will also learn the new weapon and also how to fight with a sword, just in case.

'And the sailor, with his skills as a ship's carpenter, if he could be recruited, we can make our own ships for fishing and as a deterrent against the goblins or even do trading with the Isles for much-needed necessities.' Ford thought.

"Guess I need to push the idea out to everyone in the next meeting," Ford spoke to himself. "Hope nothing more will go wrong…"

64 - Guns

The first flakes of snow drifted down overnight, turning the whole landscape into a world of white by the next morning. Dressed in a navy grey environmental suit, Blake strolled down the newly constructed city with Princess Sherene, who was bundled up in thick furs, her snow boots crunching on the soft snow.

Strips of lighting salvaged from the ship's hatchways and repurposed as street lamps lined the sides of the street. A couple of older elven children could be seen shoving snow off the roads while the younger ones are playing with the snow. A half-track painted in red, with both Common and English wordings on its front and sides, indicating it as a public bus, pulled up next to a bus stop, where queues of elves and some humans boarded the bus.

The area where the elves previously pitched their tents were all removed and a city square was built in its place. Now dozens of wooden stalls and carts replaced the tents, turning the square into a lively market. Several storefronts surrounded the square was still under construction, with more residences available above the stores.

"The City is starting to look more lively, compared to the time when we first came here," Sherene commented, looking around the market with interest.

"Yes, it sure is," Blake agreed, remembering the first month when they landed here. "It's more lively now."

Fresh produce from the hydro farms and greenhouses, salted and smoked meat, eggs from bird wyverns and pico picos to milk and wool from muffalos laid out among the stalls. The elves traded daily necessities with each other with colorful plastic chits issued by the humans, each red chit is valued at a single meal at the public canteen, while greed chits are valued at five meals and blue chits at ten.

Each family or single elves were given enough chits for two weeks worth of food from the canteen, and for each job they worked in they were paid in an equivalent amount of chits for the hours they put in.

After watching the bustling crowd for a while, Blake led Sherene back towards the covered jeep parked down the street. The driver seeing the two of them returning started up the engines. "To the Academy," Blake said to the driver, who nodded and drove off.

Passing by the newly built public housing, Sherene was glad she gave her allegiance to the hoomans. To be able to finish constructing housing over two thousand of her people in less than two months was an accomplishment that no one could have done it except the hoomans.

"What are you thinking about?" Blake asked, seeing the princess staring intently out of the windows.

"You hoomans are so powerful, even if you say it's not magic," Sherene said, "To be able to do so much in so little time, it is so amazing that nothing short of a magical."

"Ha, thank you," Blake smiled. "But all these technology and innovations are developed and perfected over hundreds and thousands of years. We learn and improve as we move along."

"I see," Sherene sat back on the chair, "But our ancestors had been here for hundreds of years, yet we did not develop like you hoomans do."

Blake scratched his head, "Well, I guess it is because we did not have magic, so we can only improve in other ways."

The jeep slowed to a stop beside a large three-story complex, with its own walls and gate. "Sir, we are here." The driver parked the jeep on the lots allocated for vehicles.

Blake and Sherene stepped out to the cold, meeting Magister Thorn who was waiting at the sheltered porch for them. "Welcome, welcome!" Thorn greeted them excitedly.

"Hello, Master Thorn," Sherene did a curtsy which Thorn quickly pulled her up.

"No need for formalities lets go in where it is warm, and out of this snow," Thorn led the two of them into the building.

Sherene removed her fur coat and hung it on the side of the doors, and followed an excited Thorn down the hallway while looking around in curiosity. It was her first time to the Academy.

Blake said, "So, Magister Thorn, how is the school doing?' He had come before, when the building was finished, touring all the facilities for teaching the elves and humans on ways of science and magic. Blake built the Academy as an institute of learning so that the newly joined elves can be educated with the knowledge of humans, making them capable of working in the skilled jobs and other fields of expertise.

Blake and invited Thorn to be in charge of magical studies and also as the headmaster of the Academy, knowing that he had the experience of being one in the past, while Dr. Sharon holds the vice-principal role, teaching modern medicine and science.

Thorn led them through several doorways and finally into another wing of the school. "Here we are!" Thorn waved them into a workshop.

Tables with vices and clamps set evenly filled most of the room, and a large chalkboard adorned the wall, where drawings of a rifle could be seen. Chief Matt, Ford, Lt Frank, and Staff Pike standing in front of the teacher's table set on the side of the chalkboard and was fiddling with something.

As the trio approached the group at the table, they could hear the Pike's voice, "This is not very practical if it is designed is built this way, what happens if it breaks?"

"Oh, Captain, Princess," Chief Matt greeted the newcomers as he spotted him, the rest turned and gave their greetings. "Just in time!"

"In time for what?" Blake asked, looking at the two rifles on the table. "The prototypes are out?"

"Oh yes, we have two prototypes," Matt said cheerfully. "This," He points to the top rifle made out of local wood and metal stamping, "is designed by the Marine's armorer." He worked the bolt of the rifle, pulling the bolt back, and hands Blake the rifle who peered into the chamber of the rifle.

"It uses a simple and reliable electronic firing circuit that ignites the new black powder cartridge that we came out with." Matt held up a bullet cartridge with a pointed tip. "6.5 mm caliber soft tip for the projectiles, as the current bullet molds for the marines, are already in 6.5 mm, no point to retool them, and brass for the casing." He flips the cartridge and displays the rear end, showing a tiny hole coated with a grey substance.

"No primer for the cartridge, instead we have a 0.5 mm hole for allowing ignition of the black powder with external means. The hole is coated with a local tree sap that is waterproof and keeps the black powder grains from falling out." Matt took the rifle back from Blake and dry fired it.

"The bolt extracts the cartridge out from the chamber and when pushed forward, loads a new round into the chamber from the 10-round box magazine. Once the bolt is locked in place, squeezing the trigger will fire the electronic circuit inside the bolt and firing the round." Matt used a pair of pliers and pulled the butt pad off the rifle butt and shows Blake.

"A pair of 12 volts batteries powers the electronic firer. Good for over a thousand shots before needing to replace the batteries." He set the rifle down.

"Very nice, but why no automatic rifles?" Blake asked.

"Black powder will foul up gas operated or recoil operated gun systems, making it jam." Matt shrugged, "Well, not to mention the constant recoil will probably break the shoulders of an unenhanced human, so till we can have smokeless powder, it's a bad idea."

"I see," Blake nodded, while Sherene was totally lost.

"Now this design actually came up by Magister Thorn," Matt points to the next rifle on the table. "Magister Thorn, if you may?"

"Oh yes," Thorn rubbed his hands in excitement. "Oh, this is so fascinating! Well, Mr, Matt came to me with some questions regarding magical runes and us talked about thundersticks, no firearms."

"I learned the basics of how a bullet is fired out of this piece of metal tubing from this 'rifle'." Thorn lifted the similar looking rifle up. "Now instead of using 'eletrokics' for firing the bullet out, I use a fire rune instead."

Thorn worked the bolt expertly and pointed it to away from the group and squeeze the trigger, and sharp hiss and a flash of light could be seen from the muzzle. Satisfied, Thorn placed the weapon down and removed two small red mana stones out from his pockets.

Holding the two red stones up, Blake noticed they were cut into a circular shape with what appears to be some kind of rune carving on one side of each rune. One of the stones were hallowed out in the middle, like a donut.

"Now when those two fire runes touch each other, the magic will be triggered and flames will be created. By placing them both in the bolt, when the trigger is pulled, the bolt with this rune," He lifts up the complete circular rune, "will touch the other rune, and fire will be created. And with the impact of the bolt hitting, the flames will be forced into this tiny hole, and into the cartridge, lighting the black powder." Thorn explained proudly.

"I invented this new runic magic by reading the book of 'Basic Concepts Of Electricity'!"

65 - Camp Alpha

The shrill of wood and metal being processed resonated loudly in the confines of the cargo bay. The machine shop fabricator's robotic arms constantly moved up and down, as it took processed materials and form it into a finished product.

"Hey, Ivan!" Chief Gale shouted over the din of the noise, waving his arms to get his attention. "Over here."

"Yes, Chief?" Ivan shut the door of the small office, cutting off the racket of the machines.

"Hey, take a seat. I got some stuff on the inventory here that says defects. And you signed off it." Chief Gale handed over the tablet to Ivan to see. "There's almost more than a dozen items highlighted. What's wrong with them?"

"Ahh," Ivan eyed the inventory list, "I think the fabricator printer head is faulty, that's why there are so many items on the list that failed the quality control tests."

"OK, then on the next production downtime, get the guys to do a full diagnostics of the fabricator," Chief Gale sighed, "The Boss needs those manufactured as soon as possible." He looked out of the small office window, at the crates of freshly minted rifles lined up in rows.

"Got it, Chief," Ivan took the opportunity that Chief Gale was not looking at him to quickly wipe the cold sweat forming on his forehead. "I get the boys to do a full maintenance run."

-----

Mills, leaped off the back of the half-track turned public bus, his newly issued boots crunching the soft snow and he hoisted his duffle bag over his shoulders. "Welcome to Camp Alpha," He read out loud from the large wooden sign, hanging over the gates.

Wrapped up in his environmental suit, his exposed skin turned red as the cold winter wind blew against his new baby smooth pale skin.

Walls of reinforced concrete, several meters high and topped off with razor-sharp concertina wires stretched off as far as the eye could see from where Mills stood. Signs with 'No Trespassing' written in both English and Common, decorated the walls on regular intervals.

He adjusted his pixeled cap and joined the short queue at the gates, where he spotted Koing inspecting the queuing elves' identity cards. "IC please," Mills could hear Koing asking the elves in front of him.

The identity cards were a fusion of technology and magic, as the elves have a system using magic and mana stones to record a person's identity and records with blood. The cards have a photo image taken of the cardholder, his or her name, date of birth if applicable and address. The cards were also magically linked with a keystone and radio-frequency identification or RFID capable.

The registering person will be required to put a drop of his or her blood onto the keystone, which will then store the data of the person in the stone. Another drop of blood is then dripped onto a special rune that has been engraved onto the card and synced with the keystone, like a modern day card key and reader. This way, the cardholder can be verified if he or she is the actual person holding the card.

This measure was put into place as the humans were worried about infiltrating spies or enemies. Even if a card was stolen and used in an inspection, they could find out whether or not the person holding the card is the actual person.

Mills watch curiously as Koing held up a brown-yellow stone set in a pendant which Koing wore around his neck. The elf held the card in his hand and Koing held the stone over the card, after which it started to emit a soft green glow like a chem stick which Koing than nodded his head and waved the elf through.

"Yo, Koing," Mills gave a greeting as the queue finally reached him. "Security is pretty tight." He looks at the four security goons in their black riot armor and navy grey environmental suits.

"Hey, out of the hospital?" Koing replied back, taking out a handheld scanner. "Ooo, lookey here, somebody got promoted!" He gestured to Mills's new lance corporal strip on his sleeves.

"Goddamn, you look so pretty!" Koing teased, "What skincare products are you using? Can I pull your cheeks?"

"About damn time!" Mills grinned and tilted his head to the side, allowing Koing to scan the RFID chip embedded into the back of his neck. "And fuck you, understand?"

"Hahaha, baby face Mills is angry!" Koing laughed, much to the amusment of the rest of the guards. "Anyway, Staff is pretty pissed with that sneak attack at the Pass,"

He puts away the scanner after it beeps an affirmative. "He's all worried about magical mimics and doppelgangers and stuff. So everyone in and out needs to be checked and verified."

"Damn, I heard about that attack in the medbay," Mills said, "Crazy son of bitches."

"Yeah, well you better drop your stuff and report to Staff," Koing pointed into Camp Alpha, giving Mills directions to the barracks. "It's pretty bare compared to Camp Pendleton back on Earth but its cozy enough."

"Cool! Sounds lovely," Mills rubbed his cold hands together. "What's with all the elves coming in?"

"Some of them are here doing construction work for the base, others are the goldies soldiers coming for boot camp," Koing replied. "Higher up wants them trained to be at least marine standard or least proficient in modern warfare tactics."

"Wow? That's going to be a challenge," Mills said.

"Also heard a scuttlebutt that we will be needing to turn in our arms and be reissued with new weapons and training," Koing said in a low voice. "Except for those guarding critical posts."

"What? Are they giving us swords and shields?" Mills cursed, "So we going caveman with sticks and stones."

"Well, not really," One of the guards said, "Heard that it's gonna be some black powder rifle or something."

"Whoa?" Mills looked surprised, "Muzzleloaders?"

Koing shrugged again, "Like I said, rumors. You better get going."

"Right, see you around," Mills strolled through the gates and headed towards the direction of the barracks.

As he passed through the gates, several lines of gabions covered the gate internally, where a couple of bunkers could be seen too, making anyone forcing an entry into the camp into a fielding field. "Damn, Pike is serious about this security shit," Mills whispered as he navigated his way past several barriers and into another gate.

Finally, after walking for a while, he found the barracks he was looking for. A squat three stories concrete structure with tiny windows and firing slits on the walls of the upper floors sat next to an open field with a couple of flag posts flying the marine corp flag and the UNM national flag.

He entered the building and found Cpl James as the duty officer of the day, sitting behind a table, reading something on his tablet. "Hey Corp! Guess who's back?"

"Oh shit," James gave a dramatic groan as he looked up as sees Mills standing there grinning. "My peaceful days are over, and they even gave you a candy strip? What are they thinking!"

"Haha, I know you missed me," Mills grinned wider, "Come on show me your love, tell me you miss your daddy!" He dropped his duffle bag and opened his arms wide. "Come to daddy!"

"In your dreams, boy," James stood up, grinning and clasped Mills's arm. "Welcome back, good to see you all okay."

"Heh, it's good to be back! I missed all the killing!" Mills replied cheekily.

"Well, you probably be assigned to do something else for the time being till you get back to shape fully." James said as he pulled out a file from his tablet and consulted it for a moment before saying, "Your bunk is on the second floor, door 205, you are sharing it with Bartley."

"How's the Big guy doing?" Mills asked as he picked up his bag. "He alright? I didn't see him visit me in the medbay."

"He's pretty quiet lately," James said, handing over a set of keys. "You better go ask him yourself."

"Gotcha," Mills replied and headed up the stairs, looking for his room.

Finding his room, he gave a couple of knocks on the door before turning the door open. "Knock, knock."

"Mills!" Bartley dropped the gun barrel he was cleaning and bounced up from the floor. "You are back!"

"In the flesh!" Mills smirked and dumped his bag on the side. "Why didn't you visit?"

"Ahh, I-I was worried that you won't make it," Bartley said in a small voice as he hunched down on his bed. "I didn't dare to see you gone, just in case."

"Goddamit, I am hard to kill," Mills said, lopping his arm over Bartley's massive shoulders. "Come on, Big Guy, have a little faith in me!"

"Anyway, you saved me, if you didn't come through the enemy lines and pulled me back," Mills patted Bartley's back. "I would have really died back there."

"Well, you are my friend, it's the least I could do for you," Bartley replied.

"No, not a friend," Mills said in a serious voice. "Brother. Thanks for saving me, brother!"

66 - Recruits

Arven Silverhand stood in line waiting with other people for the arrival of the magical red wagon at the 'bus stop'. He was dressed in a simple garb consisting of a handwoven linen shirt and thick leather pants, covered by a thick muffalo fur coat and his army cloak.

Slung over his shoulder, he carried what little possessions he had while an army issued sword was belted on his waist. His most prized possession, a silver brooch with a motif of a spiked rose with a sword behind it which indicated his rank in the army.

Bronze for a five-man leader, silver for a 50-man and gold for 100-man. He proudly wore the brooch on his left shoulder, pinning his cloak. He joined the army since young, served with distinction for 10 years, and now nearly 29 years old, as a 50-man leader, he was told to report to this new camp, for 'retraining'.

The red wagon soon came into view around the perfectly built streets made of some material Arven hasn't seen before in his life. The people in front of him including some of those hoomans started shuffling forward as the back doors open and the passengers alighted.

He paid with two red chips to the clerk at the booth who gave him a ticket stub with his distance printed on it which he pocketed it. Before that, he couldn't imagine precious parchment being used wantonly like this. The changes the hoomans gave were overwhelming to many.

Arven managed to get a seat next to the window, wondering what is this all fuss all about. Soon the wagon filled up to capacity and the wagon driver gave a few horns better moving the wagon off.

"Hi sir, I'm Kont, from Nester's company, 4th lance." the person sitting next to him introduced himself, placing his right palm over his heart. "Are you also going for 'retraining'?"

"Yes, my name is Arven," He replied to the young man next to him, returning the same greeting gesture.

"The hoomans are amazing and strange, yes?" Kont leaned over and peered out the window. "They claimed they do not know magic yet they are able to make things that can only be explained as magical."

"Yes, the things they can create is really magical," Arven replied, watching the view of the city. "Even the ways they wage war is so strange. We now go to learn their ways of wars."

Kont nodded in agreement, "I found with the hoomans during the battle at the Pass, I helped this hooman spot the enemy many times the distance the eyes can see!" He thought back to the battle, "And the hooman killed the Empire soldiers without even knowing how they died."

"I was there too," Arven told his side of the battle, "Our shield walls did not manage to hold up against the assaults of the Empire mages and shock troops. We nearly fell but the hoomans' magical thundersticks turned the tide of the battle."

"I was saved by the hoomans," He added. "They wore cloth armor and dared to faced numbers ten times their own, and even won the battle!"

The half-track continued its way out of the city's northern gates and followed the highway towards the grasslands, heading for the place called Camp Alpha. Almost an hour later, the vehicle finally arrived at the Camp, the nose plow of the half-track was caked with frozen snow, as it plowed the snow away from the roads.

The rear doors of the half-track opened and the passengers slowly file out of the vehicle, the driver stood at the back, reminding the passengers not to lose their tickets stubs for the return trip or it will cost them another chip.

Standing in front of the gates of the camp, the elves followed the commands of the hooman guards, lining up and showing their identity cards to the guards who verified with a keystone. As they entered the gates, another hooman dressed in a thick greyish suit that covered them from neck to toe, yelled in a mix of Engish and Common, "Alright, form up! Look at the lines drawn on the floor and line up accordingly!"

The elves confused followed the instructions as best as they could and after several minutes of shuffling around finally everyone was in position. "Oh my heavens, my grandmother can move faster than you lot!" That hooman yelled, rolling his eyes dramatically. "Next time I give a command, you lot better MOVE FAST!"

"Now listen up! You lot may think you already know how to fight and is about to embark on the next big adventure. Well, let me set you straight. My Marine Corps has been around for 338 years, tracing our proud lineage to the United States Marine Corps and through them to the Royal Marines of the United Kingdom! My job is to ensure none of you screw up my Corps! We are the fiercest warriors ever to grace the planet Earth! And now you will join the proud lineage and uphold the values and tradition of my Marine Corps! We fight and we kill, that is our sole existence here!"

The elves turned and looked at each other and muttered among themselves, wondering what have they done to be treated this way. "People! You will be tested, stressed, and put to the limits. We are a proud force, not once in our history have we been defeated, we will go to places where no one has gone before and kick the shit out of whoever has pissed on us. From now onwards, we are going to find out who among you will be good enough to be part of my Marine Corps!"

Arven looked shocked, and stood there wondering what is happening, isn't he supposed to be here for training to use the hooman weapons. Why is it now he is here to join some Marnee Cops? He opened his mouth and asked, "Excuse me, but I think you got it wrong here."

"Yes recruit?" The hooman smiled gently to Arven, "No, no there is nothing wrong here. What's your name recruit?"

"My name is Arven Silverhand, 50-man leader of the Army of Goldrose," He said proudly, "I was sent here for training to learn about using thundersticks."

The hooman glanced at the magical device strapped to his arm, nodding after a while and said, "Well, Recruit Arven, you name is on the list."

"Wait, why are you calling me a recruit? I am a 50-man leader!" Arven argued.

"Well, I am Corporal James Bone. From now onwards, regardless of what ranks or nobility you held before in the Goldrose Army, you are now all recruits!" Cpl James stated. "If none of you are willing to go through the training, you can wash out right now! But the Goldrose Army has been disbanded! You have two choices now, join the Marine Corps or return to the city and find other work. The bus is still waiting outside!"

Arven froze, he remembered a few days before the Lord General Joesph gave a speech to all the soldiers, telling everyone that the army will be disbanded. Those willing to continue fighting as a soldier under the hoomans is to form up at one side, which he did with the majority of the others. They were then given ordered and instructions to report to this place.

"No one? Good. From now onwards, you will only speak when spoken to. The first and last words out of your mouths will be 'Sir'." Cpl James paused, watching the elves with an amused smile on his face.

It took the elves a few minutes before they realized that they are supposed to reply, a stammering of, "Yes Sir." came from the group.

James looked up at the cloudy grey skies and said, "My grandmother can shout louder than you! And the proper way to answer is Sir, yes Sir!"

"Sir, Yes Sir!" The elves echoed.

"Nevermind, maybe this will help motivate you lot." James shook his head. "The whole lot, assume push up position. That is, turn 45 degrees to your right and get down on your hands, place them slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Your body should form a straight line from your ankles to your head. This is your push up position."

The elves looked at each other in bewilderment, wondering what is going on. James sighed and gestured for Mills behind him who demonstrated how to get into a push-up position. The elves dropped their bags and gear and soon followed.

"Now stay in that position, as I was telling you ladies, if you survive recruit training, you will be a weapon, a minister of death, praying for war. But until that day you are pukes! You're the lowest form of life, you are not even fucking beings! You are nothing but unorganized pieces of shit!" James strolled down the line as he continued.

"Because I am hard, you will not like me. But the more you hate me, the more you will learn. My orders are to weed out all weaklings who do not pack the gear to serve in my beloved Corps! Do you maggots understand that?"

"Sir, yes Sir!" The elves moaned out.

"Bullshit, I can't hear you." James continued walking down the roll.

"SIR YES SIR!" The elves screamed their lungs out while still in push-up position.

"You there, what is your name?" James crouch next to Arven and asked.

"Sir, Arven, Sir!" Arven yelled out, his face turning red.

"Bullshit, You are Recruit Bigfuck from now on!" James shouted into Arven's ear. "What is your name recruit?"

"Sir, Recruit Bigfuck, Sir!"

67 - Boot Camp

"Platoon Three! Fall in!" Corporal James yelled with a bullhorn as the recruits charged out of their barracks and formed up into rows of three with the tallest man as the right marker. The platoon consists of 28 recruits dressed in long-sleeved grey utilities, camouflaged pants, and boots.

The quartermaster nearly had a stroke while trying to outfit the entire training camp, but he managed to pull a miracle by having the fabricators run overtime to produce all the materials needed for all the recruits.

He had all the crew scrape up all the unwanted pieces of clothing and cloth scraps, before having the fabricators recycle the materials into uniforms for the recruits.

It was 0500 hours, local time, another 15 other platoons have also formed up in the massive parade square and stood in attention in the cold winter morning.

It had been two weeks since they started boot camp and the elves are slowly shaping up. After the morning reveille, the platoons began their morning workout routine with five basic exercises before moving on to a 5km run around the base.

All the elves were used to running while carrying heavy shields and wearing heavy armor so they made quick time with the run. After the run, they rested for a while before heading to the cookhouse for their breakfast.

-----

Lieutenant Frank stood on the top floor of the administrative building of Camp Alpha with Staff Pike, watching the recruits finish their morning run. "Well, physically and mentally the elves are pretty tough." He said, watching the recruits from the frosted windows.

"Yes, the only problem now is teaching them how to think and react to orders," Pike said, "The shipment of the rifles will be arriving tomorrow. The instructors had all familiarised themselves with the handling of the new weapon."

"Great, how about ammunition for the weapons?" Frank sat down on his desk, powering up his computer.

"Over 25,000 black powder rounds produced by the autoloader. Current production is at 9,000 rounds per week as long as we have raw materials. Production will ramp up once a second autoloader is produced by the workshop's fabricators." Pike read off the report in his tablet. "We will also be issuing the men with sword bayonets."

Frank nodded from his desk, "Another eleven weeks before they graduate from the course. Bringing our manpower up to another five hundred bodies."

"448 to be exact Sir, if everyone passes out," Pike replied. "We probably will lose 10% due to injuries or other reasons. So roughly 400 will make it through."

"Pick some of the ones with potential to be instructors, once this batch completed their boot camp, prep the next batch of recruits," Frank ordered, "Quartermaster Chen will have plenty of time to cook up the next batch of uniforms and equipment for the intake. And also the workshop's should have enough time to produce more rifles." Pike nodded, gave a salute and left the office.

"400 to hold the Pass against half a million," Frank muttered to himself as he started his work. "Damn, we are lacking everything!"

-----

Recruit 'Bigfuck' Arven sat with the rest of his platoon in an outdoor training shed, ignoring the cold winter air against his shaved head as he stared raptly at the thunderstick, Corporal James was holding up in his hands. "Alright, now is the best part of being a Marine! Guns!"

The rifle was made out of local wood, finished in a dark brown luster. To the elves, it looked like a thin elongated crossbow, without the bow arms, with the wooden handguard almost as long as the metal barrel ending off in a blunt nose.

"This is called a rifle, not a thunderstick, magic stick or wanking stick. As you have learned in your classes, this here is a bolt action rifle." James displayed the weapon to the class. "This is the M1 bolt action runelock black powder rifle also known as the 'Magelock rifle', as it uses both magic and technology to work together."

"It weights at 4.19kg, with a length of 1.1 meters long, and a barrel length of 60 centimeters. It has a polygonal rifling inside the barrel, which helps reduce the fouling and also makes it easier to clean." James paraded the rifle around the class, "It has an integrated 10 round box magazine just in front of the trigger guard. It has a rear sliding ramp sights allowing the shooter to aim up to 500 meters away. It has an effective firing range of up to 730 meters and a muzzle velocity of 621.8 meters per second."

"For those who did not listen in class, muzzle velocity means how fast the projectile exits the barrel and flies straight at you!" James added to the benefit of those who were looking confused.

"Why is it called a bolt action runelock?" James asked the class, who returned blank faces back. "This here is the bolt, which requires you to manually pull back to eject the round inside and chambering a new round." He pulled the bolt back, showing the class the opened bolt, and points inside. "This here is fire rune, by pulling the trigger, the hammer hits the rune, like the old ancient flintlocks, thus it is called a runelock."

Seeing the confused faces of the elves, James further explained patiently, "In the days of old, flintlocks were the ancestors to our modern guns. Flints were used to ignite the black powder and this M1 Magelock uses runes to fire."

"The M1 Magelock is reloaded using stripper clips of five rounds each," James held up a five round clip of 6.5 mm. "Align the rounds downwards in the opened chamber and push the rounds down firmly. It can also be reloaded by single rounds of ammunition."

"Moving on, here is a bayonet lug," James points to a ring-like device near the muzzle. "You attach the Type 1 sword bayonet to it." He picked up a 40 centimeters long single-bladed short sword with a straight handguard from the table and inserted the bayonet on to the rifle.

"Now, you have a long spear." James demonstrated a few bayonet thrusts and sweeps with the weapon, much to the elves' appreciation.

James removed the bayonet and continued, "Now I will call out each recruit's name, you will be issued with an individual weapon each, memorize your weapon's serial number!" James glared at the recruits, "Treat it like your wife or your girlfriend, make sure you do not lose your weapon!"

"Now, Recruit Bigfuck! Front and center!" James commanded, reading from a list of names. "Recruit Alphabet!!

Soon the whole platoon was issued with a magelock each, they spent the next few hours learning about the parts of the weapon, how to strip and clean the weapons. The elves acted like children in a toy shop, mock firing and play acting with the weapons as they sat in the training shed, ensuring that the rifles are cleaned.

After that, they run through a few rifle drills, as they had practiced rifle drills days before with wooden mockups, they only had an accident when one of them dropped his rifle and the platoon was punished for that, doing fifty push-ups.

The next day after breakfast, after they drew their rifles from the armory, they stood in attention in perfectly aligned rows on the parade square with the entire batch of recruits, dressed in full battle order, gripping their new rifles tightly.

The elves wore a steel 'coal scuttle' helmet printed in blue-grey camouflage, a black 'H' harness with pouches for equipment and ammunition, sword bayonet attached to a sheath on the harness, completed with blue-grey digital camouflage battle dress uniforms.

-----

"Damn, they look smart," Captain Blake who stood with the princess on the reviewing stand said.

Princess Sherene nodded and smiled charmingly, giving a wave to the formed up recruits. "They feel different too."

"They are the future protectors," Captain Blake said, avoiding eye contact with the smiling princess, "Ahem, well, it's good for their morale to see you encouraging them here."

"Really?" Princess Sherene excitedly turned her head, focusing her large pretty eyes on Blake, who quickly turned and to look at something else.

"Damn..." Blake cursed softly, he was sweating even in the cold winter air.
-----

"Now, Recruits! Repeat after me!" Staff Sergeant Pike stood at attention in front of the battalion of elves. "You will repeat the Rifleman's creed after me."

"Sir, Yes Sir!" The battalion replied loudly.

"This is my rifle. There are many like it, but this one is mine."

"My rifle is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life."

"Without me, my rifle is useless. Without my rifle, I am useless. I must fire my rifle true. I must shoot straighter than my enemy who is trying to kill me. I must shoot him before he shoots me."

"I will keep my rifle clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other."

"I, hereby swear, before the flag, that I will be brave, honorable, discipline and vigilant."

"I swear this creed. My rifle and myself are the defenders of my country. We are the masters of our enemy. We are the saviors of my life."

"So be it, until there is no enemy, but peace."

68 - Bored

"Hey, Chief Gale. Got a minute?" Flight lieutenant Peter Mitch and Flight lieutenant Tommy Kanzy stood outside of Chief Gale's workshop.

The workshop lights were dimmed down, as the fabricators were on their downtime and the most of the mechanics were off day for the day. Chief Gale set his reading glasses down and gestured the two pilots into his office. "Wassup, gentlemen?"

"Well, Chief, me and Tommy boy here are plenty free at the moment," Peter said as he made himself comfortable on one of the chairs. "We were kinda wondering if we got to tinker around with the haulers."

"You meant you two are bored out of your minds and your hands are itching to fly and crash something?" Gale retorted back.

Both the pilots grinned sheepishly, "Yeah, we have been helping out the workshops and doing parts maintenance for one system after another. It's not what we signed up for!"

Tommy nodded vigorously at the side. "It's a waste of our skills. And since the two haulers are just collecting dust sitting there, we thought that if we could do some modifications or something and see if we can get it flying in the atmosphere."

Chief Gale rubbed his face as he gave their ideas some thought, to be honest, these two kids' skills were truly wasted here just doing basic maintenance. After a short while, "Oh well ok, we need all the edge we have against this planet."

The pilots high fived each other, excited to be doing something else.

"But, I wanna see your modifications and designs on file first before you can touch the ships," Gale gave his conditions. "After that, it gets passed on to the Captain. He has the final say. Get it?"

"Yes, Chief!" Both pilots saluted and filed out of his office.

"By the way, that doesn't mean you get off from doing maintenance!" Chief Gale yelled at the two pilots who stared back with a pained expression.

-----

"How's everything on your end?" Raman asked Ivan as they met up in private at the ship's armory.

"Well, I managed to pull several critical parts out as not meeting quality control and listed them as recycled in the system," Ivan said, pulling out a flask of potato vodka.

"I also got the stuff we need," Raman patted a large armory container on the side with a combi lock. "Now we just have to wait for a good opportunity."

"Well do you think it's a good idea?" Ivan took a drink from his flask nervously.

"We talk about it later," Raman gave Ivan a warning look as someone hit the intercom outside the armory. Raman glanced at the camera screen and pressed the hatch release, and two other burly crew members entered the armory.

They sat down next to Raman and Ivan and took out playing cards and chips. "Yo Ivan, any more of that vodka?"

Ivan removed a couple of flasks from his bag and handed them over. "20 creds as usual."

"Sure thing," The crew member with tattooed arms counted out a stack of red chips and slid it across the table to Ivan, who placed them in front of himself.

The other crew started shuffling the playing cards and doled out the cards to each player. "Same rules as before."

As the game progressed late into the night, Raman's pile of winnings grew larger while the other two men faces grew darker. Finally, the tattooed crew dumped his cards down and gave up, "I am out, you are lucky tonight."

Raman smiled, "Say, I heard something interesting lately, think it will benefit us all."

"What interesting news?" The tattooed crew member raised his eyebrows.

"Well, keep this between us strictly." Raman leaned forward and spoke in a low voice. "I heard that the Empire…"

-----

Magister Thorn bent over the laser engraver, watching the mana stone get laser-cut into a perfect circle.

The fire rune engraving started appearing like magic, etched by the invisible laser beams, burning the design into the surface of the round cut rune stone in seconds. Followed by an inking device which painted the runic symbol over with magical ink.

"What a wondrous machine!" Thorn who was wearing a pair of protective goggles looked like some crazed old man with his messy white hair and tinted goggles.

The runic symbol that he drew, was copied exactly and replicated onto a tiny surface in perfect detail! The magical silver ink that he had prepared to be used to write the runes of power, was inked along with the laser engraving.

If he wanted to do the same detailed work, it will painstakingly take him many hours or even days to carve the runic symbol out followed by inking it with silver. But this device does it all in seconds and even on a surface area as small as his smallest fingernails!

Thorn stood up and removed his goggles, thinking back to the weeks before that he told Captain Blake, that he needed days to prepare each fire rune for his thundersticks. Captain Blake just looked at his work and smiled, telling him not to worry at all. How indignant he was at that time!

But this device just made him eat his words and pride. He looked at the several chests of mana stones, which the Princess donated to the hoomans and wondered what other interesting toys can he make.

-----

Flight lieutenant Peter and Tommy sat hunched over the computer, looking at the plans of the Boeing 848 Super Spacebus. Both were the pilots assigned to fly the UNS Singapore and the Spacebus.

"Well, if we remove the cosmic radiation protection tiles, the airlocks, oxygen recycler and tanks, the directional thrusters, the dual wing main thrusters, and armor plating," Tommy pointed at various parts on the Spacebus drawings. "At least 55% reduction in weight can be achieved. More if we can hollow out the hull and cut away all unneeded parts."

The Boeing 848 Super Spacebus was introduced in the early 2070s as an all-purpose space hauler. The bulky and squat angular design comes with a forward passenger compartment capable of carrying up to 40 passengers and a rear cargo area with over 10 tons of cubic space.

The cargo compartment was also modular, allowing the boxy module to be removed, allowing an external cargo container to be carried or an additional passenger module, increasing the number of passengers to 200.

Powered by a Rolls-Royce Trident 800 helium 3 engine, it was capable of short-haul flights between space stations and starships. While not atmospheric rated and an outdated model, its durability, reliability, and ease of maintenance prompt the UNM Navy to continue its service even if it is a 40-year-old design.

"But if we remove the main thrusters how is it gonna fly?" Peter asked, staring at the drawings, "We should add in a flight surface controller here and here."

"Who said we are gonna need thrusters to fly it?" Tommy raised his eyebrows. "All the helium 3 fuel is taken by Engineering for fuel for the reactor."

"What we should do is to convert the engine to run on electricity instead." Tommy highlighted the stubby wings where the ends of the wings sat a thruster unit. "We modify the wings, add in a duct fan unit instead."

"Duct fan unit?" Peter frowned as he thought about. "You mean like a VTOL craft?"

"Yup, since the wings are tied to the flight control systems, we can recode the software to tilt the wings front and back," Tommy explained.

"It won't maneuver very well with it non-streamlined structure, nor fast," Peter stood up and stretched his back. "It will be like flying a tank."

"Unless we make the duct fan mounted wings capable of independently rotating forwards and backward," Tommy cut Peter off, "turning left and right is just a simple task of reducing the power of either one of the fans."

"Hey, let's check with that Indian marine armorer, see if he can design some rockets?" Peter's eyes glowed, his tiredness gone. "Strap a few rocket pods on it and voila! A flying tank!"

"That's a good idea," Tommy rubbed his weary eyes, they had been going through the plans for hours. "I'm sure the Marines will appreciate the fire support. But we need to cut down the weight more if we want more range and flight time."

"Hmmm, why can't we use magic to lighten the load?" Peter suggested as he laid down on the bunk. "I heard that magician Ton or Korn gave the idea of those rifles powered by magical runes."

"That's it!" Tommy slapped his head, "why didn't I thought of that! If magic can help reduce another 20% of the weight, we can increase the flight time and range of the ship!"

Tommy dived into his work, redesigning the Spacebus, removing non-essential parts and reducing the overall weight of hauler while thinking on how to convert the engine to run on electricity which will in turn power the dual duct fans. He also drew in plans for mounting of weapon pods.

Finally done, he looked at the 3D design on his computer. "Great, all done, now to find that great magician to find out if his magic can help."

Tommy got up from his chair and stretched, "Let's go find the magician!" and found Peter already asleep on his bed.

69 - After Action Review

Thick heavy snow covered the plains, several figures suddenly appeared out from the snow and advanced up the snow-covered terrain and into the edge of the forest. The white camouflaged shapes moved with a purpose, keep as low as possible to the terrain

Acting Platoon leader Recruit 'Bigfuck' Arven, his helmet covered in a white flock and dressed in a white cloak, waved his section forward and half crouched his way into the cover of the trees.

He peered around the snow-coated leaves of everblue tree, observing their objective his platoon was tasked with a pair of covered field glasses. His fellow recruits reached the rallying points and waited for his command for the attack.

The opposing force, dressed similarly but with an Empire blue coat over their gear and carrying Empire weapons and shields, the blades and spearheads dulled, was digging in around the area their camp area, seemly unaware of their presence.

"One-ear, tell me what you see," Recruit Arven handed his binoculars to his second in command, Recruit Orgen 'One-ear' who like Arven, served as an old timer in the Goldrose Army, who lost his left ear fighting the Empire forces, thus earning his nickname.

One-ear took the binoculars and went down on his hands and knees and leopard crawled to a better vantage point. He looked at the activity of the enemy camp, and counted the number of sentries and their locations, before crawling back to Arven.

"I counted eight sentry posts, two-man each," One-ear returned the binoculars and unslung his rifle. "They appeared to be setting up their camp. They haven't spotted us at all."

Arven nodded, he also counted the same number of sentry posts and guards. "Tell Section Two and Three to begin their attack in 10 minutes, they are to make as much noise as possible, I want the enemy to think we are all there." He checked his timepiece while giving his order to his runner, who repeated the order back, before moving off, keeping himself low and hidden from the enemy sights.

"One-ear, you take Section 1 on a flanking maneuver on their right," Arven points towards a low depression on the right flank. "Keep out of sight, use that depression for cover. Do not engage till the enemy has fully committed against Section Two and Three, understand?"

"Keep out of sight, and only attack when the enemy's attention is all on Two and Three?" One-ear replied. "Got it."

Arven nodded, as One-ear hurried back in a low crouch to where his section had gathered, and he next turned to his Section One. "Alright, we hold here, once the enemy rushes out we fire into their flanks. Till then keep out of sight."

He had his platoon arranged in an 'L' shape. Section Two and Three formed the lower part of the 'L' while One and Four were at the flanks. And just as ordered, 10 minutes later, pops of gunfire erupted from Section Two and Three's position.

Snow erupted as the training bullets impacted against the snow. The bullets were made out of the waxy native tree sap and filled with red dye made from the pigment of flowers. The sentries who got hit, sat or laid down on the snow and removed their helmets to indicate that they were dead.

Yells and shouts of alarm erupted from the Opposing Force or OpFor camp, and like a kicked beehive, the men posing as Empire soldiers charged out in the direction of Section Two and Three. Act Platoon Leader Recruit Arven hidden among the trees, watched the 'enemy' formed up a shield wall and charged into the gunfire where Section Two and Three were at.

Arven turned to his men and said, "Make ready!" Clicks and rattling of bolts replied him as his men, removed their safeties and worked their bolts, chambering a round in. Seeing the majority of the enemy had taken the bait, Arven yelled, "Fire!"

Bursts of fire and smoke exploded out from around him as his men fired their Magelock rifles. The elves had trained well enough in the firing ranges that they could fire at least 20 aimed shots per minute with the bolt action.

He waited for the enemy to take the bait and managed to time his volley right at the enemy's flank as they lined up perfectly for his men to enfilade fire.

The training paint round hammered into the flanks of the shield wall, causing the 'enemy' to cry out in pain and surprise. While the bullets are made out of rubbery wax, it still packed enough kinetic energy to feel like someone poking you very hard with a pointy stick.

Suddenly the snow around Arven exploded, spraying him with bits of wet snow and red dye, and throwing his men into confusion, "What?" He peered through the gun smoke and spotted the enemy side has Magelocks too and were firing at them.

"Take cover! They got guns too!" Arven yelled over the blasts of gunfire. He followed his own advice, throwing himself down onto the soft wet snow and rolling behind the everblue tree. The enemy line exploded into smoke and more bullets smacked against the hardy tree trunk, shaking the snow accumulated on the leaves down on him.

One of his men cried out in shock as a paint round smacked right against his collar, spraying a dark red dye out, looking realistically like blood. The unfortunate recruit dropped down and rolled about the snow screaming in pain."Medic!"

"Take out their shooters!" Arven yelled and aimed his Magelock at the enemy. He squeezed the trigger and his rifle muzzle erupted in a cloud of gunsmoke, temporarily blocking his view till the wind blew it away. He saw the enemy he shot at sitting down on the snow, with one hand raised up, indicated he got hit.

"Come on," Arven encouraged his men, "Pour it on!" He worked the bolt of his Magelock and fired again. "Suppress them!"

Suddenly a chorus of shouts emerged from the far right, as One-ear successfully led his Section unnoticed to the rear flanks of the enemy. His Section emerged out of the low snow depression and firing their Magelocks as they charged, hitting the rear of the surprised enemy.

Not long after, a loud whistle blew, and the sounds of gunfire and smoke died down as the exercise came to an end.

"Alright, commanders gather up the rest of the men, go police up all the spent cartridges and make sure your equipment is still with you!" Sergeant Collins spoke into a loud hailer, "Get the medics to tend to those wounded in the exercise."

Hours later, Platoon Three of the attacking force gathered into a tent where several benches, a table, and a display screen was placed. Collins and James stood inside waiting for the men to settle down. "Alright settle down, what we are doing here is an 'After Action Review' or an AAR," Collins said to the gathered recruits. "We will do one of these after every action, so get used to them."

"Now, I want to say a good job on the attack," Collins said, looking at Recruit Arven, "It was a textbook attack and ambush, properly executed. And even with the surprise part that the 'enemy' had similar weapons, you managed to control your men and counter them, especially when you are still in the middle of training."

"Now, we will be going over every individual and unit actions as we know and see how we can improve on them. I'll start with ammunition expenditure." Collins turned to the mounted display and graph appeared. "We counted an average of 32 rounds of 6.5mm per enemy that got shot. That means each of you fired at least 30 shots each for the whole engagement."

"The low count was 11, Recruit Bigfuck." Collins pointed to another chart. "But in the first place, you shouldn't even be firing at all. Why did you fire, Recruit?"

"Sir, this recruit wasn't really doing anything and th-the enemy is just there, so I fired, sir!" Arven replied uncomfortably.

"You were supposed to be paying attention to everyone else's action." Collins shook his head, "Your task as Acting Platoon Leader is to lead, your weapon was given to you for self-defense or for something you have to shoot at because you can't get your men to do it in time."

"Did any of the enemy came close to your position?" Collins continued asking Arven.

"Sir, No, Sir!" Arven admitted.

"You are there to lead, and control the flow of the battle," Collins advised, "lead from the front if you have to, engage if you have to, but keep your eyes on the battle. Understand?"

"Sir, Yes, Sir!" Arven replied, nodding in understanding.

"Recruit Yothan!" Collins yelled next. "You, my friend, had won the big prize. 107 rounds."

"Sir, Yes sir!" Recruit Yothan shot to his feet in attention.

"Now, Recruit Yothan, tell us all, how the fuck did you expend 107 rounds of ammunition?"

70 - Promotions

"What do you think of the current batch of recruits?" Captain Blake asked Lieutenant Frank while sitting in Blake's office with Commander Ford and Staff Sergeant Pike in attendance.

"Well, physically and mentally they have are quite tough, it's just we had to brainwash away their notions of how to wage war and train them to follow orders and how to think," Frank gave his opinion of the recruits. "Most of them have the willingness to stay in a shield line and die, which is good and bad.

"Good for the fighting spirit and bravery, bad for it will be a waste for a trained soldier," Frank said. "We managed to get them to think for themselves and the overall bigger picture."

Blake nodded, "Alright, according to the schedule, they are reaching the last week of their training soon, right?"

Staff Pike spoke up, "Yes sir, once they finish the final week of training, they will pass out successfully."

"Ok," Blake reached into his desk drawers and pulled out a small felt box. "I believe congratulations are in order, Major Frank."

"What? Major?" Frank looked wide-eyed in surprise at the box which Blake opened to show a pair of embroidered Major rank tabs. "This is a triple promotion!"

"Well, we can't have you as a mere 2nd Lieutenant to be in command of a battalion," Ford spoke up.

Everyone in the room smiled and stood up, "As the Highest authority in detached command, I, Captain Richard Blake, Captain and Commander of the UNS Singapore, by the power and authority vested to me by the United Nations of Man Naval Command, hereby promote Marine 2nd Lieutenant Frank Lee to the rank of Marine Major," Blake intoned solemnly, "As the people presented shall hereby be my witness."

Frank stood in attention, his mouth opened in surprise, Major? Holy shit!

"Congrats Sir!" Staff Pike saluted Frank while Blake and Ford smiling, shook his hand.

"Well Staff, if you don't mind, it will be an honor for me for you to pin my rank on," Frank said sincerely to Pike.

"The honor is mine, sir!" Pike took the offered rank tabs and removed the 'butter bars' from his uniform collar and replacing them with the Major tabs that were embroidered in official emblem of the United Nations in gold thread.

"Here," Blake removed another box and pushed it to Frank, "You should have the honor for this."

Frank opened the box and saw a pair of Master Sergeant embroidered rank insignia inside and smiled, "Well, congrats to you too, Master Sergeant Pike."

"No shit?" Pike swore as he looked at the box offered to him by Frank. "Damn, everyone gets promoted."

"That's the idea," Ford answered, "With the new recruits passing out, we need to put the more experienced men into command roles and they need the rank for it, also we will need to come out with a sort of Officer Cadet School to train potential candidates into officers."

Newly promoted Major Frank and Master Sergeant Pike nodded in understanding, "We will come out with proposal and training manual for that," Frank said.

"Good, now with the newly trained troops about to graduate, I will pull out the Naval Security section," Blake informed the two Marines. "Marines will now handle the exterior threats and security while the Naval Security will take over civil security and police work."

"Our advanced weaponry will be locked in the armory only to be issued for areas of critical importance," Blake said, "Our ammunition stocks are too low for any more large-scale conflicts, all personnel other than those guarding points of importance will be issued with the Magelocks."

"Aye aye, Sir!" Frank and Pike echoed, "We will ensure everyone turns in their weapons to the armory."

"Next, the two pilots came up with this proposal of getting the two haulers to fly," Blake activated the display in his officer, showing plans of the Boeing 848 Super Spacebus. "They also proposed a weapon system, installing black powder rocket pods here and here."

Pike nodded, "Looks good as a close in air support platform, since it is not aerodynamics, using it as a fixed rotor might be more efficient than having it as a ducted fan design. But how are they solving the weight issue? Those things weight hundreds of thousands of tons, as they are for use in space only."

"Well, they are stripping as much of the structure and non-essential components out as possible," Blake explained, "As, we had some unexpected help from Magister Thorn."

"That elf quack?" Pike snorted, "I get that magic is useful, but it can't be all our solutions."

"Well, his idea of using runes to fire rifles is quite good, in fact, it's more reliable than using electronic firing circuits," Blake smiled, "Pike, you ran the tests your self."

"I know Sir," Pike shrugged, "It just doesn't really sits well with me Sir, how do we know if it will fail later?"

"That's something we have to take a risk for now," Blake said, "With winter coming to an end soon, we will need every tool and weapon in our disposal. From what the prisoner is singing to Intel, I bet you a wolf steak that they will be back for Round Three."

"So how will Thorn's magic help?" Frank injected, going straight to the point. He was very interested in having some VTOLs as close in air support or as an aerial transport for his Marines.

"Well, the same thing as before, the use of runes embedded into the hull of the ships, use some sort of anti-gravity or weight lessening spells engraved into the hull," Blake said, "He's doing research on aeronautics and aerospace engineering now. But he's very certain it is doable, and he did mention something about flying castles and fortresses in the ancient times."

"Flying castles and fortresses?" Frank and Pike sat up straight as they heard that, "There are such things on this planet?"

Ford shrugged as he added, "Thorn said he read it somewhere about the Old Lands having flying islands and castles, hundreds of years ago. There were even rumors about it in the Empire but no one could verify, even the prisoner does not know."

"Great, giant wolves to dragons to fly islands," Pike snorted, "What's next? Gods?"

"Don't curse it," Blake said sharply, "It might come true."

"Sorry Sir, my bad," Pike apologized. "But if that quack elf could get the ships up and flying, it will help greatly. I see what black powder rockets we can cook up with the current stuff we have. Also if we could get their combat spellcasters to join in the Marines..."

"I see what I can do with that point on the mages," Blake promised Pike.

"Alright, Chief Gale has informed us that the next fabricator will be up and running in another week or so, but as it is a smaller and simplified model, the things it could produce out when being able to match our current fabricators," Blake said, "The elves also have more or less finished learning the basics and advanced tech courses. So we will move production over to the elves instead of constantly relying on the workshops."

"We will introduce the concept of mass production and assembly line production to them," Ford added, "This will help simplify and ease production requirements. We are planning to let the elves handle the less... techy stuff first, till they get up to proficiency."

"Yes, when spring comes, we also have to expand the farms, we only have just enough to survive this winter," Blake rapped his fingers on the table, "Also that sailor is willing to teach whoever is willing to learn on shipbuilding techniques, plus what we have in our archives, we could produce a fleet of wet water ships for fishing to improve our food stocks and also for defense against Goblin City."

"Sir, the Marine armorer had also just submitted another firearm design," Frank sent a file over to Blake who opened it and put it up onto the display. "It's a revolver design."

The image displayed a 2D wireframe top, front, and side drawing of an archaic looking swing-out cylinder revolver. "It holds five rounds in the cylinder, chambered for the 6.5mm black powder loads, same ammunition as the Magelock." Frank read out the specifications of the weapon. "It also borrows from the concept of the Magelock, the revolver hammer hits the rune to fire the cartridge."

"This looks quite good," Blake admired the drawings. "Your Marine armorer is pretty knowledgeable on firearms."

"Yes, he is," Pike spoke up, "Other than that he is quite useless."

"Oh, why?" Blake looked away from the display, his eyebrows arching up.

"That guy's always finding ways to slack and avoid any dangerous duties," Pike explained, shook his head. "He got posted to the Marines as a rear echelon due to his family political connections. Ha. guess they are regretting their decisions now!"

"Well, I don't care if they got any political connections back on Earth," Blake leaned back in his chair, "We are all in the same sinking ship now, everyone has to help in one way or another if not everyone sinks together."

71 - The Crucible

"Come on maggots! CRAWL FASTER!" James screamed at the mud-drenched recruits crawling under a series of barb-wired obstacles. James fired his Magelock over the heads of the weary recruits, his live round smacking next to the wet snow, where one of the recruits stopped to take a breather, making the recruit flinch and continue his crawl.

The snow had been churned into mud by the bodies of the sleep-deprived recruits as they navigated through the obstacle courses. Somewhere down the line, Mills sadistically splashed buckets of wyvern blood and guts over the struggling recruits. "Get used to blood and gore!" while other drill instructors fired live ammunition among the recruits.

Once the obstacle course was completed, the recruits were then forced marched eight kilometers to another location where they began another series of challenging exercises. The recruits' final week of training is to complete the Crucible test.

The Crucible is a test every recruit must go through to become a Marine. It tests every recruit physically, mentally and morally and is the defining experience of recruit training. The Crucible takes place over 72 hours and includes food and sleep deprivation and over 80 kilometers of marching. The recruits get barraged constantly in the day and night with exercises, which required every recruit to work together to solve problems, overcome obstacles, and help each other along the way.

The obstacles they faced included long marches, combat assault courses, leadership reaction courses, and team-building exercises. All the while, their instructors were in warm clothes, drinking hot drinks, and offering them food, hot beverages, blankets, and a warm shower if they will just quit and ring the Bell. Yet so far none of the elves covered in snow had given up, they pushed and encouraged each other, showing the humans that they were a very tough race.

Newly promoted Master Sergeant Pike sat on the jeep, watching the recruits humping over 20 kg of gear trotted zombie-like over the snow as they finished the final course. The freezing night wind blew strongly against the tired elves, but they ignored the freezing wind and stubbornly pushed on, even if their feet oozed with broken blisters.

Soon, the sun rose and Camp Alpha appeared in their sights, the tired recruits broke into a marching song to keep their spirits up and to ignore the chill and weariness creeping into their bones.

"In the early morning sun,
With a field pack on my back,
And an aching in my heart,
And my body full of sweat,
I'm a long long way from home,
And I miss my girlfriend so,
In the early morning march,
When the cold wind blows,
When the cold wind blows,
When the cold wind blows,
When the cold wind blows,
I know I know,
You have to go,
So hurry back home,
I miss you so."

Pike smiled in the rear of the jeep, that was following behind the marching recruits. Soon they will become real Marines after they reached the Camp and received their globe and anchor badge, which signified them becoming a Marine. Damn, these guys are pretty hardcore, Pike hoped that the next batch of recruits will be the same too.

As the recruits marched through the gates, they headed to the parade square where dozens of viewing stands were constructed. Surprised, they found out that their families and relatives whom they listed as their next of kin appeared in the stands, waving and cheering them on.

The tiredness that had seeped into their bones instantly vanished, and they marched straighter and proudly. Even with their unkempt appearance, they marched in step, and kept in proper formation, holding their rifles at port arms.

As they assembled at the parade square, Major Frank and Master Sergeant Pike stood before them standing on a covered platform, with Princess Sherene as the Guest of Honor. Captain Blake, Commander Ford, Lord Joesph, and the other high rankers, sat behind on the reviewing stand.

Out of the 448 recruits, six were dropped out due to injuries sustained during the training. The six will be allowed to rejoin the training after they had recovered fully. Other than those six, not a single former Goldrose soldier gave up and ring The Bell set outside the parade ground.

The Bell was a simple cast iron bell, if any recruit who wishes to quit, can ring the bell three times loudly in the middle of the whole camp. And if they ring the Bell during the Crucible test, they get to have hot food, drinks, and warm dry clothes in front of the rest of the wet, cold and hungry recruits.

They marched passed the public viewing stands and saluted the officers in the reviewing stands before stopping their march in front of the podium. Now the 442 recruits formed up proudly, all traces of fatigue gone, and stood in attention staring straight ahead. Master Sergeant Pike nodded, proud of the recruits standing in front of him. "All of you made me proud, I have never seen a batch of recruits like you who never gave up! You now no longer maggots, you not pieces of crap, nor are you not idiots, and no longer recruits, you are all Marines. You have completed what I’ve done many years ago when I was a recruit like you.” Master Sergeant Pike voice amplified by the mike and speakers set around the parade square.

Major Frank took over and gave his speech to the Marines, "Today you people are no longer maggots. Today you are Marines. You're part of a brotherhood. From now on, until the day you die, wherever you are, every Marine is your brother. Most of you will go to Sawtooth Pass. Some of you will not come back. But always remember this, Marines die, that's what we're here for! But the Marine Corps lives forever. And that means you live forever!"

"HOORAH!" The men roared aloud in unison. The force of their roar gave Princess Sherene goosebumps. Being told that they will die, yet their morale is so high, Princess Sherene thought it was quite scary, how did they train them to become so hardcore? She wondered.

Princess Sherene was than invited to give a speech on behalf of the people. The crowded stands cheered as she stood before the podium, she cleared her throat and the people hushed, allowing her to speak. "My people, we had come a long way since we left our motherland. Everyone had experienced some kind of loss along the way. Now the Hoomans had reached out a helping hand to us, not only in material means but also in military help."

"Today we are gathered here to witness the birth of a new army to defend us from our enemies, with the help of our Hooman allies. Let us salute our brave men who are willing to give their lives so that we can sleep peacefully at night. Thank you." Princess Sherene gave a bow to the gathered troops. The public also stood up and bowed respectfully to the men standing in attention in the parade square.

"Congratulations, Marines!" Major Frank stood at attention and gave a salute to the graduated Marines, who saluted back. "You will now receive your Anchor and Globe insignia, which means you are Marines now!"

The drill instructors gave out and walked down the rows of elves, issuing a Marine insignia and congratulating each and every one of them. "You are no longer recruits! You can call us by our rank and names from now onwards!"

"Now return your gear and arms, you have two hours with your friends and families gathered here, after that clean up all your gear and tomorrow you get one week off. Platoon leaders dismiss your men!" Master Sergeant Pike gave the order once every Marine had been issued a Marine insignia.

The newly graduated Marines cheered and the individual acting platoon leaders gave the commands for them to dismiss. The Marines than rapidly dispersed back to their barracks to change and drop their gear, before returning to the parade square dressed in new uniforms to find their loved ones and sharing their experiences excitedly and asking them to pin the new insignia on for them.

The drill instructors went around with digital cameras to help the families and friends to take a picture together with the graduated Marines. Almost everyone was no longer strangers to the hoomans' "tek-no-logee" and they eagerly gathered to take pictures.

Princess Sherene watched the scene from her seat with mixed emotions. She found that the practices of the hoomans were very different from her people's way of living and thinking, which can be counted on as cultural differences. But watching the way the new soldiers and their families and friends behave now, she felt them no longer as part of the people. She wondered if every one of the people will be brainwashed into becoming more hooman-like in the future. Will the people's identity and the culture and history of Goldrose be lost forever?

72 - Escape

As the celebrations went on in Camp Alpha way into the morning, back in the ship, several men met up in the Marine's armory. Seargent Raman watched the armory hatch's camera, making sure no one else is around before opening the hatch. He always used a backdoor hack to erase the video images and ID tags of the people entering and leaving the restricted area, to prevent Security from noticing anything wrong.

"All here?" Raman looked at the group inside the armory. Two crew ratings from Maintenance and Operations, two from Engineering, two mechanics from Auxillary and one more from Security. Ivan nodded, "All that want to go are here."

"Good," Raman rubbed his sweaty palms together and said, "The passcode for the arms lockers are here," He passed out the data slates to crew with the Security uniform tabs. "Grab all the ammo, and rifles and load up into the crates."

"Ivan and your friend, you go start up the vehicles, we will meet you at the motor pool," Raman instructed handing Ivan a set of black security armor and a Glock 88 attached to a leg holster. The armory didn't keep any spare Marine armor as those were all transported to Camp Alpha.

"The rest help transport the equipment we need over to the motor pool." Raman continued, handing out sets of black turtle vest armor to his fellow conspirators. They loaded the PDWs and M7A1s with live ammunition and slung the weapons on their backs before placing the loaded crates onto hand loaders, pushing them out of the armory.

The dozens of weapons lockers were emptied out rapidly, dozens of PDWs and a few M7A1s that remained in the armory were stacked into foam crates, while cases of 5mm and 6.5mm were loaded into separated crates. The armory started to look empty as crates and crates of equipment were loaded out and pushed towards the motor pool at the Cargo Bay.

"Move those too, they are combat rations which I nicked from the Marine stores," He pointed to several plastic boxes sitting at the side of the armory. They were soon loaded up along with the rest of the crates. Raman did a quick check around the armory, making sure everything is taken before he exited the armory and locked the hatch. He took out his tablet and hit a few keys in it, releasing a virus he wrote into the system.

Almost immediately, the armory lost all power and the lights went out inside. Even telltale red lights of the emptied electronically locked lockers disappeared. Raman grinned wickedly, well that will give us some time for them to open the lockers only to find them empty.

Too bad they didn't store all the weapons and ammunition in one place, if not I would have taken all, Raman rued, too much time is needed to raid the rest of the arms lockers in the various parts of the ships and no way to get to the city armory.

Raising his Glock 88, he aimed the muzzle of boxy shaped silencer attached to the pistol and squeezed several shots into the security pad of the armory door, destroying the lock sensors, causing a smell of burnt plastic in the hatchway.

Raman swung his backpack onto his back and walked away without looking back and put on a pair of shades while holstering his weapon.

-----

"Come on, Hio, use more strength!" Spaceman (Machinist) Ryan urged his partner as they gripped the handles of the monkey wrench, trying to loosen the devil cursed bolt from the transmission gear of the half-track they were maintaining. "Ok, on three, one, two, THREE!" The two mechanics huffed and puffed as they exerted their strength against the bolt.

"Goddamn it, how did it get so fucked up with muck, that we can't unbolt it!" Spaceman Apprentice (Machinist) Hio, grumbled as he wriggled his sored fingers. "Hey, that's Ivan and Tony?" Hio, saw the two entering the motor pool pushing some equipment with hand loaders.

"Petty Officer Ivan and Tony boy!" Ryan yelled from where he sat on the cold hard decks of the Cargo Bay. "Need some help here!"

The two men walking towards the other side of the bay froze, turning their heads like robots staring at Ryan and Hio. "What's wrong?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing, what are you guys doing here so late?" It was 0200am shipboard hours, Ivan asked as he walked over to the two Machinists. "Shouldn't you guys be off duty?"

"Damn, I want to, but we got to fix this shit before we can get off," Ryan grumbled, tapping the hull of the half-track with a spanner. "Some help in unscrewing that bolt? We can't find the powered screwdriver, don't know which asshole used it and didn't put it back in its place!"

Hio stared at Ivan, looking at the armor and gear he was wearing, "PO Ivan, did the sirens went off? Are we under attack?" He gestured with his head towards the armor Ivan was wearing.

"Oh," Ivan looked down at his armor, seemingly like noticing it for the first time. "This?" He quick drew his silenced pistol and fired into the two unsuspecting friends, dropping them both onto the decks in their own puddle of blood.

Ivan's heartbeat pounded loudly in his ears, louder than the suppressed shots of his Glock, his head drenched with cold sweat. He swallowed his suddenly dry throat a few times, before holstering his pistol with shaky hands. "S-sorry guys."

"What happened? Did you kill them?" Spaceman Senior Tony came up behind Ivan, causing Ivan to jump in surprise. "Shit."

"Blyad!" Ivan cursed, "Don't come up behind me like that!" He patted his chest a few times, trying to calm his racing heart down. "They saw us, we couldn't let them report anything. Enough, come let's go."

"Shit," Tony spat as he cast a last glance at the two bodies on the deck, he worked with those two before a few times and found them to be great guys. "Shit."

"Take that half-track, I had it listed as down for maintenance, there should be some equipment loaded in the back," Ivan tossed an electronic key to Tony. "Check the back to see if its all there."

Tony unlocked the vehicle and pulled himself up the tailgate of the half-track, doing a quick inventory of the equipment piled in the back. Dozens of foam crates stacked the rear neatly in rows, he opened the nearest crate and saw dozens of pieces of machinery seated in the foam padding.

"There should be 20 crates at the back," Ivan said as he pushed the hand loader with more crates to the back of the half-track.

"Got it," Tony did a quick count and reached for the crates Ivan handed up. Soon other members of the conspiracy arrived with more crates and started helping to load the supplies up. No one said anything about the two cooling bodies on the other side of the bay.

Raman walked in into the Cargo Bay and head towards the motor pool, he noticed the two bodies on the floor next to a half-track and smiled inwardly, now they are too deep in already, they can't run back to the Captain and betray him.

"How's everything?" Raman asked Ivan. "All good?"

"Yea, except for a little problem, but it's taken care of," Ivan sighed, "We just need to hook the trailer up and we are good to go."

"Great," Raman turned an pointed to the security guy, "Aaron right? Go open the bay doors, and lower the ramps." Aaron nodded and ran towards the control booth at the side of the bay doors. After a while, loud sounds of hydraulics echoed in the vast Cargo Bay as the massive doors slid open inch by inch.

"Split up half-half between the vehicles," Raman ordered, "Let's get the hell of out this place!"

They picked up Aaron at the doors and drove down the extended ramps heading towards the west walls. Tony stood by the intercom and reported to the Bridge about the opening of the bay door, using the wind blowing in to muffle his voice, reporting that Hio and Ryan were doing a vehicle test and since they were logged in as working in the motor pool, Bridge did not suspect anything.

The vehicles' headlights cut a swad through the fluttering snow drifting down from the dark skies as they navigated along the wet and slippery snow road, before finally reaching the West Gates of the walls. The security personnel manning the gates were surprised, but Ivan bluffed his way through, saying that the Wind, Tidal and Solar generators were down due to the heavy snow, and they need to shut it down before it gets damaged in a storm.

They were waved through and they really drove towards one of the W,T,S generators. The conspirators quickly detached the power cabling and collected the cables, while the two from Engineering shut down the generator and prepped it for transport. It took them less than an hour to load the portable generator into the trailer.

As they drove off in the snowstorm, the sirens within the walls blared, waking the inhabitants up.

73 - The Hunt

Spaceman Apprentice Dale from Maintenance and Operations scanned his ID chip from the sensor, updating his timesheet, as he entered the Maintenance locker room in Cargo Bay to start work. Humming to himself, he changed into his work overalls and started up the all-in-one robotic cleaners.

After making sure the cleaning solutions and water tanks were all topped up, Dale using his control tablet and four robotic cleaners the size of a large trash bin, followed docilely behind him, running on their many roller wheels as he led the machines out of the garage of the Maintenance locker.

Wearing a pair of head mufflers and running music in the background, he directed the cleaners to clean and maintain the decks of the Cargo Bay. A short while later, as he was enjoying some hot decaf, an alert on his tablet went off and he went to investigate the problem. These bots tend to get stuck easily or if they detected some tools left behind by the mechanics, they will prompt an alert out.

"What's wrong, R2D4?" He named the four robots one to four after some classic science fiction character from the 2D oldie motion pictures archives. "What's got into your gears?"

He looped around the half-track and stopped in his tracks, there were two bodies laying on the deck in their own pool of congealed blood. "Oh, shit." He pulled his personnel comm device and spoke directly into it, "Control? Cargo maintenance... We got dead people here..."

-----

Captain Blake was angry, very angry. He gripped the handrails in the Bridge till his knuckles turned white, as he listened to the reports from Flight Operations. "Sir, we can't launch the UAV in this storm! The current sustained wind speed is at 73 kilometers per hour and with sudden gusts up to 223 kilometers per hour! No to mention the thick snowfall, our sensors will be totally blind!"

"So you are saying we have to let those traitorous bastards off?" Captain Blake slammed the tactical table plot with his fists. "How about the tracking devices on the vehicles?"

The Sensors operator shook her head, "No luck, Sir. It will appear that they disabled the tracker."

"What? Even the secondary backup? Even the Search and Rescue beacon?" Blake pressed the flustered operator.

"Sir, we got no signal to the SAR beacon at all," She replied, after checking her console for the eighth time.

"What do we got then?" Blake turned to the officer wearing Security insignia standing at the side of the tactical table plot. "You better have something for me!"

"Yes, Sir." 2nd Lieutenant Mike Jacobs gave his report. "Central cameras along deck 3A, 4B, 4C, 6C, and 7A had motion detected during the time period between 0100 hours to 0200 hours. We eliminated movement from other locations as those have their alibis and accesses checked."

"In the past hour, we also did a full roll call of all personnel to find out who has not replied." Lt Mike uploaded his report on the Bridge display, showing a few individual dossiers. "These are our current suspects, they have not reported in for the past one hour."

"Spaceman Apprentice Leung, Chun-Kok, born 2109, New Territories, Hong Kong. Maintainance and Operations."

"Spaceman Apprentice Ramu Garcia, born 2111, Manila, Philipines. Maintainance and Operations."

"Spaceman Siddarth Kumar, born 2111, Mumbai, India. Engineering."

"Spaceman Senior Nicolas De Vos, born 2105, Ghent, Belgium. Engineering."

"Spaceman Senior Aaron Hart, born 2109, San Diego, CA, North America."

"Spaceman Senior Tony Petrynec, born 2112, Dnipro, Ukraine. Auxiliaries, Cargo Operations."

"Petty Officer 2nd Class Ivan Pavlo, born 2110, Kursk, Russia. Auxiliaries, Flight Operations."

"3rd Sergeant Raman Singh, born 2108, New Delhi, India. United Nations of Man Marine Corps."

"Apparently, our good Sergeant here has hacked into the armory security system which he was in charge of, changing and erasing logs." Lt Mike said. "As he was very familiar with armory systems, he fried both the main power and the backup power systems for the armory, which when we opened up, found it totally empty."

"What did we lose?" Captain Blake asked as he leaned over the tactical plot. "Has the virus been scrubbed from the systems?"

"We managed to isolate the virus within the armory security systems, it has no threats to the main systems, but to be safe, I will advise we shut down every system and run the codes to make sure there are no hidden viruses and backdoors he might have left behind." Lt Mike replied as he scrolled his tablet for the list of missing items.

"Information is still coming in on what had been taken by the deserters, but based on the last updated armory report from Master Sergeant Pike's inspection, which is two weeks outdated, we estimate that we lost 8 M7A1s, 30 PWDs, 10 M3 shotguns, 30 Glocks 88s and a dozen M1 Magelocks. For ammunition stocks, 7,000 rounds of 6.5mm in both ammunition types, 20,000 rounds of 5mm, a thousand rounds in 12 ga. 00 buckshot and over three thousand black powder loads. 20 sets of MK VI body armor. Also over a hundred High Explosive Anti Personnel grenades and flashbangs were missing."

Captain Blake closed his eyes as he crunched the numbers in his head, "That's almost the remaining one-third of our remaining hi-tech ammunition stocks!"

"On the plus side, Sir," Lt Mike continued, "We had dispersed most of the weapons and ammunition to several locations all over the base in the past week. If not our losses will be worse."

"What else is confirmed missing?" Blake asked, trying to keep his temper in.

"We have no concrete evidence yet, but we are suspecting that they might have stolen a full set of a Class 5 Fabricator. We found reports of parts listed as deflects and recycled in the system, the Forensics team is putting together the lists of parts to be self but it looks like a Class 5."

A Class 5 Fabricator is man-portable advanced materials 3D printer capable of printing anything handheld from mobile comms units to assault rifles as long as raw materials are available. The workshops were printing out Class 5 fabricators to increase production of smaller parts to free the larger Class 3 Fabricators on other larger important projects.

"Also Forensics found that several database topics in the system were copied, mostly on manuals on basic infrastructure, agriculture, animal husbandry, medicine and sciences like chemistry and physics," Mike added.

"Captain!" The UAV operator called out, "The storm has dropped, we can resume flight operations."

"Do it, Launch all the UAVs on standby. Do a 100-kilometer grid search pattern." Blake ordered. "Target the northern and southern parts of the West Gate."

-----

The flight deck was a flurry of activity, as the two standby UAVs were loaded onto the electromagnetic launch catapults. The whine of the supercharged turbofans of UAVs drowned out all conversation in the flight deck, as the launch crew ensured all systems were operational. The Catapult Officer did a last minute check on the launch pad and signal the Air Boss waiting inside the Primary Flight Control room.

As the maws of the armored flight bay swung open, the wind from the lessen storm blew in, rattling the two UAVs locked side by side on the dual launcher bay. The Catapult Officer checked the wind speed and gave a worried look at the Air Boss, signaling with hand signs that the wind speed might be too strong for the UAVs to handle during the takeoff.

Air Boss, Chief Petty Officer Ethan Turner who was in charge of all Flight Operations on the Flight Deck frowned as he double checked the instruments. The current wind is very unstable, even though it had dropped to 45 km per hour, well within the safety takeoff speed for the Owleye UAVs. It was the gushes of wind that worried him as it could suddenly jump up to 100 or 200 km per hour, which might catch the UAVs in a crosswind and that would crash the precious UAVs.

Damn, those traitorous murdering bastards are getting away in the bloody storm, he thought to himself. Fuck it, let's take the risk. "Alright, all hands, clear the bay, fuck the wind, the Captain's ordered it and we are gonna find those traitors!"

The roars of approval were drowned by the high pitched whine of the electromagnetic pulse launcher as it powered up and "pulse fired" the carriage holding the UAV out at speeds of over 250 km per hour into the angled ramp and out into the stormy skies.

The Owleye staggered as it hit the storm but managed to right itself. The UAV operator wearing the full immersion headset controller skillfully piloted the UAV into the air and directed the nose of the UAV towards the search grid.

-----

The two half-tracks packed side by side in the cover of the everblue forest, taking shelter from the raging snowstorm. "Quickly get those smart camouflage covers over the vehicles," Raman shouted over the storm.

The conspirators struggled against the wind and finally managed to pin and lock the camo covers over the vehicles. "Good work! Let's continue moving!" Even with the dozer blades deployed to clear the snow in their tracks, the snow storm quickly covered up their tracks. Raman tried to peer out of the window and into the sky, he might not be a true Marine, but he had learned enough of how to avoid aerial surveillance and recon.

The smart camouflage plus the snowstorm will effectively negate any emission of infrared, thermal and electronic signals, making them invisible to anything sensors. He smiled happily and yelled loudly into the direct laser comms linking the vehicles.

"Let's go build our own Kingdom!"

74 - When shit falls, it comes in buckets...

The hunt for the deserters went on throughout the next day, but even with the snowstorm weaking, yet no traces of the two stolen half-tracks could be found. Unfortunately, before the storm ebbed, one of the Owleye UAVs encountered a sudden gale of wind, forcing it to go into a flat spin and pancake into the snow-packed terrain.

Captain Blake had no choice but to call back the rest of the UAVs searching for the deserters to prevent more accidents till the storm passes. The recalled UAVs landed one after another and were towed to the maintenance hangers for servicing by the crew. A retrieval team was dispatched to find the crashed UAV, hopefully, the airframe is still sound enough for the crashed UAV to be repaired back into service.

Air Boss Ethan directed the crashed UAV into the hanger bay and strolled over to Chief Gale, "How is it? Can it be repaired?" Both of them stared at the warped wreckage of the UAV. "Lucky the ground is packed shoulder high with snow, it should cushion some of the impacts."

Chief Gale crouched down and peer at the underside of the airframe, tapping the plating with his knuckles, "Well, we will need to do a full detailed microscopic scan, to see if there are any hairline cracks on the frame. Can't tell anything for now. If not we should be able to get up and running in a month or two."

"Damn, now we are down to only three UAVs in active service," Ethan rubbed his tired face, having not slept since the alert went off. "Chief, do your best to fix her up, alright?"

"Sure, I will get my boys on it," Chief Gale shook his head as he cursed under his breath, "Fucking traitors if I get my hands on them," He cracked his knuckles in anger. "I am fucking gonna tear their heads off."

"Sorry for the lost of your two men, Chief," Ethan patted Chief Gale's shoulder. "We will get them."

Chief Gale nodded, "They were just kids. Damn it." He hammered his gloved fist against the wreckage.

Ethan stepped out of the hanger bay and bellowed at his men, "Alright, prep the returned birds for launch, once the storm passes, we are gonna launch again. Make sure the birds are fully refueled and ready to go."

-----

Commander Ford frowned as he read the latest report that came in twice, making sure he didn't read it wrong. Finally, he gave a deep sigh, setting the tablet down on the table. "Well, I got more bad news, Cap."

Captain Blake sprawled over his office sofa, one hand resting over his tired eyes. "What's more shit did they do?" He gestured his other hand to Ford for him to continue.

"We lost contact with the W, T, S Generator earlier but Engineering listed it down due to the heavy storm. An engineering team went down to check when the storm lessened, in case it got disconnected or damaged due to the storm, but when they reached the site of W, T, S generator Four, they reported that it is missing." Ford replied, slumping down weary on a chair. "It is highly likely that they stole it too."

"So not only guns and ammo, a Class 5 fabricator, and now even a power generator is stolen," Blake spoke from his position on the sofa. "And we got a downed UAV for our efforts with still no results on where they ran. Oh, not to mention our stock of gold and silver reserves."

"Apparently one of the security officers manning the vault that morning as part of their gang," Ford confirmed. "At least, he tasered his fellow officers rather than killing them in cold blood, is something we can be thankful for."

"We still lost two kids because of their actions." Blake cut Ford off, who conceded the point.

"They also stole enough of the emergency rations to last the eight of them for a couple of months." Ford sounded defeated. "Its very clear that it was planned long before, as the hacking of the security systems is not something you can do in a day or a week or two."

"Security Forensics also found the files regarding all weapons designs and blueprints wiped off from the system servers, except what was saved in the tablets." Ford continued the bad news, "Even the designing software. We are back to the drawing board or we will need the IT guys to write out a new design software."

"How did we missed all these?" Blake asked, "There should be some signs right? How did they evade the intruder fail-safes in the system?"

"Most of the ship's primary AI server functions were badly damaged in the crash, and the IT guys took down the system to rewrite the lost codes and functions," Ford explained. "Apparently our Indian friend here not only holds a Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and firearms design but also a Bachelor's of Science in Computer engineering."

The profile picture and the dossier of Raman Singh appeared on the display screen in the office. Details of his education and background appeared below his photo image.

"He must have slipped in the malicious codes when the IT department rebooted the mainframe." Ford gave his hypothesis. "Forensics is still digging through everything with a fine comb that he had touched or been to onboard the ship. But so far, nothing yet."

"So he's a super hacker, a firearms designer and the son of India's trade minister." Blake checked off the points with his fingers. "Fucking fantastic."

"IT will be shutting the mainframe for debugging and a full diagnostics of the codes to find if there are any hidden backdoors." Ford said, "Weapon systems are already isolated from the mainframe to prevent any remote controlling if he had planted a backdoor, before the codes are checked and cleared, all of the ship's weapon systems will be down."

"Fuck it, it's over 20 hours," Blake said, sitting up from the sofa. "Call it off the search, let the men go get some rest, we can't do anything now till the storm passes and without our main weapon systems, we are practically defenseless."

"Understood," Ford responded and started packing his stuff. "I get the men to stand down for now and focus on defense."

"Go get some rest," Blake advised Ford. "My gut feeling is that they are long gone, but I suspect, it won't be the last we see of them."

Ford stood at the opened hatch and nodded, "Than we need to prepare a warm welcome for them when we see them again."

"You bet we will," Blake agreed. "We will be ready for them."

-----

Camp Alpha, Briefing Room One.

The air was heavy as the human Marines not on duty gathered around the front rows of the theater like seating, listening to the comms of the Marine search parties. When the order came, telling the men to stand down, they all broke out in curses and disagreement. "Alright! Stand down!" Master Sergeant Pike's voice drowned out all argument from the disgruntled Marines. "Go back to your bunks and rest."

"But Top, we still can move out to find those bastards." The men argued. "We ain't tired!"

"I know everyone is pissed with this shit that's going on. It is a serious stain to our Marine Corps honor!" Pike stood in the front and addressed the gathered Marines. "I know everyone wants a piece of that traitorous bastard. So do I!"

"So let us out to find that asshole!" Someone yelled in the back. "We got good trackers here!"

"But the orders came in to stand down for now. Grab some chow and sleep, it isn't over yet!" Pike told his men. "Save your energy till the storm passes, no one can track any shit in this storm. I am also expecting every one of you to be on alert, ready to move out at any moment, do you understand?"

"Yes Top!" The men addressed Pike unofficially as 'Top' due to his seniority and position as the top of the company's enlisted ranks.

The men filed out of the briefing room in ones and twos, shaking their heads and grumbling along the way. Mills grumbled as he and Bartley headed back towards the barracks, "Damn, that black shit, always knew he was up to no good."

Bartley shook his head and replied as he strolled beside Mills, "Bad business." The blast of the cold wind hammered against them as someone opened the main door out of the admin building. They left the building and leaned against the snow storm, before entering the barracks.

"Woooh," Mills shook the snow off his environmental suit and stamped his boots to clear the snow. "Crazy weather, hope those bastards freeze to death in it, saves everyone the energy of killing them."

The newbie Marine on desk duty in the barracks visibly restrained himself from jumping to his feet and greeting the arrivals. Mills chuckled, and asked, "Does the winter storms get this bad?"

The Marine elf nodded, "Normally not as bad as the mountains protect us from winds, but it does storm quite a bit during this time of the year. But the heavy snowstorm normally last a day or two, and once it passes, the next season comes,"

"Well, it sounds like mother nature doing a final dump on us before moving on."

75 - Distractions

The snowstorm continued to rage till the next morning. When the dark clouds cleared, sunlight shone down from the clear blue skies brightening the city covered in a thick layer of snow.

The inhabitants exited their dwellings and cleared the snow away while chatting with their neighbors. Most of the topic involved the sirens that went off in the Iron Castle.

The hoomans living in the Iron Castle were very strange in their ways, yet wise despite their youthful looks. But to them, as long as they have a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, they will follow the hoomans in their strange ways.

-----

Main Conference Room, UNS Singapore

The whole high command was gathered in the room, except for the elves. Everyone faces were dark and grim and the air in the room was heavy.

Captain Blake sat in his usual place at the head of the door with Commander Ford at his side.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the past few days we had an incident that has affected us badly in both material resources and morale." Blake started the meeting with that statement.

Mutters of agreement came from everyone as they looked gloomily at Blake.

"I am not here to assign any blame for what happened," Blake continued. "This is something none of us predicted nor expected. But we shall learn from our mistakes."

"Captain," Chief Engineer Matt spoke up, "Do we have any idea where or why they deserted?"

"For now, we suspect the reason is either greed or the threat of the Empire," Commander Ford spoke. "But we are leaning more towards the Empire's threat. As for where they went, there are only two directions they could have gone, either North or East."

Head of Security, 2nd Lieutenant Mike gave his report, "Forensics ran through all eight of the deserters' daily activities and data logs, while most of them were wiped out from the server, we managed to reconstruct some of the files." He passed a stack of dossiers and transcripts around the table. "It appears that Sergeant Raman is the brains behind everything, from the viruses to the planning of desertion. Some of the armory inventory had been modified as early as two weeks after we crashed, the summary is all listed in the files."

Lieutenant Mike gave a whole rundown of what had been stolen, from advanced weaponry, ammunition, food, manuals, gold and silver from the vaults, the Class 5 Fabricator and an automated Marine surplus reloading kit to the W, T, S generator and the two half-tracks with spare batteries. "In total, a third of our remaining stocks of advanced weapons and ammunition were looted and almost all our weapons database and research were wiped from the servers." He ended with that point.

"As to why we couldn't discover them so far, we suspect that they are using Marine smart camo covers that can reduce their heat and electronic signatures, and with the snowstorm covering their tracks," Ford continued after Mike ended his brief. "Once they hit the cover of the forest, we can't track them in the air at all."

"So what now?" Chief Matt asked. "They stole one of the W, T, S, generators and with the storm, seven out of the eleven windmills are down for repairs, our power needs are barely met. Not to mention the IT boys have to check all the codes for viruses, all our armament are down!"

"We replace what we lost and focus on defense first," Blake spoke. "Continue training troops and bluff up defenses at the Pass, while the IT guys focus on checking no backdoors are installed and we restart our weapons research again."

"So we are gonna let the bastards off? Pardon the language, Doc." Deck Chief Gale apologized to Dr. Sharon who waved him off. "We gonna let those murderers walk?"

"For now, yes," Blake sighed. He turned and activated the display behind him, showing a UAV feed. "This was taken this morning at 0944 hours, 237 kilometers Northeast from the Pass when the storm was over."

The video was split into two images, the right image showed the normal view of the terrain, while the left image displayed infra imaging of the same terrain.

A field of white could be seen covering the thick everblue forest canopy, while the infra imaging show spots of red appearing among the breaks in the forest canopy.

The spots of red appeared in several areas where the canopy of the trees was not clustered together, stretching for kilometers over the distance.

"The Empire has made their move," Blake gave his report to the surprised crowd in the meeting room. "With the current terrain and weather conditions, it is estimated that they will arrive within striking range of the Pass within one week to 10 days."

"Goddamn," Someone cursed. "They just don't give up do they?"

"The thing here is, it will be that they either hired mercenaries or they press-ganged some other races to wage war," Blake switched the UAV feed to another image, displaying a frozen zoomed in the image which caught a perfect shot of several creatures through the break in the trees.

"That appears to be a creature we classed as a troll," Major Frank took over the briefing. "And here is another shot of another new creature." He displayed another image of several large bare-chested muscular humanoid creature taken at an angle, their skin a mix of dull grey and green tones, wearing skull caps, with animal skins for shorts and wielding wicked looking axes and huge sabers.

"That looks like an Orc!" Dr. Sharon exclaimed excitedly, her eyes shining as she smacked the table top with her palms. "Whoops, sorry." She noticed everyone staring at her with weird looks, her face turning slightly red.

"Ahem," Frank cleared his throat before continuing, "Yes, thanks to Dr. Sharon's reference materials, we are classing this new creature as an Orc."

"According to the elves, the Empire uses irregular troops constantly, the Orcs to them are like a larger cousin to the goblins but tougher and stronger, they call them as 'Oerkin' which translates to Larger Greenskins" Frank gave a basic description of the Orc. "First-hand information from Goldrose soldiers who had fought against them is that they are very hard to kill."

"Standing over two meters tall, with muscles that any body builder will kill for. They appeared to have a mix of both goblin and troll traits. The cunninginess of the goblins and similar regeneration powers of the trolls and skin tough enough to stop swords and spears." Frank than quoted the elves, "to kill an Oerkin, one must chop off its head. There have been many records of supposedly dead Oerkin with wounds that would have taken lives, waking up after a battle has ended."

"Oooh, could your Marines capture one alive?" Dr. Sharon eyes continued to gleam excitedly. "I wanna study them!"

"Doc, please calm down," Blake interjected. "Now, we estimated at least four to five thousand Orcs in the force as Lord Joesph told us about them. They are mostly mercenaries, operating in clans which only have so many males available for hire."

"Intelligence estimates a force of roughly 10,000 heading our way, mixed with Orcs, trolls and regular elven infantry, siege weaponry and that is not counting their baggage and supply train, and what other auxiliary and irregular troops that they scoured up along the way." Ford listed out the enemy force disposition. "Our nemesis is known as Lord Strum Cyrras, Baron of Fallowfall. Apparently, he is the head honcho of this region, also the one governing the conquered territories of Goldrose."

"Intel from our prisoner is that this guy is ruthless, ambitious and a somewhat decent general and spellcaster. He is also part of the Knights of Twelve, which seems to be some kind of secretive knightly order, which Intel is still trying to dig more information out from the prisoner." Ford stated.

"The Marine orders are to dig in for the fight, Engineering to repair all the windmills and restore power, the project to dam up the waterfall will proceed once the snow melts," Blake stated issuing orders to everyone. "Dr. Sharon, please continue your research on strategic magical usage with Magister Thorn."

"Deck Chief Gale, please work with Flight Operations to try to repair the downed UAV, and also the plans for modifying the two Spacebuses." Blake listed out his priorities one by one. "Security and IT support to continue to ensure no backdoors and viruses are in the system and get my guns working ASAP!"

"Everyone clear on their roles?" Everyone nodded, "As for the traitors, leave them be, for now, they can't survive out there for long without a proper support base. Alright dismissed."

The commanders and heads of departments saluted Blake and exited the room one by one, "Matt, stay for a minute." Blake called out.

After the room was cleared, only Blake and Matt remained. "Could the damaged laser turrets be dug out and salvaged?"

"Yes, it's doable, but there are other more pressing projects to work on now," Matt considered the question before answering. 'Why?"

"Well, I was thinking of converting them into giant electromagnetic slingshots."

76 - Eye of the Storm

Sherene stood before the opened windows of her office, allowing the cold wind to blow in. The temperature has risen over the past few days as winter slowly came to an end. She returned to her seat before her desk and looked at the neat stack of perfectly cut and pure white parchment, no, paper, she corrected herself.

Printed on the smooth paper, were neatly arranged characters in both Common and English. It was a census on the number of people living currently in the city, with their ID numbers listed as well, allowing her to search for more detailed information if she keyed the ID number in the computer on her desk.

Captain Blake placed her in charge of running the City hall, and all civic matters. She has a few hooman advisors and her own people that occupied other offices in the same building which help her manage the civic affairs if the city.

Now that spring is almost here, she has to manage workers to tilt the land for farming and animal rearing, roads to be built and maintained, schools to be built, land to be surveyed and mines to be built.

The incident a few days ago which alarmed all the hoomans were strangely brushed off when she asked Blake and Ford. Both of them told her not to worry and just focus on running the city instead. She didn't press the issue, knowing Blake will tell her when the time comes. And yesterday, Blake told her to use the colored 'credit' chips as currency for the city instead of using gold, silver and copper coinage.

Blake told her that the citizens can use gold, silver, or copper and exchange with credit chips in equivalent value. He wants her to implement all of the community supply stores to only accept credit chips instead of hard coinage by end of spring.

Sherene understood that since they do not have a source of gold and silver mines, creating their own type of currency and enforced by the City hall to be accepted only in the shops, will help to cement its value to the people.

Also, the chips themselves were very durable and lightweight compared to the heavy coins. Blake told her to start up a national bank which will guarantee the value of the credit chips with hard gold. He hopes that people will deposit or exchange their precious metal for the chips in the bank rather than hold onto them in their homes.

Sherene placed a piece of blank paper and smoothed it carefully on the table and picked up a pen which the hoomans called a ballpoint pen. The first time she used it, she fell in love with it.

The ease of writing with the ballpoint pen was addicting, compared to the cumbersome quill feathers and ink she was used to before. Blake told her that these pens are cheap and easy to produce, making her shocked, as a set of quill feathers and a bottle of ink could cost up to 10 gold pieces! That is almost half a year salary for a regular craftsman!

And not the mention the wondrous lamps that provide light brighter than candles at any time and it doesn't produce any bad smell! Even after attending the classes given by the hoomans, she still thought of the lamps as magical.

She spent the whole morning working out the details on the tasks to be done during the spring season. Finally, her tummy growled and she looked at the hooman clock invention hanging on the wall, finding it time for the midday meal.

She left the City Hall and wandered to a nearby eatery opened by a former inn owner. "Welcome! Oh, it's the Princess!" She was greeted cheerfully by the owner's daughter cum waitress as she slid the wooden doors open.

"Here, have a seat!" She was offered her usual seat next to the windows of clear glass. "The usual?"

Sherene smiled and nodded, "Yes, please! An extra egg too! And a plate of fries!" She gave her order to the waitress.

The tiny store started to get crowded as the lunch crowd started to come in. The people who came into the store for lunch wasn't surprised to see the Princess sitting there, as she regularly had lunch there, they greeted her with a smile and gossiped with her on trivial matters, making her laugh.

Her food came, a bowl of wyvern broth slime ramen with slices of pan-fried wyvern meat, topped off with a large gooey wyvern egg and garnished with green onion herbs and fragrant spicy oil, this recipe was introduced by the hoomans, much to the delight of the elves' taste buds. They normally just harvested the slime's core for its magical properties and never thought that it could be a delicacy. With the introduction of slime as a food ingredient, a booming industry in rearing slimes for food had started up.

Following that came a plate of golden fried thick cut fries sprinkled with sea salt, also courtesy of the hoomans. Potatoes grown from the farms was a new staple food introduced by the hoomans to the elves, the carbohydrate-rich and filling super starch, was extremely popular either deep fried or baked and served with butter, sour cream and bacon bits!

The waitress who placed the large serving of steaming hot fries also included a small dish of red tomato sauce on the side, making Sherene's mouth water. A condiment from the hoomans, 'kat-chup' was made from mashing the red fruit and cooked with salt, sugar, vinegar and other herbs together. It tasted tangy, sweet and sour, making it ideal for dipping fries.

Lately, she felt she had gained weight ever since she started working at the City Hall. The hoomans are scary, not only are their weapons deadly, even their food is deadly too! Thought Sherene as she dug into her bowl of slurpy ramen with relish.

The eatery was soon filled with sounds of laughter and cutlery as the people enjoyed their mid-day meal, blissfully unaware of the coming of a darker storm.

-----

Sawtooth Pass

The Marine garrison had been reinforced with most of the new recruits. A few of the more promising recruits were sent to Basic Leadership Course before heading to the Advanced Leadership Course.

Teams of Marines in fatigues dragged sharpened logs and bound them together into barricades, with the sharp pointy ends facing away from the gates. The crater from the missile strike was filled in, to prevent the enemy from using the crater as cover. The roads were cleared of any form of cover that could be used, while barricades were hammered into the hard rocky terrain, forming a maze-like passage.

Engineering had come by earlier and deposited two modified laser point defense turrets, stripped from the ship. The fully armored enclosure turrets were upgraded and enlarged, enabling a crew of up to four to comfortably operate the weapon system manually.

A simple track was installed between the recycled laser projector coils, with a roller carriage attached to it while the laser emitters and focusing lenses were removed. By powering the coils in sequence using electricity, the magnetic coils will be able to propel the carriage at high speeds, similar to the Flight Bay EM launchers.

A cylinder cardboard filled with hundreds of lead pellets can be loaded onto the carriage, like a giant shotgun shell, and when propelled out at high speeds, the dense pellets will burst out of the lighter cardboard container like grapeshot. Another specialty ammunition available was a discarding sabot round, using a steel penetrator instead of other denser materials. It was designed for use against heavy armored creatures like dragons. The ready ammunition lockers in the turret are capable of holding 42 Grapeshot shells and 12 Anti Dragon Sabot shots.

To assist in targeting, a crude rangefinder and camera were installed, protected by two-inch thick armored glass, connected to a display and fire control system inside the turret. Air pumps connected to pipes were also installed in the turret to ventilate the air inside.

To further protect the turrets from offensive magic, a layer of silica ceramics was coated over the outer armor of the turret, which can be heated up to 1204 Degree Celsius and a lightning rod was installed to protect against lightning attacks.

Simple hydraulics replaced the electric servo motors that rotate the turret, azimuth, and elevation of the gun. Power cables were planted into the floors and protected by layers of concrete to prevent disruption of power to the guns.

With two of the railguns covering the approaches to the Pass, they effectively could throw a spread of grapeshot at any enemy that approaches within 400 meters and fire an anti-dragon sabot shot effectively up to four kilometers away.

Mills leaned against his shovel, slacking off from filling sandbags and watched the engineers hoist the converted rail guns into place on the secondary wall using a crane built on top.

"Damn, I wanna fire that!" He exclaimed to Bartley who was working diligently, shoveling sand into the bags.

"Maybe," Bartley gave a simple reply as he focused on his task.

"Can't wait to see those Blue Boy faces when you blast a massive shotgun in their faces," Mills grinned, "Revenge is best served with a shotgun blast in the face."

"Heard that they have over ten thousand Oerkins and troops headed this way," One of the new Marines said as he worked alongside them.

"You mean Orcs? Ten thousand, how many do we have?" Mills asked.

"300," Came the reply from Bartley.

"Oh no you don't," Mills cursed, "This is sounding a lot like that movie we watched the other night and that one the other day."

"Which moobee?" The elf stopped his work, wiping the sweat off his brows. They were introduced to the wonders of movies and dramas in the recreational room, turning them into die-hard movie junkies.

"This is so much like 300 meets Helm's Deep!"

77 - War Drums

Urka the Fierce spat a piece of tough gristle out from his mouth as he clambered over a massive tree root. He paused at the top of the root and stared over the heads of his clan mates marching behind him. He adjusted the leather straps holding his double moon bladed ax on his back.

His clan known as The Hand had joined the soft skins for promises of food, weapons and a share in the plunder. They mostly roam around the outer ridges of the mountains like nomads, living off the land and raiding the soft skins for food, weapons, and slaves. As they lacked the knowledge of metal forging, they relied upon the soft skins for iron weapons and at times food to tide over the winter months.

The clans periodically wage war amongst themselves, over the best watering hole to the prime pastures for their wandering herds of muffalos. Clan rankings were also determined by wars and duels, basically, it is all about the survival of the fittest.

Most of his clan worn a simple boiled muffalo hide or those with higher ranks within the clan, worn crude looking metal plating, hammered into some resemblance of a chest plate with a white handprint painted on their chests. They disdained the weak and small soft skins who were wrapped in thick furs and leather armor, yet they had to control their unhappiness with working for the soft skins, for they pay well in weapons, armor, food, and slaves.

To the Oerkin, a warrior should fear nothing, not even the cold. He felt that his clan shouldn't bow down to the soft skins and just take what they need from them. But the Great Chief had spoken and he could not disobey. He leaped down and his bared feet wrapped with leather squished the wet snow.

He continued the march with over four thousand of his kin, heading towards the distant jagged peaks of the mountain range, sensing an aura of bloodlust coming from the mountains. Excited by the thoughts of war and plunder, he drew in a deep breath. "Waaaargh!" His war cry echoed through the forest, inciting his clan to roar with him, and the war drummers unlimbered their drums and started beating a tempo furiously.

-----

Duke Sturm rode on a palanquin mounted the back of a land dragon. A small charcoal brazier burnt, keeping the temperature warm and cozy inside. Sturm lounged on several pillows while the palanquin swayed gently on the back of the lumbering creature.

Chewing on a golden fruit, Sturm gave a sigh of enjoyment as a two half-naked female knitted his muscles. He dropped the half-eaten fruit back on the bowl and half closed his eyes in bliss.

"My Lord!" A cry woke him from his pleasant dreams. "A report has arrived from the scouts."

He sat up from the pillows and shoved away the slaves, his pleasure ruined. "What is it?"

"My Lord, the scouts have the Pass in sight and it appears that the rebel has fortified the Pass." The soldier riding a war dragon reported, pacing the larger lumbering land dragon side by side. "They report seeing a double defensive wall built at the Pass."

"What?" Sturm pulled away from the thick heavy curtains of the palanquin and glared at the soldier. "Are the scouts accurate?"

"Yes my Lord," The soldier handed a rolled up scroll to the footman riding along the land dragon, who presented the scroll to Sturm.

Sturm grabbed the scroll and unfurled it, glaring at the contents, which showed a sketch of the Pass and the fortifications protecting it.

"Impossible, it must be an illusion spell!" Sturm dumped the scroll to the side, "How could they have built this much walls during winter?"

The reporting soldier kept his head down, not daring to dispute his Lord. "It is just a ruse, even if they successfully constructed the walls during winter, Now that the snow is melting, the ground it stands on won't be sturdy enough to withstand our artillery."

Sturm gestured to the rear of the marching column, where several land dragons pulled a massive construct behind them among the columns of blue-coated soldiers slogging through the mud, causing by hundreds and hundreds of feet and the melting snow.

Several more land dragons cleared the way of his army, uprooting the everblue trees, and creating a highway for his war machines to move over the difficult terrain.

He heard the rising tempo of drums started in the front of the marching army column, and smiled, "Well, at the least the dogs are hungry. Form the army into two columns, let the dogs take the center stage." Sturm gave out his order to his men. A flagbearer started waving flags in a particular matter, while a horn was blown to call the commander's attention to the signal flags.

-----

The Owleye UAV stationed at the Pass, glided in gentle circles in the wind, its adaptive coat turning it semi-invisible to the naked eye as it trailed the advancing army through the thick forest. It's communications array constantly sent bytes of information back to Base, updating the Combat Information Center in real time.

The uprooting of the trees allowed the UAV pilot to constantly track their movements within the thick blue canopy of the forest as they marched in a direct path towards the Pass and the humans and elvish defenders ready themselves as the enemy neared.

-----

Sawtooth Pass, Alpha Wall.

Marine Private Talan stood inside the protected casement eyeing the forest through the firing slits. He carefully dripped some gun oil onto his bolt carrier and gave it a good wipe, before installing it back into his rifle.

He worked the bolt, making sure the action was smooth and squeezed the trigger, dry firing the Magelock, making sure the fire runes were working.

He pulled the bolt back and slowly slid in two five-round stripper clip one after another into the open chamber. After that, he closed the bolt and put the weapon on safe.

"Sarge," He called James who was sitting with his back against the wall, eyes closed. "Think we can win?"

"Of course," Third Sergeant James replied. "We fought back larger numbers with less than half of the defenders we got now."

"Not to mention, you guys have Magelocks now," James added.

"I see them!" Someone yelled excitedly, and everyone turned their attention to the distant forest edge, seeing in the distance, trees were being toppled, creeping closer and closing. "Looks

"Don't worry, they still have to climb up the slope of the mountain," James assured his men. He was now in charge of a new section of elves, his previous men were all mostly reassigned among the new recruits.

"Alright do a check of your weapons and ammunition," James ordered, "Check your sights are set to 300 meters."

His men rested their Magelocks against the firing slits and started to make adjustments to their sights and ensuring their weapons were loaded.

"I don't think they will attack today," James said while looking at his wristwatch. The sun will go down in three hours, and he highly doubts the enemy will attack in the dark especially after marching through the forest and melting snow without resting.

Sure enough, UAV reported that the enemy had stopped roughly two kilometers away from the Pass, hiding inside the forest and started to make camp, and learning from their previous experience, the campsites were spread out among the forest and no longer clustered together. Even the number of sentries were doubled.

"Alright, the blue boys are hunkering down in the forest for the night," James said to his section, "Get some shuteye as much as possible, we will rotate watch tonight."

Some of the Marines laid down against the cold hard concrete to rest, while others stood watching the forest, hoping to see something. James ducked out of the exit of the bunker built inside the walls and head towards the command post at the rear. The defenders were all situated inside the walls behind a layer of reinforced concrete rather than the exposed top.

As he passed by the second defensive wall, named Beta, he glanced up at the towering railgun turrets, where dozens of engineers and tech were like ants, doing their best to get the guns operational before the enemy attacks.

He entered a concrete bunker set into the mountainside, where three Marine sentries stood guarding a sandbagged checkpoint, after passing inspection, he entered the steel door and found another two sentries stationed at the end of a 50-meter long corridor, wide enough for only two men to walk side by side.

He nodded to the two sentries before entering another steel door with another two more guards on the other side, before entering the main Sawtooth Mountain Defense command center. Dozens of display screens salvaged from the ship lined one side of the wall, where live imagery was been broadcasted. A large tactical plot table sat at the middle of the room, surrounded by commanders and section leaders as they discussed strategy on the map.

Elves and human operators in Marine digital cam uniforms sat in front of consoles and computers, operating the systems and speaking into their headsets.

He joined the group of commanders in the middle of the room and listened in to the discussion they were having. Master Sergeant Pike was addressing everyone at the table.

"Here is how we are going to kick their asses."

78 - Rematch of the Pass

"Watch your front! Make your shots count!" James yelled over the roars of Magelocks, his throat sore from the thick gun smoke he inhaled in. "Aim low, aim low!"

The recoil from the M1 Magelocks was a lot stronger and powerful compared to the smokeless chemical propellant of modern firearms. During trials of the M1 Magelock, it was found that the force of the recoil tends to kick the muzzle up slightly. Therefore during training, the instructors drilled into the recruits to fire low, to compensate for the powerful recoil.

James leaned into the butt of his Magelock and peer down the sights, waiting for the dirty gun smoke to clear. He led his sights slightly before an Orc trying to cross no man's land, aiming roughly at the area where he estimated the Orc will reach. As the smoke cleared, he quickly readjusted his aim and squeezed the triggered and was rewarded immediately with a painful kick in his shoulder followed by a loud bark and a dense cloud of dirty smoke and the 6.5 mm steel jacketed lead bullet weighing 13.3 grams took almost a second to travel between the short 300-ish meters and kissed the upper torso of the charging Orc he fired at.

The Orc's thick hide proofed no resistance against the spinning heavy lead bullet, entering through its chest wall and shattered the upper ribs of the Orc, before mushrooming and fragmenting into two pieces with one piece spiraling downwards and out through the back, missing the rear ribs and leaving a fist-sized exit wound. The other continued on at a slight angle, ripping into the upper left lung before lodging at the scapula.

The Orc toppled backward with a warcry cut off in a gurgle, the spent fragment exiting from his back, hit and bruised his companion behind him before both of them went down in a tangle of bodies. The dazed Orc sat up and rubbed the area on his belly where the spent bullet had hit him and got up and screamed a war cry before another bullet blew half his right arm off, leaving it dangling by the remains of his biceps muscles and skin.

The Orc screamed in anger and pain, tumbling on his butt again. He picked up a discarded saber and cut off the remains of his crippled arm. Gritting its teeth, the Orc growled and continued charging albeit slower than before, while leaking blackish blood from his wound, joining the rest of its kind in rushing towards the walls.

The narrow passageway and the maze-like barb wired barricades funneled the Orcs into a killing zone as they tried to navigate through. Some of the Orcs attempted to climb over the barb wires, only to have the barbs trapping and tangling them, while others hack and slash at the barricades.

The Marine defenders made good use of this situation to fire into the amassed Orcs, pinning them down. The passageway soon became slippery with blood and a small mound of bodies formed around the barb wires, where the smarter Orcs took over under the fallen bodies of their own kin.

At the rear, dozens of crude looking Orc catapults were carried into their effective throwing range and stones mined from the slopes of Sawtooth Mountain were flung onto the walls, the majority of them falling short and crashing their own kind.

Urka the Fierce stood on top of a boulder to better view the battlefield. In the distance, cloudy smoke constantly erupted from the walls, obscuring the defenders from view. He growled, this is the third attack of the day, and with only a few hours of daylight left, and still no progress. It had been two days since they started their attack yet they couldn't break those soft skins defenses!

"Have Elder discovered what spells those tri-cursed soft skins are using?" Urka turned and glared at the elder Shaman covered in a hooded cloak made of animal skins. Mysterious symbols were painted with blood adorned all over the cloak while chaotic tattoos that make eyes crawl could be seen on the shaman exposed hands.

"Warbearer Urka," The Elder Shaman greeted with his palm facing Urka, "Elder have no idea what power or magic are those." A low raspy voice came from the hooded figure. "The spirits are confused."

"Confused?" Urka leaped down from the boulder, landing heavily on the wet rocky ground, causing a slight crack to appear in the hard ground. "Urka thinks you better talk to the spirits more, Those cursed magic is killing our clansman in hundreds and yet clansman couldn't even reach the walls!"

Urka glared at the rear of the catapults, where rows of armed blue-coated soft skins stood watching with more others seated leisurely on their mounts. At this point in time, he hated those blue soft skins more than the enemy at the walls, if it wasn't for the Chief taking this job in exchange for winter supplies, they won't have to bow their heads to these cursed weaklings.

A trio of soft skins riding those lean wingless dragons rode up before him, looking down at Urka from the perches of their mounts. The disdain look on the soft skin furthered infuriated Urka, but he kept his temper in, narrowing his eyes at the lead rider who was dressed in fancy ornate armor with a spectacular red plume on his helmet.

"Why are you still not pressing the attack?" The plump looking soft skin asked, using his nose to look at Urka. "My Lord expects you to have taken the walls already. why are you still struggling here? From the magic scrying, clearly, the rebels only have less than 400 defenders. Are the Orkin so weak that they can't win a force less than a tenth of your numbers?" He sneered at the gathered Orkin.

"Urka understands," Urka lowered his head, his eyes glittered dangerously. Suddenly, he had an idea. Keeping his head down, he grinned wickedly. "Urka show Great Lord victory! Come come!" He urged the fat soft skin on his dragon to follow him while speaking in Common.

"Urka's army attacking in huge numbers now!" Urka gestured around him while leading the soft skins forward towards the front line. "Come see, here best view of victory!"

"Hmph, its good that you are finally seriously attacking, this lord shall witness your victory than!" The noble sniffed his nose and nudged his dragon to follow Urka, his two retainers followed obediently behind.

"Here, here!" Urka gestured excitedly, keeping his head low and bowing and scraping to the hated mounted soft skin. He led them well within view of the Pass, the glamour of the battle for all to see.

-----

Lord Dialar, a noble's son from the Captial, joined Duke Sturm's army for adventure, war, and riches. As he came to the battlefield, the stories of glory and glamor were vastly different to what the bards sang and told in the Gentleman's Clubhouses in the Captial. He didn't expect the march to be so ... dirty. Mud was everywhere, in his trousers, underclothes, boots, and stockings! And the Oerkin, the crude barbarous dumb low life beasts, smelt worse than anything he ever knows. He tried to avoid as much contact with the Oerkin to prevent the smell from contaminating him.

As the dumb Oerkin led him to the rise in the front, a view suddenly appeared before to him. The battlefield in all its glory could be seen clearly from where he rode his dragon. He could see the walls blurred by the smoke of their spells to the Oerkin storming and dying across the narrow passageway to reach the walls. The warcries and echoes of thunder rolled over him, and he felt his blood rising.

"How spectacular!" Lord Dialar whispered to himself. He stared at the battlefield, daydreaming himself as a general and giving orders to the hundreds and thousands of soldiers under his command when a sudden buzz and wet smack sounded, painting his escorts wet with blood and bits of bone and brain matter.

-----

Corporal Drake hidden in one of the squat armored wall towers, tilted his head away from his scope, as he gently worked the bolt of his specially customized rifle. "Good kill," Private Kont whispered, his face glued to the tripod mounted binoculars. "Who in their right mind wears such a colorful plume to battle? It's like painting a bull eye on their back and tell us to shoot them!"

Drake gave a small smile, a few months back, thinking that Kont would have loved to wear a large colorful plume on his helmet and parade around, now, after learning about sniping, his mindset had greatly changed.

He pushed the bolt back, chambering a new round into his new toy, the M3 Magekiller, Anti Material Rifle. Fitted with a 10x detachable scope and a 45-degree tilt sights, a deployable bipod and a 29" or 74 cm long free floating heavy barrel with an integrated muzzle brake.

It weights at 11.2 kg unloaded and fires a .50 caliber round (12.7 mm). It has a detachable box magazine of five rounds capacity. Using the same design as the Magelock, the firer works the bolt to chamber a round to be fired. The M3 Magekiller has a muzzle velocity of 853 m/s and an effective range up to 1,100 meters.

"That's a kill shot at 674 meters away,' Kont reported, continued to sight down at the group at the tiny rise. "Do you wanna take another down?"

Drake peered back at the rise, seeing the Orcs had either rolled to cover or scattered away, leaving the panicking dragon with half a corpse still mounted on it. The two escort-like soldiers were trying to figure out what had happened still and Drake felt sorry for them. "Think that should be good enough for now. Let's see if there are any trolls or exposed catapult gunners for us to shoot at."

Kont nodded and continued to scout around with his bino. "Contact, left of the rise, next to the catapult. Eleven O'clock."

Drake shifted his body and spotted the exposed catapult. "I got a target left of the rise, loading a catapult."

"That's your target, check parallax and mil." Kont looked through his bino and spotted the target Drake was sighting on.

Drake adjusted his scope and reads the mil on his scope. "1.46."

Kont double checks his own reading and found it to be within 1.4 too and he keyed in the data into his tablet's ballistics software. "Check level, hold over 2.8."

Drake took a breath and held it, "Ready."

"Left, point two," Kont ordered, giving the wind estimation.

Bam!

"Good hit."

-----

Urka grunted with barely suppressed glee as he saw from the corner of his eye how that useless piece of meat exploded. He long had suspected that the enemy in the Pass had their magic aimed here, and since he had lost several Warleaders here, he found out that wearing anything that appeared to show strength and power, will always get killed by some mysterious magic. He purposely led that soft skin to this open spot and stood between the dragon and the direction of the Pass.

A sharp thunder different from the constantly roaring thunders rolled down the Pass as he stood up from where he laid prone. Surprisingly, the rest of the Oerkins were showing good humor, as they watched the dumb soft skin get killed. The other two soft skins finally managed to get the panicking dragon under control, and casting a last look at Urka, they scampered back to the rear of the lines, leading the dragon with the lower half of an armored body still attached to the saddle and stirrups.

Once out of range, Urka and the surrounding Oerkins hooted with laughter, throwing obscene gestures at the retreating soft skins. After a while, feeling slightly better, Urka turned his attention back to the Pass, wondering how should he crack this hard nut. Finally, he gave up, thinking there is no point in letting more of his clansman get injured or killed.

He turned to one of the Oerkin at his side, "Sound the retreat." He looked at the sun position in the sky, "And tell the Elder to prepare the ritual for tonight."

79 - The Ritual

The mournful wailing of a horn sounded over the battlefield, and the attacking Orcs paused in their attacks and retreated. As they pulled back, some of the Orcs even kicked their fallen companions, waking them up. Those fallen Orcs with wounds that would have ordinarily killed a normal person just stood up and rubbed their heads grumpily before limping back to their lines.

Major Frank stood inside the Sawtooth Mountain Pass Defense Command Center, watching from cameras overwatching the Pass. He noticed an Orc with his arm blown off and a gory exit wound on his back, woke up from the battlefield when his own kin gave him a good kick.

It groggily shook its head and stood up, scratching his armpit with his good hand and stumbled after the rest. Frank frowned as he watched similar scenes happening throughout the battlefield.

"It seems like the Orcs don't die so easy," Frank pointed out to Master Sergeant Pike standing at the tactical table.

Pike looked up from the map and glanced at the displays before commenting, "Bloody things just soak up all the damage like a fucking bullet sponge."

"Looks like about a hundred or so dead, maybe less and three, four hundred wounded," Frank did a quick calculation from the images he saw on the displays.

"They are retreating, looks like the battle is over for the day," Pike came next to Frank staring at the display. "So far there isn't any serious casualties except for some dumb fucks who don't know how to duck when the rocks from the catapults hit the walls."

"Those catapults are quite irritating," Frank highlighted the dozens of man-portable catapults on the screen, that the Orcs were carrying back.

The crudely made catapults were just more like a very simple trebuchet made out of wooden spars lashed together and using muscle power to throw 40 to 50 kg rocks by having two or more of the orcs acting as counterweights, pulling the ropes while another Orc held on to the basket holding their ammunition of choice.

Once enough force is being applied or the poor Orc could no longer hold on to the basket, it will release the basket, throwing its contents towards the target, sometimes with the unfortunate Orc along as he couldn't release his hand in time, much to the enjoyment and laughter of its peers.

"Rotate the men for some rest and hot food," Frank said, "Double the watch tonight, I got a feeling they might change their tactics or try something funny soon. Send the men out to clear the field and replace any barb wires that need to be repaired."

Pike saluted and left, smiling as he watched how the green Lieutenant had mature over the past few months and now a Major.

-----

Empire Camp, 1st Fallowfall Regiment of Swords, The Duke's Own.

Inside a gaudy looking tent large enough to house 20 to 30 people, Duke Sturm hunkered on a beautifully carved chair made out of darkwood. The tent was decorated lavishly with other furniture made of darkwood, making it a full set, which probably is worth over a thousand gold coins, while thick and rich carpets covered the tent floor. A small gold brazier kept the cold away, but with the crowd of officers surrounding a large table in the middle of the tent, the atmosphere inside felt stifling instead.

"My Lord," Commander Elosen of the 3rd Fallowfall Regiment of Swords spoke, "The Oerkin have been stuck in a stalemate with the rebels at the Pass for more than three days! Give me two days and my regiment will take the Pass for you!"

"Tsk," A dark lean elf, armored in an ornate full plate with markings and colors identifying him as a Lancer, scorned Elosen. "The distinguished 3rd Imperial Lancers had been wiped out fighting the rebels at the Pass, and that is without any defensive walls in place. What do you think your three thousand men can do when your better peers failed to do so?"

Commander Elosen growled at Luisa, Commander of the 2nd Fallowfall Lancers, "You impertinent fool, shut your trap, who are your betters here?"

"Just stating a fact, well if you want to rush off to die, I shouldn't stop you," Luisa gave a dismissal wave at Elosen, who turned red with rage, and stood up, going for his sword.

"ENOUGH!" Duke Sturm roared, banging the darkwood tabletop in front of him, scattering the silver plates of meat and fruits. "Cease this nonsense now!"

Both Elsoen and Luisa, bowed and gave their apologies while sending glares at each other. The rest of the officers just shrugged as those two were always going for each other throats.

"We learned something in the past when dealing with these rebels," A scholar looking elf wearing a monocle stood up and said, "Since the last time we fought with them, they appeared to be capable of casting multiple Level 10 spells simultaneously. Also, it appears that the 'thundersticks' artifacts have changed, they now spew a large amount of smoke."

"What are you trying to say here, Dular?" Elosen impatiently grumbled. "Get to the point!"

"I am trying to say that, the rebels are much stronger than before," The scholar Dular, dressed in a dark blue trench coat, with silver runic markings replied. "We must be more careful this time."

Lord Sturm nodded, he had already taken a few more measures compared to previously. His lifeguards ringed his tent, and sentry wards were placed to cover all approaches to the camps. Even his own tent, spells were woven to protect him from any attacks, both physical and magical.

"The Oerkin commander had informed me that they are gonna, cast the Ritual tonight," Sturm told his men, who started to whisper among themselves uncomfortably. "Let the dogs have their chance then we see."

"Yes my Lord," The men around the table rosed and saluted.

-----

Orc/Oerkin Camp

The darkness in the tent was so dark that light appeared to have been absorbed. Urka couldn't see anything as he was led into the center of the tent by unknown hands. "Urka the Fierce, you have come for the ritual." A rasping voice came from the darkness, "But to gain power, you must sacrifice something. What will you give?"

"I will give the fallen enemies as the sacrifice," Urka intoned, following the ancient ritual. "My blood for life and my bones for strength."

"For that, our ancestors will raise, to wreak havoc among the living!" The Elder finished the ceremony and Urka felt hands leading him out.

As Urka left the tent, the Elder started chanting, followed by other shamans seated in a circle. A dark red glow appeared under their feet, and a magic circle slowly lit up in a reddish glow. In the center of the magic circle, was a block of black obsidian, where a naked elf was bounded and gagged.

The naked elf squirmed desperately, trying to free his bonds, his eye wide in terror as he jerked left and right. The chanting rosed to a high frenzy, and the shamans using thigh bones of people, drummed against the dirt floor, beating a tempo that drove the captive elf insane.

As the magical glow grew brighter and brighter, the elf's eyes bugled out, turning red as blood vessels ruptured, blood started flowing from his ears and nose. He arched his back in an impossible angle and his muscles spasmed, a wordless screaming raising in his throat. The tempo of the drums and the chaotic chanting grew faster and faster, and suddenly the elf exploded into a cloud of bloody mist, leaving behind his bones and organs which started to rot away.

And the tent fell silent immediately and darkness returned. The Elder shaman strolled up to the remains and dug out the rotted heart which still beat slowly and placed it into a small pouch. "Burn the remains, make sure all is ash." The Elder instructed and left the tent with the pouch.

Urka stood outside the tent, waiting with several warriors in a semi-circle. "Is it done?"

The Elder nodded, holding the stained pouch up, "We are ready."

"Come," Urka turned and led the way, his warriors and the Elder following behind him. They picked their way through the roots and wet soil of the forest under the blazing torches of the warriors, before arriving at a large clearing.

His warriors spread out, their torches illuminating the clearing, bodies of the fallen Oerkin laid in a pile. "We found where the Empire buried their dead the previous time they were here." He gestured to the wet soil.

"Wonderful," The Elder rasped, and started wandering around the clearing, before stopping and pointing to a spot on the ground. "Dig a hole here, as tall as an Oerkin."

Urka nodded, gesturing his warriors to work. He stood back and folded his arms as he waited. Soon over a span of a glass, a hole was dug, several rotted bones could be seen within the sides of the hole. The Elder glided over and examined the hole, circling it twice and seemingly satisfied, dropped the pouch in and starting chanting.

Urka felt goosebumps and a chill down his spine as he hears the chant. He fought back the urge to vomit and braced his legs firmly and tried to ignore the chanting. Suddenly one of the Oerkin warriors cried out, holding his head and ran around in circles, before ramming his head into a nearby tree trunk with such force, its skull split opened and bits of brain matter stained the trunk. Another Oerkin's legs shook and pee dripped down.

Just as it started, the chanting stopped, and the Elder appeared to smile at Urka within the hooded cloak. The Elder drifted over to the fallen Oerkin and paused over the cracked skull, poking the insides with a bony finger. "Hmmm," The Elder studied the spilled brains and declared, "The Spirits approves, this is a good omen."

Urka gripped his fists to stop them from shaking and gathered his voice before saying, "Is it done?" while the rest of the warriors recovered from the sanity inducing chanting. Some fell down on weakened legs with others vomited or peed themselves, they avoided looking at the Elder and their unfortunate kin.

"Yes, yes," The Elder responded, as its fingers continued to poke around the skull, leaving traces of grey matter on its fingers. It puts its finger into the hood, seemingly tasting the fresh brains, before turning around and gestured the soil, "Good, good, all is done, is just a matter of time now."

Urka nodded, his strength returning and felt the soil beneath his feet start to squirm and move. He quickly stepped back and keep alert, watching the soil started to crumble. Several moans suddenly came from the pile of Oerkin dead, and the Oerkin warrior who committed suicide jerked up on all fours and stood up, its movement like a puppet.

"Ahhh, my children," The Elder antics appeared to be like a child, as it clapping its hand excitedly. "Come!"

The dead Oerkins heeding the Elder's words stood up and shuffled over to stand in front of the Elder, while rotted skeletal hands erupted from the soil and dug their way out. Oerkin and Empire dead slowly gathered in a huge mass. Urka stared in fascination, as he only heard tales and stories of the undead servants of the Oerkin's Elders. The glassy-eyed Oerkin stared without expression ahead, while the rotted bodies of the Empire soldiers, most of them just bones and scraps of cloth clinging to their skeletal frames stood awaiting the words of the Elder.

"It is time," Urka said to the Elder and saluted with more respect than usual. With an army of undead, all they need to do is wait till the defenders exhaust themselves before the Oerkin pushes in. "Send them against the Pass now, they will be perfect for a night attack."

"Spirit warriors, come! Tonight you are alive again!"

80 - Zombie Mode

Mills dozed off with his head resting against his helmet, sprawled off at a corner of the bunker walls. He was having a good dream about having a buffet feast, gorging himself with the free flow crustaceans and shellfish, drinking wine and champagne.

"Lance Corporal Mills!" He heard someone calling him in his dream and snapped awake, instantly gripping his Magelock and alert.

"What?" Mills stared at the dark figure squatting next to him, "Damn, I was about to start on that lobster." He wiped the drool off his cheeks.

"Lob-star?" The Marine elf cocked his head in confusion. "Huh?"

"Nevermind," Mills stood up and stretched, "What's up?"

"We heard something coming from the slopes," The elf reported. "Shhhh, here is it again!"

Mills leaned against the firing slits of the wall and listened hard, but he couldn't really hear anything. He looked at the intent look his fellow elven Marine was having as he twitched his long ears, and wondered if their ears can hear at a higher frequency than humans, like a dog. "Nope, can't hear nor see shit."

"Shhh... there it is again!" The elf insisted, pointing out to the darkness. "Sounds like many hands scratching."

Mills concentrated again and caught a sound like a piece of rock being kicked. "Wait here." And he activated his comms. "Thunderchief, this is Alpha Four, come in over."

"Thunderchief, send."

"Alpha Four, reporting possible night probe at my location, over."

"Roger, standby."

Mills turned back to outside view, "Eh, think we better close our eyes first," And just as he said that two stabbing beams of white light cut through the darkness, illuminating the terrain in front of the Alpha wall. "Ow." Mills flinched as the bright lights killed his night vision.

"OH MY GOD!" The elf next to Mills, cried out, the elves having better eyes than the humans, and using a phrase they learned from watching movies and dramas.

Mills blinked his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness and looked at the passage, "Fuck me, what are those?" The passageway appeared to be crawling with shadowy figures, and some even appeared to have climbed up from the near vertical slopes next to the passageway.

"Undead! It's the Oerkin's vile dark magic!" The elf said, his eyes looking unnaturally large in the reflected like. The two spotlights swung downwards and lit the ground in front of Alpha Wall and a whistle blew.

"Contacted!" Mills shouted out finally after he got over his surprise at seeing bodies missing limbs and skeletons crawling and shambling towards the wall. He keyed his comms to Drake's connection, "Hey wake up! It's CoD ZOMBIE MODE! Woohooo!"

The Marines around Mills looked at him like he was crazy, "What? You guys didn't play zombie mode in CoD? Damn, I need to let you guys play some later." Mills promised them, leaning his Magelock out of the firing slit and taking aim, "Go for headshots!"

A whistle blew in the distance and jets of flame from Magelocks from other sections stabbed out into the early hours of the morning as the Marines prepare to defend against the new threat. The smoke from the guns was carried away by night winds howling through the Pass, allowing the men and elves to fire rapidly with any smoke obstructions.

Mills fired as fast and accurately with the Magelock as best as he could. He personally found the Magelock fun to fire, the kick of the recoil, further bruising his shoulder. Mills's customized Magelock comes with a 2x magnified red dot sight he personally installed and built into the frame of his Magelock. He aimed the red dot at the chin of a slow walking rotting corpse and squeezed the trigger, feeling the butt hammering against his shoulder and smelling a hint of urine smell from the gun smoke.

His bullet entered the upper jaw of the dead Orc, shattering teeth and bone, before blowing out the upper spinal cervical, dropping the Orc, like a puppet with its strings cut off. "Headshot!"

"Aim for the heads!" Mills yelled as he noticed the shots placement on the bodies of the zombies. "Come on, you are Marines! You can shoot better than that!" And he put his words into action, dropping another zombie with a headshot. "They are just standing there for you to shoot! How great is that? How can you miss!"

At this point, more spotlights had lit up, turning the passageway as bright as day, the undead appeared in many kinds, from fresh Orc corpses to rattling skeletons. Even dead animals could be seen in the mix. The fresh corpses moved faster while the rotted skeletons moved slower, and a bullet in the head ended all life regardless if it was living or dead.

"How many are there!" Despite the slow jerky movement of the undead, the defenders were not killing them fast enough, as normally a bullet wound would have incapacitated anyone, maybe not an Orc but the undead, short of destroying the head, continued in their determined relentless approach to the walls.

As the undead hit the walls, they found no way to enter nor climb. The concrete walls were angled in 25 degrees outwards with the tops of the walls rounded and topped off with barb wire. The undead tried to climb on the smooth concrete walls but their hands and fingers could not find any purchase.

The undead hammered their rotting fists and bony hands against the heavily armored cargo doors in a vain effect to break the gate. Those still with functioning vocal cords growled and moaned, while the skeletons rattled their loose jaws.

"Thunderchief to All units, cease fire, cease fire!" The call came in through all the comms.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Mills yelled at his men, as only section leaders worn the comms gear. They were thinking of equipping the rest of the men with simpler comms units, but they did not have the time to research and develop anything yet. The men ceased firing, rubbed sored and bruised shoulders and checked their ammunition.

Some of the smarter elves, bounded the rifle butt with soft hide or cloth to lessen the impact from the recoil, yet still from the constant firing for the past few days, everyone's shoulder turned blue-black from the impacts.

"What now, Corp?" The men asked, watching more and more of the undead massing at the bottom of the walls.

Mills removed his helmet and scratched his head and rubbing the soot stains off his face. "Well, no point wasting ammo on those things since they can't come in." He peered down the firing slits and looked at the wriggling mass of arms reaching upwards, and spit down. "Headshot!"

"Wait," Mills held his hand up, gesturing the men to keep quiet as he listened to his comms. "Oooh, sounds fun."

"Alright, there's gonna be something interesting happening soon," Mills grinned, looked at the undead. "Just watch the show."

The men looked at each other and shrugged, knowing their section leader weird quirks and followed suit, gathering at the firing slits and watched the undead, waiting for stuff to happen.

Not long a sudden explosion of flames ripped through the massed undead, setting some on fire. One after another, balls of fire erupted among the dead, turning them into char. "Holy smoke, is that what happened to me?" Mills laughed, "Damn, I am tough to survive that shit!"

The spells cast by the mages reaped havoc among the undead, and before long most of the gathered undead was once again properly dead, and the rearmost creatures turned and retreated back to the night.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Defense Command Center

"Well, that was new and unexpected," Master Sergeant Pike puffed out his cheeks. "I totally wasn't expecting that."

"Me neither," Major Frank responded, as both of them stood next to the tactical table, staring at the displays in the command 'Pit'. "Damn, are they really undead? Like zombies and skeletons?"

"Every time my brains adjusted to the shit this planet has, it throws a curve ball at me," Pike sighed, "I really like to get Magister Thorn here to consult on all these voodoo and occult shit."

"Roll sanity check please, in the words of Dr. Sharon," Frank grinned, "I can only imagine this planet like some fantasy game. And yes, I think we need Magister Thorn's expertise here." Frank turned to one of the communications operators and inform him to contact Thorn and bring him over asap.

"Do you wanna call Joesph over? He might have some insight on this?" Frank asked Pike as he leaned over the communications operator's shoulder.

"Nope, let him complete his officer training course," Pike shook his head, "We can still handle this."

Frank nodded, and returned his attention to the operator, giving his instructions. "How is the new task force doing?"

"Looking good from the screens, Sir," Pike responded as he focused on a screen displaying the front of Alpha Wall. "Looks like the undead is getting barbequed nice and crisp."

"And the rest are retreating," Franked chipped in, watching the remaining undead retreat away from the glare of the spotlights. "Seems like they are under control of someone."

"Or something," Pike added, "What's that thing called? Negi something?"

"A necromancer," One of the operators helpfully gave the correct word. "I think that is what you are thinking off, Top."

"Yup, that's the word, thanks," Pike snapped his fingers, "A necromancer, I read that on that book, the Captain is forcing everyone to read."

"Hmmm, if there is as you said a necromancer than this will be a big problem," Frank frowned as he leaned over the map. "Look, we are here, the enemy is roughly here," he pointed a location in the forest, "We know the Empire buried their dead here," He pointed to another location roughly west of where the Pass is.

"I don't know how are they reanimating their dead, but from the looks of things, it appears they took the Empire dead and raised them, including their recent dead," Frank folded his arms as he continued his analysis. "Now, that means they can reanimate any deaths no matter the timeframe, and the numbers will favor them greatly, as they can bring back those that died in assaulting the walls."

"Not only that," Pike interrupted, "Look at Screen Six." The view on the display showed a dead clearly rotting carcass of some sort of deer-like creature. "They can bring back animals too."

"Oh fuck, wait what about the flying dragons we shot down?" Frank exclaimed out. "And the dead Orcs we retrieved?"

"We retrieved the bodies of the dragons, remember?" Pike reminded him. "We beheaded the Orc bodies to prevent them from playing possum, so that should prevent them from raising. Dr. Sharon gonna get into a fit when she sees the headless corpses."

"Oh right, damn, I have forgotten all about it," Frank shook his head. "At least we know that destroying the head, will permanently put them back to being properly dead again, while fire, works as long as you burn them down completely or if the head is destroyed in the process."

"We need to build us some flamers," Pike grinned, he loved this kind of shit. "Issue is what to use for fuel. Damn, I am feeling like making some napalm now!"

Frank grinned along at Pike's excitement. "Well, one thing at a time. We will need to rely on the new task force to handle the zombies, no point in wasting ammunition on them."

"We had stockpiled over nine hundred thousand rounds for the Magelocks in various ammo dumps." Pike said, "It should be more than enough for our defensive needs."

"Good," Frank nodded, "Keep to the daily rotation schedule, let the relief force take over in the morning and brief them of the new threat."

"For now, let the undead cluster fuck together than get the 101st ATI to nuke them, why waste ammo when we have unlimited fireballs?" Frank pointed out. "Also get the post-combat recovery detail to behead and burn all the corpses from now on."

"True, now we need Thorn to find a way to stop this," Pike agreed and added.

"Also one more point, whose magic is it? The Orcs or the Empire?"

81 - Night of the Living Dead

"Hey wake up! It's CoD ZOMBIE MODE! Woohooo!" Someone shouted in Drake's earpiece, jolting him awake. His first instinctive reflex was to roll over flat on his tummy from where he laid and aimed his weapon out of the embrasure before his brain caught up to his actions.

"Da fuck?" He checked his comms and realized the voice comms came from Mills and just as he was about to reply, a whistle blew and he found the outside of the walls lit by glaring spotlights, and scores of shadowy figures were moving among the passage.

"Drake!" Kont appeared beside him, "It's a night attack, looks like the undead." Kont looked calm as he told this piece of news to Drake, who stared at him in surprise.

"Undead? You mean zombies and vampires?" Drake asked back, flipping open the covers off his scope and peering into the brightly lit passageway. He focused on a moving figure and saw in the glare of the spotlights, a shambling figure, with its left arm missing at the elbow, while the other arm raised towards the walls. The skin has shrunk away from its body, making the body look skeletal, while patches of rotten flesh where tiny white maggots wriggled could be seen and the eyeless face of the dead Empire soldier gaped its jaw open, biting the air, screaming a cry which Drake couldn't hear.

"What the fuck?" Drake jerked his head back from his scope, using his gloved hands to rub his eyes, wondering if he was still sleeping. "Zombies?"

"Van-pa-er?" Kont looked confused and shook his head, "Walking Dead, yes."

"Damn," Mills was right, this is bloody Zombie Mode, Drake thought. "Switch out the M3, we using our M1s instead,"

Kont nodded and unslung his rifle on his back. "I will take Tower One." And he trotted off towards the other end of the enclosed tower.

Drake replaced the scope's cover and carefully placed the M3 Magekiller to the side before picking up his customized M1, and laid back prone on the raised platform, aiming out into the approaching horde. His and Kont's M1 Magelocks was the sharpshooter variant, factory zeroed, and it comes with a 6x magnification scope and flash suppressor.

"Headshot!" Mills's voice came in again from his comms, making Drake grit his teeth. So this is how you wanna play, asshole, he thought and fired at the approaching horde, aiming at their heads.

-----

Thorn was packing up his loose items in the Academy's workshop when sudden heavy and frantic footsteps echoed down from the hallway outside. He glanced at the digital clock on the wall, showing the time to be 0113 AM and frowned, wondering who else is still in the school after so late.

"Magister Thorn?" He heard someone outside calling, he poked his head out of the room and saw a couple of hoomans in that black uniform which worked as peacekeepers were wearing. One of them ducked his head into another workshop calling. "Are you here Sir?"

"Yes?" Thorn called out to them, making them pause and headed to him excitedly. "What can I help you, Po-lease Officers, with?" He remembers the Captain the rest calling them 'Po-lease Officers'.

"Finally we found you!" Both of the men looked relieved, "We need you to come with us. Sir."

"What happened?" Thorn looked confused, "Where do you want me to go? I still haven't packed all my stuff!"

"There is no time Sir, you are needed at the Pass, Sir," Both men looked grim, "They need your help there."

-----

One Kilometer East of Sawtooth Pass, Empire mass grave

Urka grunted as he glared out from the cover of the forest looking at the Walls being magically illuminated, "The Spirits won't be able to sneak up on them, they fight surprisingly well for soft skins."

The Elder kept to side, either ignoring Urka or not hearing what Urka said. Urka turned and glanced at the Elder, his ears catching something from the hooded cloak, as he took a step closer, he caught a few snatches of the whispering coming from the hood. The whispers made his head hurt, his skin crawl and goosebumps raising all over his body. He quickly retreated away from the Elder Shaman, leaving the Elder alone.

His warriors also kept a wary distance away from the Elder, more so from the gathered dead at the site of their former graves. Their burning torches cast flickering shadows among the dead, making the shadows appear to be stalking the Oerkin, making them uneasy and restless.

Urka peered through a precious eyeglass, which had been looted at some point in time in the past, its former owner no longer around to protest its use. The eyeglass brought Urka seemingly closer to the battle at the Pass, the echoing of thunders from their cursed thundersticks rolled down from the mountains, scattering the sleeping wyverns, which screeched their disapproval and dive bombed the Oerkin and gathered dead with their poop as they flew away.

Urka ignored the splats of goo, and concentrated on the battle, nodding in satisfaction as the dead reached the walls and cursed when balls of fire incinerated them into char. "Do something," He turned and instructed the Elder. "We are losing the Spirits to their magic!"

A sigh escaped from the hood of the Elder, "I have done all I can if the Spirits cannot advance into the walls, there is nothing much I can do."

"Bring the Spirits back, don't waste the Spirits' bodies," Urka ordered, "Keep them here first, while I go talk to the soft skin lord."

The Elder gave a bow and appeared to start whispering something. Urka quickly beat an escape with his warriors, leaving the Elder alone in the clearing with the dead. After leaving behind the Elder, Urka felt better, he might not fear swords and arrows, but the chaos magic and dread of the Elder frightened him to his bones.

As he neared the camp of the soft skins, dozens of soft skin sentries surrounded them, and a self-important bearing soft skin wearing that ridiculous looking plume on his helmet, ornate plate, and blue cloak. "Halt, what business do you have?" That soft skin sneered, puffing his chest up, trying to look imposing which was funny as the Oerkins towered over every elf by a good 20 to 30 centimeters, not to mention Urka's biceps were as large as the elves head.

Urka just stared at the officer and spoke slowly and simply, "Urka here to see big lord."

The officer tried to stare down Urka, but failed miserably, and to cover up his embarrassment, he shoved an unfortunate sentry, "Go inform the Duke, our 'guests' are here to speak with him. Go!"

The sentry stumbled off in the darkness, and Urka waited impatiently for the sentry to return. Both sides glared at each other, fingering their sword hilts and spears nervously, they waited in the dark. Finally, the sentry returned with someone in tow, Urka stood up from the tree root he was sitting and stepped forward.

"Ahh, Lord Urka," The newcomer greeted Urka like a long lost friend with all smiles and laughter. "Well met, my lord."

"Urka here to see your big lord," Urka spoke in Common, the unfamiliar words rolling off his tongue like sand. "Need to talk, make plans." He explained to the gaudily dressed flunkey.

"I am sorry to say that my Lord Sturm is currently resting and wishes that no ones disturb his rest," The flunkey responded with a deep bow, "My greatest apologies, could my lord please return first and come back when the sun breaks?"

Urka fumed with rage, but he held it down, there was no point in provoking the soft skins for now. He glanced up at the dark sky and mentally calculated roughly how long more till dawn comes. Urka looked at the bowing flunkey and said, "Urka wait here, bring food and drink."

The flunkey straightened his back, and looked at Urka in the eye, "My lord, that is not proper, it will be best for you to return to your camp."

Urka just stubborn sat down back at the tree root, staring at the manservant back and repeated, "Food and drink, Urka wait here for Big Lord to wake up."

The flunkey after staring at Urka for a while, gave in and nodded, "Would my lord prefer if I bring a chair for you to rest? Blankets against the cold?"

Urka snorted, "Cold?" He glanced in contempt at the soft skin soldiers dressed in cloaks and thick clothes. "Food and drink, now."

Bowing again, the flunkey returned to the camp and shortly after returned with several servants in tow, carrying plates of cold wyvern and skins of ale. He bowed again and before leaving said, "I will return when my Lord Sturm has woken up, should you have other wishes, please inform the Captain of the Guard, and we will do our best to accommodate your wishes."

Urka nodded, waving the manservant away. He grabbed an entire roast wyvern and bit down, chomping down the bird including the bones, before gesturing his warriors to help themselves. His warriors gathered around the food and drinks with glee and sat down, feasting on the food and drinks, jousting and joking among themselves, ignoring the hungry looks cast by the soft skin sentries.

Urka burped and smacked his lips as he finished his second skin of ale, he had to admit that the soft skins culinary skills are quite good, and so is their brewing skills. Satisfied, Urka laid back against the tree trunk, "Some of you keep watch," He told his warriors, "I don't trust the soft skins at all."

His warriors nodded and started arguing among themselves on who to start the watch first, while Urka settled down comfortably and closed his eyes and rested.

-----

Highway to Sawtooth Mountain Pass

Thorn held on to his dear life as the open top jeep racing along the road towards the Pass. The wind blew strongly against his face, whipping his untied hair wildly. He randomly thought that should he cut his hair short, like the hoomans, while gripping the handlebars set in the frame of the jeep tightly.

Despite the early morning, he noticed that they had passed by several half-tracks going up and down the road, which normally at this time there should not be any vehicles at all. He wondered what has happened at the Pass. He wondered if it is gonna rain, and how are they going to keep dry in a vehicle like this with no cover, as he heard thunder rumbling in the distance.

As the jeep near the Pass, that was when Thorn realized that the thunders were actually Magelocks firing in the Pass. He yelled over the wind to the driver, "Are those Magelocks? Are we under attack again?"

"Yes Sir," The driver responded, keeping his eyes on the road. "They need you to help them with something."

Thorn lapsed into silence, thinking that if they wanted him there meant something magical is happening and they need his brains for it. He shivered in the biting wind, as they have traveled over an hour in hooman time, cursing himself for not bringing along a cloak.

Finally, the jeep entered the camp at the Pass, passing by two gates before stopping at the third gate. "Sir, this is the furthermost I could go, someone will bring you inside." The driver said to Thorn, who thanked the driver for the ride and got down on shaky legs.

Almost immediately, two elves dressed in that spotted uniform approached him, "Sir, please follow us." One of them spoke respectfully, and stood at parade rest, waiting for Thorn to follow them.

Thorn nodded, "Lead the way." And followed the two soldiers pass the gate and onto another jeep waiting inside the gate.

Less than five minutes they arrived at a squat, bare and grey concrete structure built into the side of the Mountain. The sound of gunfire was a lot louder here, indicating he was nearer to the Walls. The two soldiers gestured for him to follow them into a door at the side of the structure. He noticed a lot of guards and checkpoints before entering a huge room, which resembled the Bridge in the Iron Castle which several huge display screens dominating the room.

Major Frank looked up as the two escorting Marines saluted by raising their right hand to the side of their head, palm straight, fingertips to the right eyebrow. Frank saluted back and dismissed them and waved Thorn over.

"Welcome to the Pit."

82 - War Plans

Thorn looked around the busy chamber and headed head down a short flight of stairs to the center of the 'Pit'. Following the way of hoomans, he shook Frank's outstretched hand. "How are you doing?"

"Good, Sir," Frank answered, smiling at the disheveled old man, who always reminded him of Albert Einstein.

"Greeting you too, Sergeant Pike," Thorn reached out and shook Pike's hand too. "So what is happening?"

"Well, Sir. We hope you can tell us," Frank responded, gesturing Thorn to view of the display. A playback video of the attack of the undead was played, making Thorn peer intently at the images.

"They appeared to be undead, raised from the grave by dark magic," Thorn said as he studied the imagery on the display.

Frank and Pike stood silently, waiting for Thorn to continue. "Hmmm, the Oerkin are quite proficient in the Dark Arts."

"Is there any way to stop them? Pike asked, "We found that destroying the head and burning the bodies help."

"Yes, yes, from my understanding, spirits inhabit the dead bodies and controls the movement of the host body through some way by using the head as the container of sorts " Thorn rubbed his snowy beard as he recollected his scarce knowledge of the Dark magic. "By destroying the head, the spirits lose control of the body or if the body part is too badly damaged, the spirits depart voluntarily from their hosts."

"Is there a necromancer raising the dead?" Frank asked.

"Neko-man-sir?" Thorn frowned at the unfamiliar English word. "You meant a Spirit Caster?"

"What is a Spirit Caster?" Pike asked before Frank could open his mouth.

"Hmm, from what I know, a Spirit Caster is someone with the ability to talk to the spirits and command them," Thorn explained to two hoomans. "They do not really revive the dead, what they do is just call the spirits to inhabit the bodies of the dead, and the spirits use the bodies as host."

"I see," Pike nodded and gave a brief explanation of what a necromancer is to Thorn.

"Hmmm, so Spirit casters are quite similar to your necromancers," Thorn exclaimed excitedly, "I would like to borrow that book, your Captain has!"

"Magister, please, we have more pressing issues now, "Frank stopped Thorn from going off track. "Is there a way or some spells that can stop the dead? Also, can the spirits control a living body?"

"Hmmm, I need to do some research, but from what I know, they can only control a dead body." Thorn furrowed his forehead, "And all my books which I brought are all over at the Academy's library."

Frank looked at Pike with a dismayed look, "Damn, alright we will send you back immediately. If you find anything useful, please inform us directly," Frank said, gesturing the Marine guard at the door to come over.

"Private, bring the Magister to the motor pool and have one of the drivers return him back to the Academy in the best possible speed," Frank gave the Marine the instructions, who acknowledged the order.

"Sir, I will assign someone to be with you. He will have some communication equipment so you can contact us directly," Frank told Thorn who nodded in understanding while Pike picked up a handset and made a call.

Frank nodded to the Private who then led Thorn out from the command center and towards the motor pool. As Thorn left the Pit, "What a waste of time, its a mistake not to have a direct line of communication to Thorn, we will need to rectify that."

Thorn followed the solder to a row of sheds where a few of the jeeps and half-track were parked under, the Marine handed Thorn over to a driver who directed Thorn to a jeep parked at the side.

Seated in the rear was the largest hooman Thorn had ever seen, he had his sleeves rolled up, displaying massive biceps. His armor appeared to be custom made to fit his frame and a Magelock that looked tiny sat behind his shoulder.

Does he have Oerkin blood? Thorn wondered as he climbed aboard the front seat. "Lance Corporal Bartley," The giant at the rear greeted Thorn as he sat in the jeep. "I will be your escort, Sir." He said in a deep rumble.

"Well met, Lance Corporal," Thorn returned Bartley's greeting and waited for Bartley to say something. After an awkward silence, Thorn faced the front and cleared his throat uncomfortably. Just nice, a hooman driver hopped in, gave a smile and greeting to both of them and started the engine and drove off back towards the City.

-----

Entrance to 1st Fallowfall Regiment of Swords, The Duke's Own

Urka snoozed loudly with several of his warriors who sprawled around the littered remains of the supper they had. A few of the Oerkins, stood watch, their mood bad as they lost a game of fingers to their comrades, thus they had to stand guard.

The Empire sentries stared with disgust at the scene of the sleeping Oerkin, talking among themselves about how barbaric they were.

The bored Oerkin standing watch entertained themselves by throwing pieces of bones from the remains of their supper at the elven sentries, betting among themselves to see who can hit anyone, much to chagrin of the Empire sentries.

Shortly after the sky brightened and the first rays of the sun cast over the land, the same manservant appeared at the gate and greeted the still snoring Urka.

His warrior gave Urka a strong smack on the shoulder who woke up and punched the unlucky Oerkin in the face, much to the amusement of the rest. Urka hawked and spit his dry throat before gesturing the flunkey to led the way.

Those Oerkin who were still asleep were rudely woken up by brutal kicks in the face or groin, inciting good-natured laughter among the Oerkins.

The Empire soldiers sneered as they entered the camp, the hostility and disgust could be plainly seen on all the elves faces. Urka and his warriors ignored all the dark looks and insults thrown to them as they swaggered their way past rows and rows of tents before arriving at an inner stockade, heavily guarded by fully armor plated soldiers.

Urka grunted with approval at the look these heavily armored guards gave, his warrior instincts recognizing them as veterans of hundreds of life and death battles. He left his warriors behind and followed the flunkey into the only tent in sight.

The huge tent with its midnight blue color and a dark shiny luster stood in the middle of the encampment, surrounded by a wooden palisade wall, and ringed by guards. Urka felt his skin tingling slightly as his natural senses alerted him of a strong presence of magic.

The flunkey lifted the tent's entrance, causing the gathered morning dew to tickle down the rich looking material. Urka ducked his head and hunched down, as he squeezed his large build into the entrance.

The first thing he noticed was the huge table in the middle of the tent, occupied by several soft skins, some dressed for battle while others in coats and robes. while an elf dressed simply in a white silk shirt and black pants sat at the head of the table breaking fast with the variety of dishes laid on the table before him.

The flunkey gestured him to the opposite end of the table where another servant stood waiting with a dark colored chair. "Sit, and join me in breaking fast." A rich and mellow voice came from the elf sitting and eating at the head of the table.

Urka nodded and sat down heavily on the offered chair, causing it to creak alarmingly, his bared feet enjoying the feel of the thick layer of carpets and fur. A small army of servants soon arrived and piled dishes after dishes on the table in front of Urka.

Urka reached out and grabbed a large slab of ham and chewed down, ignoring the fat juices that spilled out on to his chin. The table of soft skins stared at him like they never seen an Oerkin eat before.

Urka ignored the looks and just grabbed whatever food that took his fancy, washing it down with a silver goblet of watered wine. One of the soft skins dressed in robes placed his eating fork and knife down, patted his mouth with a cloth before declaring he had enough. The rest followed suit, only the soft skins dressed in armor continued feasting on the food.

Lord Sturm speared a piece of cold roast with eating fork, chewing the meat while watched the Oerkin called Urka attack the food like a starving man. His men had reported the results of the battle using summoned undead, and he wondered what had this barbarian chief from the steppes want with him now.

Finally, after demolishing most of the food on the table including the untouched portions of the soft skins, Urka gave a satisfied burped, causing some of the soft skins to cough and gag slightly.

"Me Urka, Warleader to the Band of the Hand, greets Big Lord Storm!" Urka stood up and held his palm out facing Sturm at the head of the table in greeting.

"Well met, Urka. I am Lord Sturm, Duke of Fallowfall and Lord General of the Army of the South." Sturm returned a greeting while still seated. "Why have you come?"

"Urka needs your soldiers to help fight," Urka said bluntly, much to the surprised elves.

"An Oerkin asking for help?" Commander Elosen of the 3rd Fallowfall Regiment of Swords asked mockingly. "I thought you Oerkins are very tough?"

"Oerkins tough, but walls tougher," Urka admitted. "Urka here to plan with Big Lord."

Sturm sat back and studied the Oerkin looking intently back at him. He recruited them for their combat strength and also their knowledge of dark magic. He was hoping that the Oerkin could waste their strength fighting against the rebels, making subjugating them easier later on. "What do you propose?"

"Send slave army, attack in day," Urka said simply "Urka's spirits attack at night. No sleep for enemy."

Sturm raised his eyebrows in surprise with Urka's suggestion, he was getting more and more impressed with this Oerkin who could come up with such an idea. Using his slave army of twelve thousand to wear the rebels down in the day, while the Oerkin undead army attacks at night to keep the defenders occupied while keeping their own main force fresh to attack the walls when the rebel's morale and stamina have been worn completely down.

"Interesting, it could work," Sturm leaned forward, "Tell me more about your plans." He invited Urka to continue on.

"Slave army storm the walls in the day, stone throwers destroy the walls," Urka explained, "Night, Oerkin shaman bring spirits up from the dead, attack the walls, more stone throwers help out."

"When walls destroyed, all army attack together!" Urka smashed his palms together, mimicking destroying the enemy.

"Won't that benefit the Oerkins more? Using the dead slaves for their dark magic?" Commander Elosen sneered, "I don't trust the Oerkin as far as I can throw them."

Urka gave Elosen a look before turning his attention back to Sturm and gave a shrug, "Up to Big Lord to believe or not."

Sturm frowned, it is true that if his troops dying will boost the ranks of the Oerkin's undead army, but the rebels are dug in pretty hard. If Sturm followed Urka's plan, he has to come out with a counter for Urka's undead army, in case Urka suddenly turns on him.

"Alright, Warleader Urka, I will discuss this with my men first, return to your camp and wait for my answer. In the meantime, I will move my siege engines forward to support your attacks to the walls." Sturm assured Urka. "Keep up the attacks first."

Urka stood up and nodded, "Yes Big Lord!" and followed the flunkey out of the tent.

"My lord," A tall, thin elf in a polished dark blue plate mail stood up and addressed Sturm, "It is not wise to bolster the strength of the Oerkin's undead army using our own men, even if they are slaves."

"Hear, hear!" Commander Elosen raised his goblet to Commander Asther of the 1st Fallowfall Regiment of Swords. "Those low life dogs are just using this opportunity to strengthen themselves!"

"If I may," Battle Mage Dular interrupted, "I have a suggestion that might just well, tip the scales to our favor."

83 - What's Next?

"Alright, settle down people," Commander Ford called the meeting into order. The conference room full of both humans and elves quiet down and rosed as Captain Blake scrolled in. "Captain on deck!" The Marine guard holding the door open yelled.

"At ease," Blake sat down on his customary chair after returning the salutes gave to him by his officers.

"Now, I'm sure most of you have heard that the Pass is under siege by Empire forces for the past week by now." Blake acted as he didn't notice the glares given to him from the elves, especially from Princess Sherene.

Blake gave a small cough, "We deemed that it wasn't wise to release the news of the siege to the public as we have everything under control for now." He gave a quick peek at Sherene's direction, who turned her head away.

He sighed, "A quick update to those not privy to the news up in the Pass. Currently, we are still holding the Pass, with 44 injured Marines and zero deaths. Intel has estimated the enemy deaths reaching over a thousand."

A display screen where Frank and Pike could be seen nodding as they attended the meeting via video conferencing. "Not counting the undead, we also destroyed two of their super siege engines."

The Super Siege Engines which the Marines called them, was a giant ballista twice the size of a mature land dragon. Made out of bones and tendons of dragons, magical runes were also engraved onto the construct, further strengthening it. Land dragons were attached to a winch which winded the loading mechanism, and it is powerful enough to launch half a ton projectile at over 500 meters away.

Marine snipers ravaged the loaders and gunners of two of the Super Siege Engine from afar when they first appeared at the edge of the forest and attempts to recrew the Super Siege Engine were met with accurate and deadly fire. It was only till later in the night, when the Undead came out, that they were able to recover both siege engines.

"The first operation involving the Hundred and First ATI was a great success. They destroyed the two Super Sieges and a large number of Undead." Frank reported from over the video call.

"Hundred and first A, T, I?" Sherene questioned, "What is that?"

Blake nodded to Frank in the video, who then explained, "The Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention or 101st ATI for short is a special operations task force created to combat against magic using magic."

"Form from volunteers from the Marines who have displayed an amplitude for magic, they undergo further training, from Recon to Special Operations and infiltration." Frank continued, "They went through Enhanced Combat Magic Theory courses which are a fusion of human knowledge of natural science, physics and magic are taught with the help of Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn."

"Each member of the 101st ATI is highly skilled in stealth infiltration, direct magic combat, and anti-magic countermeasures." Frank proudly introduced the 101st as he was the brainchild of its creation.

"We are planning a new operation to eliminate the source of the undead forces once and for all, if successful, the battle of the Pass could be said to be over." Frank finished his part.

"Magister Thorn?" Blake invited Thorn to say his piece.

"Ahem, regarding the Undead, the books I have did not cover much on Black or Dark Magics, as it is a taboo magic and most spells or literature involving the Dark Arts are destroyed when discovered," Thorn explained. "But I have managed to find a small fragment of a diary of a Court Magician, hundreds of years ago, describing their fight against the undead."

Thorn skillfully manipulated the keypad in front of him and a scanned image of an ancient yellowed parchment appeared on the room's display screen. "I translated as much as I can of the old language as possible and here is what it says."

A translated text appeared below the scanned image in English, "Fought over a fortnight with thy cursed dead, numbering in the hundreds. My vanguard of brave warriors gave their blood to open a path to the Spirit Caster, and after several bouts of spell weaving, I stand victorious. Yet the dead still roams and hunger for the flesh of the living."

"Is that all?" Chief Matt asked, "Defeating the Spirit Caster here doesn't drop the dead. It doesn't tell us how to stop the dead at all."
Thorn apologized, "That is all from the diary. But we deduced that there might be a magical anchor instead for the spell to keep reviving any dead creatures, if we can prove it, destroying the magical anchor will end the dead once and for all."

"That's where the Hundred and First come in, we will insert them in stealthily, and their mission objectives is to eliminate the Spirit Caster or Necromancer and find evidence of the magic anchor and destroy it," Frank said. "Details of the operation will be released after its execution."

The people within the room started to mumble among themselves, till Ford stood up and cleared his throat loudly.

"Alright, let's move on to the next agenda, morale," Ford continued the meeting. "Currently the morale at the Pass is pretty low due to the constant attacks and the psychology of exposure to undead magic."

"We are open for any suggestions and ways to improve morale," Blake spoke up, "This will be a long siege as we do not have the manpower nor the resources for a counteroffensive."

"How about a VIP visit? Captain and the Princess can go do a tour of the Pass to help boost morale," Quartermaster Chen suggested.

"Ok, what else?" Ford asked as he took down notes.

"Song and dance?" Matt added, "Have some concert or performance?"

"Can we just blast music, like a radio talk show in the past?" Dr. Sharon added, "We can use it on both the city and the Pass, we can also allow family members to dedicate songs to the Marines fighting in the Pass, it should help a lot psychologically speaking."

"All good ideas," Ford rapidly wrote down the suggestions.

After a round of discussions later, Blake came to a final conclusion. "Alright, we will need to create a new department for spreading news and increasing morale for the masses through means of media like a talk show."

"Princess, can your people share their music for us to record? The more popular the better," Blake asked. "Also can you hire some people with a talent for storytelling to be the radio talk show host?"

Sherene nodded as she too took down notes with her ballpoint pen on a notepad."When do you need all these?"

"As soon as possible," Blake replied before turning to Chief Gale and Chief Matt, "You two, please come out with a simple working receiver and a transmitter for mass production and a broadcasting tower, keep our advanced communications strictly for government and military usage only."

"Sir, also we like to recommend that radios and communication devices be installed in the Academy, we found out that getting Magister Thorn to travel up to the Pass and only to have to return to the Academy for his research is wasting too much of his and our resources." Frank pointed out, "If that night we could communicate directly, we would have not wasted more than three hours running up and down."

"Gale and Matt, you heard that?" Blake asked the two Chiefs, who nodded in confirmation. "Anything else?"

"Yes Sir," Frank said, "My two guns are still not working."

"Reasons?" Blake raised his eyebrow, he shouldn't have to deal with these details.

Matt answered, "The power conductors are discharging an unusually large amount of electricity each time the electromagnetic guns are fired, we had a few incidents during testing that the gunnery crew and techs got electrocuted, but so far none in serious conditions."

Blake closed his eyes and sighed, "So what is being done?"

"We are testing several theories and taking the guns apart to see what went wrong during the modifications." Matt admitted, "Until we fixed the issues, the guns can't be used, as it is a much as dangerous to the gunners."

"I understand, send me a detail report on that, put the priority on fixing the guns," Blake said, "Frank, I am sorry but till the problems are solved, your guns are grounded."

Frank nodded, unhappiness could be seen on his face. "Yes, Sir."

"Ok, next, resources and production," Blake instructed next, "Princess?"

Sherene dressed in a pair of ivory robes, wrapped around her slender waist and tied by a sash ending in a ribbon, stood up, gave a small bow to the gathered audience before starting her report, "Our current expenditure of black powder ammunition is slightly over 40% of stored reserves. Our production of ammunition is hampered by the lack of resources from the saltpeter mines. We will need more mines or enlarge the existing mine to increase the output of niter if we are to meet our current needs."

"At this rate of usage, our reserves of ammunition will be deleted in two weeks, not counting the new production. If added, it will only give us another additional week." Sherene reported, causing the room to break out in heated discussions.

"Quiet down," Ford glared at everyone from his seat, "Let the Princess finish."

"Thank you, Commander. As during the whole winter, the 'Fa-bi-ators' has been focusing on producing Magelocks and military equipment to outfit the soldiers, I hope that this season they could be used to produce tools for mining, farming and basic necessities for the people."

"To date, we only have a single saltpeter mine running at the moment. Surveying teams have actually found several deposits of zinc, copper, and lodes of iron within the caves of the Southern Cliffs, located near the saltpeter mine."

She highlighted the area on the map she displayed on the briefing screen. "Now that Spring is here, and the snow has melted, workers will be able to start clearing the land around the resources and also to build proper roads. But we will require troops to help protect the workers from wild creatures and possible goblin raids now that winter has passed."

Frank interrupted, "We do not have excess manpower now for protection of the workers, all the Marines are tied down defending the Pass, and the next batch of recruits will take at least three months to graduate."

"Can't we cut short the training?" Sherene asked, "We really need those mines running for the industries that are starting up all over the city. And there is only so much material left from the Iron Castle." Sherene and a selected few knew about how the hoomans came to this world and the Iron Castle is actually a starship.

"If you want to compromise quality for quantity," Frank said bluntly. "I will not recommend that I rather have the men properly trained than be some half fuck soldier."

"Noted, Major, no need for such words," Blake stepped in, giving an eye of warning to Frank, who blushed and apologized.

Sherene nodded, she grew up with her two brothers and had heard enough cuss words to be not affected by them. "Then how about the Po-lease? Can we tap into their manpower?"

2nd Lieutenant Mike Jacobs, ex-Head of Security, currently now Police Chief, spoke, "I could only spare like twenty to thirty men, that's about 30% of my total manpower."

"That should be enough for now," Sherene said, "I would like to propose to also train the workers as a sort of militia, so that if any trouble occurs, at least they could fight and defend themselves."

"We could make them into a reserve police force," Mike offered, "So at least in times of trouble, we can call them up to help with any problems in the city."

"Sounds good," Blake agreed, "Mike, I want you to also start recruitment of more permanent police officers."

"Captain," Sherene cut in, "We are actually running out of manpower for everything, from the mines, farms, land clearing, soldiers and skilled workers for the new factories, we need more people in the long run."

"I know, but where else can we get more people?" Blake asked, looking around at the table. Everyone was also looking at each other for ideas. "More sex?" Someone joked, causing most of the room to burst out laughing.

"I know from where, Sir," Pike spoke in the video, "We can try to free the Empire slave army and rope them into our side."

84 - Arcane Tactics and Intervention

"Good morn~ing, Marines!" A sweet and cheerful voice echoed down Sawtooth Mountain Pass, "Hey this is not a test! It's rock and roll! From the Pass to the No Man's Land!" The voice came from a speaker mounted on a tall wooden pole. "We got a song dedication from a Mrs. Montery to her son, Pvt. Ladian in the brave Marines fighting in the Pass to protect us all from the Big... Bad... Empire! Her message is, Stay safe and love you always, Mom. And here's Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fortunate Son for you boys in Hell's Gate! Enjoy!"

Rock and roll music started playing from the speakers after the announcement. Mills held his Magelock like a guitar and jammed along with the song, while the others tap their feet or nod their feet to the rhythm of the song. Surprisingly, the elves really took to rock and roll from the human's music archives.

"Oh fuck," Mills moaned, as a whistle blew across the walls. "Here they come again!" He propped up against the firing slits, peering at the clouds of smoke appearing in the passage, littered with discard weapons and bodies. A ragtag band of Empire soldiers charged past the ruins of barb wires and barricades, wearing mismatched pieces of armor and wielding swords and shields. Small spots of magical smoke erupted here and there, concealing the charging soldiers, while the defending Marines held their fire, waiting for targets to appear before firing.

The weary Marines had been fighting in the Pass for ten days now, the men rotating between resting at the rear encampments and fighting in the front lines. The Pass was now known as Hell's Gate by the Marines and public as they received news from the new broadcasting stations and portable radios. The public response to the attacks by the Empire was shock and anger, followed by an overwhelming support of the fighting Marines and items as such handcrafted gloves and socks were donated to the front. But the Marines as they faced off the dead and living alike, they themselves slowly become numb like the zombies they were fighting against.

The constant attacks both in the day and night tested the Marines' mental and physical strength. The nightly ghastly moans and howls of the dead seeped the morale of the Marines, causing some of them to break down mentally. Even the original human Marines were affected, thou mildly, thanks to their mental conditioning done on Earth.

Just the day before, Command had come up with a new department, called Armed Forces Entertainment Service or AFES, to help boost morale using music and news to the masses. A team of technicians had come up and set up a few broadcasting towers around the Pass and the base. After which music was blasted throughout the day and night, drowning out the cries of the dead.

Ever since the installation of the broadcasting towers, the Marines morale soared as popular music from both human and elves were played, and during certain times of the day, messages from family members of the Marines were played on air, making some of the tough soldiers cry and others smile. And the sassy female voice of the broadcaster, made the men laugh with her antics over the air and fantasized on how she looked like.

With the background music blasting loud enough to cut through the war cries and gunfire from the Magelocks, Mills sang along to the lyrics of the chorus of the song, "It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no millionaire's son, no. It ain't me, it ain't me, I ain't no fortunate one, No, no!" while aiming and firing. Almost everyone around Mills was doing the same, either screaming the song lyrics or just humming along.

After a while, the Empire slave army had enough and retreated, earning the jeers and taunts from the Marines, "Come on? Come back!" Mills yelled at the backs of the retreating troops. "I still haven't had enough fun yet!" He turned to his section and ordered, "Alright, those clowns will be back again, take this time to clean ur arms, and drink some water and check your ammo. And for god's sake, keep those helmets on!"

The radio ran Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song as rocks half the size of a jeep flew over from the cover of dug in wooden shields, fired from siege engines hiding behind them and the rocks started landing around the walls, sending clouds of rock dust into the air while the hardened Marines hid within the fortified walls.

-----

Specialist Sergeant Tyrier Lodess, of the 101st Arcane Tactics and Intervention, checked his gear as he and his team, Claymore One, gathered in the briefing room inside the Mountain. He and his men wore a modified Mk VI Riot armor, additional heat formed laminate plywood and 2mm thick steel plates at strategic locations on the armor. They carried a variety of weaponry, from swords to black powder shotguns, silenced Magelocks and the latest weapon out of R&D, the M2 MageSpitter.

The M2 Magespitter was a specially designed rapid-fire assault carbine, the body of the rifle was made out of stamped steel and the grips and stock out of native wood. A fire selector enables the firer to switch between, Safe, Single and Automatic fire. Weighting at 3.3 kg empty, a total length of one meter with a barrel length of 45 cm, it has a capacity of 30 rounds of 6.5mm held in scythe patterned detachable magazines. Muzzle velocity was measured at 607 m/s and an effective range of 270 meters with a rate of fire of 320 rounds per minute on full automatic.

To enable the gas operated system to work properly, two gas tubes placed at the sides of the main barrel channeled the expanding gas from firing the cartridge against two wind runes were inserted at the front, the expanding gas than collides both the wind runes, creating a pocket of air, which created the much needed force for a gas blow back system used in conventional twenty-century rifles. To increase the efficiency of the gas trap style mechanism, a muzzle booster comes installed at the muzzle of the rifle barrel. It provided additional energy to 'boost' the energy provided by the recoiling gases. This 'boost' provides higher rates of fire and more reliable operation of the gas operated system.

Using a fusion of technology and magic, the Hundred and First make use of runes carved into their equipment to strengthen and reduce the weight spells to enhance and buff their abilities like speed, strength, agility, endurance etc. Defensive spells were woven into their armor and shields, making them able to tank damage from both physical and magical. Offensive spells were even imbued into ammunition, increasing the damage dealt or even creating special effects like explosions or flash freezing an area.

Tyrier ensured his customized M2 is tightly strapped against his chest, his rifle magazines secured jungle style with dual clamps. It was customized with a 2x red dot sight, a forward grip, a laser sighting device and a silencer attached. Another member of Team One carried a huge rune reinforced ballistic shield, his double-barreled sawed-off shotgun holstered in his right tight, a crisscross bandoleer of shotgun shells covered his burly armored chest.

"Officer on deck!" The nearest Team One specialist yelled as he stood at attention when the door opened and Major Frank, Master Sergeant Pike entered with and a First Lieutenant with Intelligence markings on his uniform following behind. The rest of the team of seven stopped all work and stood at attention.

"At ease," Frank waved them down. "All ready?" He looked at the seven elves standing fully decked out with weapons and heavy armor. "Alright gather around than." The Lieutenant directly plugged in a data stick into the display in the room.

"Now, you guys surely could have guessed about the mission by now," The Lieutenant said, "I am First Lieutenant Tavor of Fleet Intelligence, we will be working closely together in the future." He introduced himself and pointed to two points at on the map displayed in the screen. "Primary Objective Alpha, take out the Necromancer." The map zoomed into a blob of darkness in the middle of a group of Orcs.

"UAV recon flights spotted this anomaly a few days ago," Tavor highlighted the inky black blob. "Intel had rerun back the previous videos during and before the attacks and found have recorded this in a few instances. The next few images switch to different locations of the forest with a different timestamp stating the time and date, showing a similar dark blob with a group of Oerkins.

"We suspect that this fellow here is the boss of the Orcs," Tavor pointed to Orc significantly larger to the rest, without any adorations on his body and armor. We spotted him a few times staying at the rear and with the humanoid-shaped dark blob with him." Another image showed a very sharp and clear image of both the giant Orc and the dark blob behind him.

"Magister Thorn's assessment of the blob as a sort of anti-magical scrying spell to prevent others from discovering it. We tested with a similar spell and it does appear to show up as a blurry blob in our cameras and sensors, so we are 100% certain this is our target." Tavor explained to the room.

"Eliminate Target Alpha, if possible recover any intel or artifacts in relation to the target for Command to study," Tavor listed out their objectives. "Objective Beta, if after eliminating the Primary Target and the undead is still operational, search and destroy possible magical anchor in the vicinity of these two locations."

Tavor displayed a top-down map of the forest with areas highlighted with blue and red. "Areas marked in Blue are suspected Empire forces, while Red are areas of Orc activities." He pointed to an area highlighted in Red, "There is an 80% chance of the Nercomancer's living quarters to be located here. And here, is where the mass graves of the Empire soldiers were buried."

"The Primary Target will most likely appear at these locations during certain timings of the night, most likely to observe and control the Undead army." Another three locations were highlighted. "We want a clean kill here. Cut the head off, douse the body with salt and burn it." Tavor stared eye to eye with the Claymore One members. "This is a high priority target, make no mistakes. Questions?"

"What level of support are we getting?" Tyrier raised up, "Couldn't we hit the target with a missile strike?"

"Command doesn't want to leave it to chances, the target might have a barrier spell that negates all forms of attack." Tavor clarified, "We need you guys there to ensure that the target gets taken out completely."

"You will have priority UAV tasking and a single missile strike for emergencies," Major Frank spoke up, waving off the protests from team Claymore One. "I know, I asked for more support but that is all that has been tasked to you."

"The seven of us going against ten thousand Oerkins, and unknown thousands of Undead to kill one Necromancer?" Someone sarcastically pointed out, "And all we get is a single missile?"

"Settle down!" Pike bellowed, glaring at the unhappy elves of Claymore One. "You are the 101st, elite among the Marines! Stop your whining!"

"I will have a full company of Marines on standby with half-tracks to pull you out when you give the word," Frank assured them. "Command has their reasons for this arrangement I am sure."

"Alright quit whining!" Tyrier cut his team's complaints off. "We will think of a way to get in and out with them knowing we are there. Isn't this what we trained for?"

His team nodded, "Alright, if we are going in and out quiet, we need to swap out some of the guns." Tavor continued, "Drop the shields, grab a silenced M2, pack some more explosives for distractions."

Turning to the display and looking at the map, "Any intel on the patrols routes and locations of sentries?" He asked Tavor, who smiled.

"Ahh, thought you never ask,"

85 - Claymore One

The thunder of Magelocks echoed over walls of the near vertical mountain face. The twin moons appeared as two thin crescents hovered over the tall peaks of Sawtooth Mountain, as a single dark shape loomed over peaks, narrowing missing the jagged rocks, kicking up loose rocks and dirt. The twin turboprop duct fans screamed as maximum power was applied to them, barely allowed the modified space shuttle to clear the peaks barely with a meter or two below its belly.

Several figures were strapped onto crash seats facing each other in the pressurized cabin of the Valkyrie, renamed by the two pilots who redesigned the space shuttles into a helicopter. All the radiation plating were removed from the ship and redundant systems stripped away to lighten the ship as much as possible. The cargo attachment at the rear was also stripped away, and the tail boom of the shuttle shortened. After the new modifications, the old space shuttle no longer looked like the original, becoming a stub looking predatory flier.

Dozens of weight reducing runes were carved into the main hull of the flier, giving a further 25% reduction in the total weight of the heavy and pig-like copter. The copter flew like a sports car despite it having no aerodynamic surfaces except for the stubby wings welded on the middle of the hull to provide weapon hardpoints, each offering three weapon stations, in addition to providing lift. A large blue-grey mana stone was set in the nose, under a 10 mm thick armored steel plating, the mystic runes carved in the stone, glowed dimly as an electric current was run through it, causing the stone to project a bubble of wind resistance, similar to the Giant Wind Wolves' innate ability. This ability allowed the copter to fly like on greased tracks against all weather but a hurricane.

"This is your flight captain speaking, please put your trays up and ensure your seatbelts are buckled," A chippy voice came over the speakers in the red-lit cabin. "If you feel the need to puke, please do so in the inside of your helmets, as Air Valkyrie does not permit vomiting in its flight cabin."

Specialist Sargeant Tyrier rolled his eyes at the antics of the pilot. He glanced out of the armored glass window, seeing nothing but darkness before checking his team out. Some of them were nodding off in their crash seats, catching as much sleep as possible, while Specialist Private Hitsu sat the other side of the bird, stared out into the darkness.

After a short while, the pilot voice broke the engine hum of the cabin, "Alright, boys, we are approaching the LZ (landing zone) in five minutes, please ensure you have left no belongings behind as you depart from the bird. And thank you for flying Air Valkyrie and have a pleasant day!"

"Wake up, wake up!" Tyrier yelled over the whine of the engines, "Five minutes!" He raised his hand out, displaying five fingers, waking everyone up. The team started checking their gear for the last time and braced themselves for the insertion.

-----

Flight Lieutenant Peter grinned as he cut the comms off to the cabin. He leaned forward and smacked on his co-pilot, Flight Lieutenant Tommy's dark grey helmet, decored with lightning strikes on the side, only to receive a middle finger as a response.

"You are really enjoying this, eh?" Tommy's voice came into Peter's helmet.

"Hell yeah! We are flying!" Peter answered back cheerfully. "Always knew that if anyone can make this bucket of bolts to fly, is you."

Tommy snorted, "And no thanks to you, bro."

"Come on, cheer up! How's the scope looking?" Peter asked.

"All's clear, no radar contacts," Tommy replied, "One minute to target LZ."

"Roger that," Peter replied, "Thunder Chief, Thunder Chief, Valkyrie One on direct approach to LZ in one minute, over."

"Thunder Chief, copy that, make sure the cargo is properly delivered, over"

"Wilco, Valkyrie One out." Peter ended the comms, "Alright, boys hold on tight! Here we go!" And yanked the joystick sharply, tilting the bird on its side, nearly vertical to the ground, before nose-diving down and pulling up just before hitting the ground.

-----

The whine of the turboprops changed pitch and the buckles holding Tyrier bit hard against his armor as Tyrier gripped the handrails in time just as the pilot yelled a warning, "Alright, boys hold on tight! Here we go!" The copter suddenly took a hard right turn before the floor of the copter dropped, as the pilot took a hard dive downwards, sharply reducing airspeed and slammed the men hard against the crash seats and hover the bird about a meter above the terrain, as a precaution against land mines. Despite knowing the enemy has no such technology, it honed the pilots' skills as they kept the bird steady.

The crew chief stood braced against the rear of the exit like a statue, the sudden turns, and dives seemingly unable to a fazed him at all. He punched the rear exit ramp down as the lights turned from red to green and stood on the side, yelling, "GO GO GO!"

The elves of 101st ATI, team Claymore One, buckled their safety harness and rapidly exited the bird, hopping off the rear ramp and spreading out in a circle, crouching in the clearing, their M2s with the fat silencers pointing into the darkness of forest around them. As the bird lifted off, and the ground effects and whine of the turboprops vanished, Tyrier whistled into his comms, "Move out," and headed towards the north of the forest, straight for their objective.

The team donned their night vision gear, advanced equipment taken from the limited stores of the ship, same as with their comms systems they were using, and headed into the forest in a diamond-shaped formation, keeping a distance of roughly five meters away from each other. The elves trekked quietly and skillfully, not leaving behind any traces of their passage as they head northwards towards their objective.

The transport copter had airlifted Claymore One down to the south, over the mountain tops, 15 km away from their objective to avoid detection. From there, they were to trek their way upwards and sneak their way into the enemy's camp, taking out the target and if needed, search and destroy the anchor.

The team was mostly armed with silenced M2s and each other member carried a pump action shotgun with experimental arcane ammunition. While the other members carried the M3 Magekiller, to be used to take out the target from a distance if possible. Each pair of soldier will have two M2s, a shotgun and a M3 between themselves. Using spells to enhance their speed and agility, the team made quick time, reaching the borders of the Orc encampment in roughly an hour.

They could hear the calls and yells from the distance in the direction of the Orc camp. Tyrier nodded to one of his teammate who, stopped and silently moved his lips, where a dim glow of a bluish magical circle appeared under each of Claymore One's feet. When the spell was completed, everyone glowed slightly bluish before everyone's body appeared to blend into the darkness. "Done," The caster whispered as he finished the minor invisibility spell.

"Go," Tyrier whispered in the team's comms, "Turn on your infra probe lights. And keep everyone in sight! Don't get lost!" He peered around in a circle, trying very hard to spot his teammates in the dark forest. He reached over the back of his shoulder and flipped on a switch on a cylindrical device strapped over the back of his vest.

Pulling his night vision goggles down, several pulsing lights started in his vision, highlighting the location of his team. After ensuring everyone could pinpoint each other's position and their pieces of equipment are working fine, they set off quietly, weapons at the ready as they sneaked past groups of drunken partying Orcs.

One of the Claymore One team members started to map out locations and positions of the Orc encampment as they sneak through, identifying guard towers, stores, barracks, sentry locations etc. Finally, after an hour of infiltrating into the camp, the team spread out over three marked locations, Area A, B and C, each with two members overwatching the area where the suspected Necromancer would appear except for Specialist Sergeant Tyrier who camped somewhat in the middle of all three locations, acting as the command and control point.

Tyrier had slowly and quietly climbed up onto an ancient everblue, settling down on a thick branch, three stories high and securing his position by tying a rope and a carabiner around the branch and clipping it on to his harness. After which he removed a smart camo netting and covered himself, lying prone on the branch, and keeping watch around him. The minor invisibility spell will remain active for a couple of hours before fading, more than enough time for the team to dig in and hide.

High Command has not given any dateline for the mission except that it is highly critical that the mission must succeed, thus Tyrier decided to ensure everything works out perfectly. His team had planted multiple mines on each location, resembling the claymore mines of the twentieth century, a simple curved plate with hundreds of ball bearings on one side and shaped explosives at the other.

The mines were daisy-chained together for maximum effect on the trap area, remotely detonated by a clanking device with creates an electronic charge down the hidden electric wire, cleverly camouflaged among the forest floor. It will be used as the last option should the team snipers failed to make a kill shot with the M3 Magekiller, as the target most likely be protected by magical defensive spells. The huge mass of ball bearings will be more than enough to shred what magical shields and bodies to pieces.

The special operations soldiers hidden in the forest waited for hours, ignoring the crawling and stings of insects on their exposed skin and waited for the Necromancer to appear. But Lady Luck was not smiling to them as night turned to day and it was until late afternoon that something happened.

Specialist Private Hitsu slowly chewed the dried fruit bar in his mouth, slowly savoring the sweetness of the mixture of fruits and nuts. He and his partner mentally tuned out the boredom of having nothing happening for hours, even taking turns to take a power nap to recharge themselves. He watched the sloppily patroling gangs of Orcs, crashing through the undergrowth, loud enough to alert anybody hundreds of meters away and shook his head.

He used to fear these Orcs, thinking back to the childhood stories that his mother used to scare him with, saying if you don't sleep now, or you don't listen and be a good boy, the Oerkins will come and snatch you away and eat you at night. Now looking at the way the Orcs move and carry themselves, he smiled at how foolish he was when younger.

"Pssh," Specialist Loke hissed from his hide, a tree away from him. He signals Hitsu with hand signs, indicating some unusual movement approaching from their East. Loke handled the massive M3 anti-material rifle, lying on a tree branch, covered with the smart camo net that blended the special operations sniper perfectly together with the tree, it was only Hitsu knew where to look at that he could spot where and what Loke was signing with.

Hitsu, very very slowly turned his head to look at the direction of where Loke said something was happening. His face painted with dark blue and strips of black camo paint, slowly peeked out of the netting, avoiding any sudden movements which could attract any attention and saw a large troop of Orcs storming their way across them at a distance of 50 meters away.

Hitsu cursed inwardly as he noticed a small contingent of robed individuals among the Orcs, but one of them clearly stood out among them, as that individual extruded an aura of pure evilness to Hitsu's senses. He double tapped his comms, signaling to his other teammates that his area of operations which is Area B, has spotted the target.

86 - To Kill a Necromancer

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake and the other command staff stood around the tactical display table, glancing either at the map on the table or the display screens, displaying UAV overhead video feeds or the direct feeds from the Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention, Claymore One teams' helmet-mounted cameras. The display from the helmet-mounted cameras was choppy as the signal was poor due to the canopy of signal blocking trees, despite the transmitter tower Claymore One had installed in the forest canopy top, beforehand.

Everyone' eyes were bloodshot as they waited and drank cups of decaf the whole night, watching the displays and waiting for reports of the mission to come in. Yet hours had past yet there was nothing and most of the command staff had retired to rest when the call came in that the target has been sighted.

Now everyone crowded around the displays, watching the screens. "The Necromancer appeared to be heavily escorted this time by his minions." Commander Ford asked, "Should we call it off or wait for another opportunity?"

"Tell Claymore One to hold their position and stay on the target," Blake answered. "Leave it to their tactical decision, of aborting or continuing."

-----

"-on your own tactical discretion," The voice spoke into Specialist Sergeant Tyrier's comms. He cursed, thinking what a great way to deny all involvement in this shit. Looking at his tablet, he nudged Squad One and Squad Threes towards Squad Two's position. Placing Squad Three as a blocking force to cover the possible retreating route of the Target while Squad One was assigned to support Squad Two.

Tyrier peeked out of his cover and tried to see if he can spot the group of Orcs in the distance, but the clustered tree trunks prevented line of sight. "Squad Two, what's the tactical situation on your site? Over."

A whisper came back from the comms, "Heavy escort, at least a dozen Orcs, four mages of unknown magical capabilities and our Target. Over."

"Heading?" Tyrier asked back, looking at the digital map in his tablet, as he looked at the icons of his team get into position slowly to avoid detection.

"Target appears to be heading to Cemetery Site B." Came back the response. "They will arrive within 15 minutes."

"Squad One and Three, you heard that?" Tyrier comms over the all unit channel, "You got less than 15 minutes to get to position."

Clicks and taps replied Tyrier over the comms as Squad One and Three acknowledged the order by tapping their mics. Tyrier glanced around, making sure no one is around and quickly pulled the smart camo netting away and rolling it up, storing it back into his pouch, before unbuckling the carabiner and slithered down the tree trunk. He did a quick stretch of his body and legs, removing the kinks from staying in the same position away.

He ghosted his way around the trees in the fastest possible speed, without attracting any attention from the rowdy patrolling Orcs and found a nice vantage point within some massive tree roots. Tyrier braced his M2 carbine against the tree roots and spotted movement between the trees. Good, the Target is heading towards where they had set up the traps the night before.

"Squad One in position," A low panting voice sounded from the comms in Tyrier's helmet. "We got movement here, eyes on the Target."

"Squad Three?" Tyrier asked, "Are you ready?"

"Negative," Squad Three's in charge replied, "We got too many patrols here, we need more time to get to position."

Damn, Tyrier thought, should I order the team to stand down or go ahead, he pondered. He looked up from his hiding spot to see half the group of the Orcs had entered into the clearing, "Squad Three!" He hissed.

"Almost there!" The reply came back, as the entire Orc contingent is now inside the clearing, standing well within the kill zone of the claymores. "... Here!"

"Loke! Take the shot!" Tyrier whispered urgently into his mike. "Take it!" And prayed.

-----

Specialist Private Loke laid comfortably on top of the broad moss covered tree branch. His smart camo netting covering his whole body, up till the large bulky silencer for his M3 Magekiller. The thick and 40 cm long black matt coated silencer peeked out from the edge of his netting, if not for the bipod, Loke might not be able to properly aim and fire his weapon.

He zeroed his scope to within 100 meters in this engagement, disregarding wind and everything else since the sniping distance is practically almost in knife range. He used a 4x magnification scope instead of the standard 6x or even 10x scopes as it would give him too much tunnel vision, preventing him from shooting or spotting other enemies in the close distance.

Hearing the background chatter of Squad Three's race against time to reach their blocking position, Loke kept his crosshair slightly aimed away in front of the hooded target. He believed that if aimed directly at the Target, it might sense or felt it.

As the whole group entered the clearing, Squad Three finally reported they are in position and Loke heard Specialist Sergeant Tyrier whispered his name, "Take the shot! Take it!"

Loke swung the scope directly over the Target and without hesitation nor pause and squeezed the trigger. The muffled boom of the heavy weapon and the escaping gun smoke instantly covered Loke's view, and he could only rely on his partner Hitsu to report the results of his shot. He quickly worked the bolt, sending the large .50 caliber empty cartridge spinning away down to the forest floor.

-----

Hitsu raised to a crouch slowly, balanced properly on the tree branch and readied his M2 Magespitter as he heard the order came in from Tyrier to take the shot. Less than a second, a thump and a cloud of dirty smoke appeared in the upper tree trunk where Loke had hidden, and Hitsu quickly looked at the Target, seeing the Target flew back from the impact of the anti-material round.

"Good hit," Hitsu whispered in excitement in all team comms. "Target down!"

"Wait and hold position," Tyrier ordered. He had unfastened his binoculars and peered at the crowd surrounding the fallen Necromancer. "Ensure target is dead, we need to behead the target!"

"No movement from the Target from my side," Squad Two reported, "But the Orcs are getting restless."

"Take them all out, make sure no one escapes!" Tyrier ordered again, as he observed the actions of the Orcs.

"Roger!" And several soft pops and smoke clouds appeared around the clearing as Squad One and Squad Two engaged the Orcs and less than ten minutes, the clearing was filled with dead bodies.

"Squad One, go, make sure none is alive!" Tyrier directed his men to advance into the clearing.

Squad Two emerged from the undergrowth, their boots barely making any sound in the forest floor. The two elves entered in a tactical formation, side by side, each covering their firing arcs and sector. They headed straight to the Target, ignoring the rest as they focused on their main objective.

Specialist Lance Corporal Young approached the target body cautiously, he looked at his partner who nodded, covering him from the side and Young took a step forward before giving the body a double tap to the head, just in case.

As the two bullets smacked into the hooded figure's head, Young suddenly felt a chill down his spine, "It's not dead yet!" And fired another three rounds into the head. The hooded figure suddenly twisted away and stood up in an unnatural way, staring at Young from within the darkness of its hood.

Young and his partner fired into the center of mass of the Target, seeing the hooded figure jerked backward as their bullets hammered at it. "Die! You son of a bitch!" Young cursed, as he emptied an entire magazine of 30 rounds directly into Necromancer's body.

"Fall back! Tyrier yelled at Squad One, who heeded his order and retreated, firing as they went. A muffled thump echoed between the trees, and another .50 caliber round slammed into the Target, causing it to flop backward. "Hit it with everything you got!"

Squad One and Squad Two opened fired, their silenced weapons popping and thumping away in the clearing. Tyrier also fired at the Target, seeing it jerk and dance with the impacts of the bullets, Suddenly the dead Orcs stood up, forming a meat shield around the Necromancer, causing chunks of meat and dark red blood to splat all over the clearing.

"His magical defensive spells must be weakening!" Someone yelled in the team channel, "It's using the dead to recover!"

"Fark!" Tyrier cursed again, by now the racket made by the silenced weapons and the gun smoke raising from the clearing should have alerted even the dumbest Orc. "Go loud!"

Hitsu hearing the order, quickly dropped his M2 on its sling and reached to his back, ripping out his pump action shotgun. In its, five round magazine tube was loaded with experimental explosive shells. Each shell was packed with a hollowed slug, with as much black powder that can be compressed and packed into it with dozens of ball bearings surrounding the black powder charge. A pair of wafer-thin disks, carved with a fire igniting rune, sits on the tapered nose of the slug.

When the explosive slug impacts any hard surface, the twin rune wafers will collapse together and a flame will be ignited like an impact fuse, causing the compressed black powder charge to explode and throwing ball bearings out in a hemisphere effect, killing or maiming any creature within a five-meter radius.

Hitsu aimed at the corpse wall and fired, just as Specialist Private Altied from Squad One also drew out his shotgun and fired, a second later. The resulting explosion tore the Orc bodies into unidentified meat chunks and offal. The second explosive slug, a second behind exploded inside the barrier of the dead when it impacted against something, immediately causing the corpse wall to collapse inwardly.

An unearthly cry erupted from the small mound of bodies, and the Necromancer emerged out, its robes frayed and holed from gunfire, its hood was torn off. A feminine elvish face with lifeless eyes and covered with sanity causing tattoos could be seen. The shotgunners emptied their magazine tubes at the Necromancer, frailing the figure with hundreds of ball bearings and shrouding it in explosions of smoke.

"We got incoming from the Orc Camp!" Squad There yelled in the comms. "Engaging!"

"Squad Three, keep them out of our backs while we kill the Necromancer!" Tyrier ordered, replacing his spent magazine with a fresh magazine. He raised his left hand out, his fingers forming a seal like gesture and two small blue-white magical circles appeared before his hand. He started chanting, forming the spell circle and casting a bolt of lightning directing into the smoke covered figure, inciting another unearthly cry.

"Why won't this thing die!" Hitsu cried out, as he reloaded his shotgun with more explosive shells. The Necromancer leaped out of the smoke and charged directly at Altied from Squad One, who dove out of the way and raising on one knee, dropping his empty shotgun and quick drawing his M2 and fired into the side of the Necromancer, causing it to flinch.

"DIE MUTHA FUCKER DIE!" Altied screamed at the creature, its feminine elf face and lifeless eyes showing no expression except for the mouth opened wide. Catching a glimpse of the chaotic tattoos on the Necromancer's face, Altied screamed again, as he felt his mind itch, his ears hearing strange and chaotic whispers.

"Don't look at it!" Tyrier shouted as he charged into the clearing, and fired his M2 at the back of the Necromancer. Dark splatters of ichor burst out and wisps of smoke erupted from the blood splats on the ground as it corroded what it touched.

Altied's buddy, Specialist Lance Corporal Young charged over and tackled him away from the deadly swipe of the Nercomancer's claw-like nails, as Altied was transfixed to the rune tattoos on the Nercomancer's face, his mouth starting to drool.

The Necromancer opened its mouth and gave a scream, it's intended victim having snatched away from its grasp. Suddenly it toppled backward again, as a .50 caliber round blew its left shoulder away, sending a huge spray of smoking ichor across half the clearing.

"Back!" Tyrier reached Altied and Young's side, helping to drag Altied out of the clearing. They managed to get Altied away, who slowly recovered his senses. "Hit the explosives!" Tyrier shouted at Hitsu, who quickly pulled out the detonator, giving it a few cranks, creating an electric current and squeezed the detonate trigger.

The daisy-chained black powder claymore mines facing the inside of the clearing detonated as one, eight mines each throwing 700 3.2mm steel balls, at a velocity of 1,018 m/s. The Necromancer struggled to its feet and cursed, just as 5,600 steel balls ripped through the entire clearing.

"SOFT SKINS! YOU WILL BE PART OF MY AR-"

87 - Angry Orcs

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"YES!" Cheers erupted as the crew and officers watched what happened through the choppy video stream from Claymore One's actions. Seeing the Necromancer get shredded by the mines, the whole bridge just stood up, cheered wildly and applauded.

"Great work, Claymore One," the Bridge Communications Officer, congratulated the team for a successful mission.

"Hey, hey," Captain Blake called out, "The mission is not over yet! We still need to determine if the Necromancer's death will it also affects the Undead army." He reminded everyone.

The crew quiet down, as they looked on hopefully on to their display screens hoping that with the Necromancer killed, the dead will no longer raise up.

-----

Uncharted Forest, Ambush Site B

Coughing from the gun smoke, Specialist Sergeant Tyrier pushed himself off from the top of Specialist Altied, who laid on the forest floor, moaning. Tyrier gestured to Specialist Lance Corporal Young to assist and treat Altied as he headed back into the clearing.

Splatters of dark red blood, bits, and pieces of Orc sprawled all over the clearing. Tyrier readied his weapon and head for the spot where the Necromancer was the last to be seen. The robed figure was so ravaged badly by the steel ball bearings from the claymore mines, that mostly of the Necromancer was scattered all over the area. Despite that, the upper half of the Necromancer torso remained behind with its female elvish face still lying there.

Tyrier avoided looking at the face, remembering what had happened to Altied earlier. He drew his single-bladed sword and hack down with all his strength, severing the head off. Digging into his pooches, he pulled out a drawstring bag of kosher salt and sprinkled them all over the torso and the decapitated head, before pouring a flask of alcohol liquid over the body parts and setting them on fire.

Salt being used is for purification will dispel any negative or evil energy, and the fire will destroy any chances of the creature from reanimating.

"Squad Three, what's your situation, over," Tyrier asked as he watched the flames consuming the body parts.

"We pushed them back, for the time being, they are still confused to where our location is," Squad Three replied. "But we got a huge bunch of really angry Orcs here!"

"Roger, extract yourselves and meet us at the designated rally point Alpha, copy?" Tyrier responded.

"Copy that, bugging out now," Squad Three replied as they fired a few more rounds and retreated behind the gun smoke, using it as cover for their retreat.

"Alright Squad One and Two, head to rally point Alpha now," Tyrier ordered, "Move it!" Tyrier wanted to see if there were any things left behind by the Necromancer, but apparently, everything got destroyed by the claymore mines. "Move it, people!"

War horns bellowed from within the Orc camps, "Detonate the rest of the mines at the other sites, keep them busy!" Tyrier ordered as he supported Altied's limp form. He chanted a quick strengthening spell, boosting his strength and fireman carried Altied over his shoulder, including all his weapons and armor, taking off in a quick jog into the undergrowth.

Squad Three led the pursuers back towards the ambush Site C, the angry Orcs crying out in bloodlust and excitement at the fleeing two figures, screaming vulgarities in their Orc tongue after them. The two elves hopped over a fallen log where they hid the detonator and quickly cranked the charge, and timed the trap just as the pursuing Orcs entered into the killing zone.

Other than bits of gore, blood, and broken pieces of equipment laid shattered all over, nothing alive remained in Site C, Squad Three without even a backward glance, sprinted off towards the rally point.

Squad Three was the last to arrive at the rally point, the rest was already assembled at the rally, with Squad Two on overwatch, keeping an eye around their surroundings for any signs of pursuing enemies. Young from Squad One was providing magical medical aid to the mind stunned Altied, was who slowly recovering his wits.

"What happened?" Specialist Corporal Doth jerked his head towards Altied and Young.

"He nearly got his brain fried by some chaos or dark magic," Tyrier answered. "Young saved his ass just in time."

"We got the target?" Doth asked again.

"Beheaded, salted and burnt," Tyrier gave a rare smile, "Alright, set up the comms array, let's see what further instructions Command has."

Doth nodded, gesturing his partner over as both of them headed off to high ground to deploy the portable communication array in their backpacks. Tyrier went to check on Altied, "How is he?"

Young peeled back the eyelids and examined the pupils of Altied and said, "He should be fine, with some rest, his brain just couldn't handle the backlash of some raw chaos magic." Young kept away his medical supplies, "Lucky he got high willpower and managed to resist the effects of the dark magic, if not," Young shrugged, his hands mimicking a pair of wings flying away. "I gave him 10 ccs of tranq-shot, it should sedate him till we can get him to proper medical aid.

Tyrier nodded and headed up to where Squad Three were setting up the comms gear. A small foldable antenna disk stood on top of a boxy device with dials and wires, with Doth hunched over it as he aimed the antenna disk into the skies, at roughly the position of where the recon UAV was scheduled to appear over.

"We got a connection," Doth said, nodding to Tyrier. "All yours."

"Claymore Actual to Thunderchief do you copy over?" Tyrier spoke into his comms set in his helmet.

"-derchief reading you loud and clear, over."

"Claymore Actual, requesting orders over."

"Thunderchief, Command wants you to standby for confirmation of undead activity, should threat is still red, go secondary mission, over."

"Claymore Actual, copies that, out."

"Damn," Tyrier groaned, he was tired so was his men. "Alright, pack it in, we go into hiding till night falls." He spoke into his all team channel.

"Command wants us to assess the situation of the undead activities, if they are still active, we will begin the secondary mission." Tyrier briefed his team, "Young, you hold the rally point and look after Altied. The Squad Two will reinsert back, and standby at the mass grave site and while I and Squad Three will head towards the Necromancer's suspected tent."

"Questions?" Seeing no one saying anything, Tyrier continued, "Rest up in rotations, we will move out when night comes."

-----

Uncharted Forest, Orc Frontline

Urka the Fierce stood at the back of a tree trunk, using it as cover from the deadly long ranged spells cast from Walls of the Pass. He watched a trio of Oerkin stone throwers in action, sheltered behind walls made out of thick logs, the Oerkin crew pulling the ropes of the trebuchet, and launching a rock almost the size of an Oerkin towards the walls.

"Warleader! Warleader!" A skinny Oerkin wearing a bright orange slash across his chest, signifying him as a messenger, called out to Urka from behind the lines.

"What is it?" Urka gestured him over, making sure they are behind the cover of the tree trunk.

"Something has happened at the camp! Smoke and fire!" The messenger excitedly gave his report.

"Slow down!" Urka roared, using his fist and thumping the head of the messenger to stop his babbling. "What happened at the camp?"

"Eh, don't know?" The messenger shrugged his shoulders as he rubbed the egg-sized bruise forming on his head. "Just seeing smoke where the Elder was headed to."

"The Elder?" Urka frowned, why has this idiot come to disturb him with such matters. "The Shamans should be able to take care of themselves, don't disturb me unless the camp is under attack or on fire!"

"Eh?" The messenger scratched his head, "Okey dokey," and scrammed off.

Urka shook his head and returned to watching the stone throwers at work. and not long later, the same skinny messenger appeared before Urka again. "Eh, Warleader..."

"What now?" Urka asked impatiently, recently he had been getting very impatient with how the war had been going on.

"More smoke and boom booms in the forest!" The messenger waved his arms to indicate the size of the smoke.

"Boom Boom?" Urka scrunched his face in confusion, "What?" Then it hit him, boom boom meant the sounds the thundersticks made by the cursed soft skins in the Pass. "Where?" He roared at the terrified Oerkin.

"Back at the camp!" The shaking Oerkin pointed a finger back towards the camp. That was when Urka heard several sharp cracks and followed claps of thunder coming distantly from the rear. He shoved the messenger away from his path and ran back, his warriors following closely behind.

As the entered the camp, he noticed the camp was in a state of confusion, warriors standing around looking confused, while the slaves huddled down in fear. A sudden ripple of sharp claps shooked the camp, Urka could feel a slight shock wave passing over him, "This way!" He waved his warriors. "To me!"

Appearing down a well-worn path in the forest floor, several Oerkin warriors lay dead or heavily wounded on the path, Urka kneeled down next to a wounded warrior and shook him awake, questioning him, "What happened?"

"Soft skins..." The wounded Oerkin coughed out, "That way..."

"Go!" Urka roared at his warriors. He grabbed a passing Oerkin warrior and said, "Alert the camp, the soft skins are attacking, be on alert!" And he ran after his warriors, just as another ripple of explosions went off, nearer this time, the shockwave causing him and his warriors to stumble.

"What is happening? How did the soft skins get behind us?" Urka cursed, as he ran along the path, before arriving at a clearing where a strong stench of blood and soiled bowels. A path of ground in the clearing was charred black, and as Urka neared, the smell of badly burnt meat assailed his nose. He looked around the carnage in the clearing, trying to piece together what had happened here.

Clearly, a very powerful spell had ravaged all living here, he couldn't identify most of the body parts, but he found scraps of blood-soaked robes among the litter in the clear. "Where is the Elder?"

His battle-hardened warriors upon seeing the scene, their faces turned pale, they shook their heads, unable to question Urka's question. "Find the Elder! Spread out!" He roared at the hesitating warriors. "GO!"

Despite their best efforts and trackers, the Oerkin could not find any trace of the Elder Shaman, even the fellow Shamans remaining in the camps couldn't even discover any sense of the Elder's aura. "We couldn't feel him at all, not even his Spirit!" One of hooded Shaman said to Urka.

"Curses! How about any trace of the soft skins?" Urka asked his lieutenants, who shooked their heads. "What have you all been doing all these time!" He roared angrily.

"No soft skin was seen returning to the Pass," One of them replied. "Nothing passed by the south path!" Another said.

"Keep finding them! Use the wind wolves!" Urka shouted angrily, "Find the soft skins and the Elder now!" He waved madly at his warriors, making them flinch back in fear and respect.

His warriors bowed and turned to their subordinates and started handing down orders and instructions, using kicks and punches to drill it into their thick skulls. Urka returned his gaze at the bloody site, the sticky blood already turning dry in the sun, attracting hundreds of insects and small creatures to feed on the mess.

"The Elder couldn't have been defeated?" Urka wondered, "No, the Elder is protected by the Spirits, even if I match against the Elder, I won't possibly win at all." But yet a doubt remained in his heart. He looked at the charred patch of grass in the middle of the clearing again, wondering what had happened here.

88 - Objective Beta

Uncharted Forest, Rally Point Alpha

Tyrier grabbed Altied's shotgun and bandolier while distributing Altied's remaining 6.5 mm magazines to the rest of team and started to field strip the weapon down and clean it. Everyone took turns doing sentry duty while the team rested, ate, maintained their weapons and gear and waited for the sun to set and darkness to come.

The team cast a barrier of Nondetection and both physically and magically removed all traces of their passing. As they hid and rested in the trees, Orc patrols passed by them several times, searching for any traces of their whereabouts. The only time they nearly got found was when a couple of giant Wind Wolves appeared with Orc riders strapped on top their backs, the wolves sniffed around the trees where they had hidden but couldn't find any scent and left shortly after, causing the whole team who were aiming their weapons at the wolves all the time to relax.

Firing off another short micro burst message to the UAV drone circling over the forest, and after receiving the return message from Command. Tyrier whispered to the gathered team, who huddled together. "Alright, we are going back in. Command reports that the undead are still active. This means there is a high chance of an anchor for the undead to spawn. This time keep using Minor Invisibility, I want no one to get found out."

The team nodded and started their preparations, once the Invisibility spells were cast, they stealthily climbed down the trees and split off towards their objectives, leaving behind Squad One to watch their backs.

The return trip back towards the Orc encampment was slower this time around, as Orcs patrols trampled all over the forest despite it being dark, and the light of the twin waxing crescent moons barely cast enough light through the thick forest canopy. The noisy Orcs holding burning torches wandered around in unpredictable routes, poking and shaking at the undergrowth as if expecting something to pop out.

Despite the noise and lights cast by the patrols, the sheer numbers of Orcs wandering around made progression slow as they had to stop and time their movements and try to avoid having an Orc walk into them. Luckily they did not encounter any of the Wind Wolves in the area. making their infiltration easier.

Tyrier and Squad Three reached the outer edge of the Orc camp, just barely past midnight. Looking at the hive of activity in the camp, it will appear that the Orcs were not all sleeping, countless numbers of undead could be seen gathering at an area on the other side of the camp. Doth tapped Tyrier's shoulder, pointing to the mass of undead. "Over there?" He whispered.

Tyrier adjusted his night vision goggles to maximum zoom, looking at the bright green scenery of the camp with undead crowding around a couple of large tents. A few shadowy figures stood at the head of the undead crowd, waving and gesturing around.

"Looks like the remaining shamans are trying to take back control of the dead," Tyrier whispered back. "Tavel, you stay back with the M3, provide overwatch if shit happens. Doth, on me." Tyrier recast the Minor Invisibility spell again, ignoring the waves of giddiness washing over him.

After verifying the spell is functioning, they hugged the edge of the camp, staying within the shadows as much as possible before venturing into the open, using the shambling dead as cover from the Orc sentries. Ignoring the rot and decay of the dead, Tyrier gripped a half rotten Empire soldier from the back, his fingers sinking into the leathery and shrunken skin, holding onto the shoulder bones. He lifted the confused undead and used it as a shield, advancing closer and closer to the front of the crowd.

Doth at his rear, had placed his left hand firmly on Tyrier's shoulder and followed behind their makeshift cover. With the Minor Invisibility spell over them, their bodies outline visibly blurred and semi-transparent, they managed to blend in among the dead easily as the dead did not show any signs of aggression.

Finally reaching as close as they could get to the tents of the shamans, Tyrier ditched their cover and they both crouched, fast crawling among the legs of the dead, squeezing through the bodies and using a spot of shadow cast by a burning brazier, they both rapidly crossed the open area and into the cover of the tents.

"Squad Two, We are in position," Tyrier whispered into the comms.

-----

Three hours ago,

After splitting off with Tyrier and Squad Three, Hitsu and Loke headed straight for their objective, skirting past the countless numbers of Orcs wandering around with burning torches. As they closed into their objective site, the number of undead wandering around became thicker, some of the Orcs entertained themselves by poking or beating the undead, guffawing along all the way.

Surprisingly, the undead ignored them, and they managed to reach the site of the mass grave, where hundreds of dead stood in mindless rows. "I think there is no one controlling them at all," Hitsu whispered to Loke who nodded. "See anything living?"

Loke glanced carefully around in his night vision goggles, shaking his head after a while. "No, looks like only the dead are here."

"Alright, I search this side, you search the other," Hitsu said, pointing out the areas to be searched.

Loke nodded again and cautiously stepped out to the open, his huge M3 strapped on his back while his M2 Magespitter held at the ready. Hitsu also advanced out, his M2 up and ready, a bright green beam emitting out from his laser sights as he looked through his night vision. He slowly sweeps left and right among the dead, making sure that they were dormant before stopping to cast a spell.

A couple magic circles appeared from his hand as Hitsu whispered the chant for Detect Magic, and as the spell completes, several fireflies like lights appeared and floated around, before orientating their direction and flew away from Hitsu,

But Hitsu cursed, as the fireflies heading into all points of the compass. "Damn, there is too much magic interference here!" Some of the fireflies landed on the corpses, others on the trees or even the ground.

Hitsu looked over at where Loke was, who was also casting a Detect Magic spell, but to no use. Loke shooked his head at Hitsu who waved back and turned his attention back to his surroundings. "Now, how do we find the anchor?" He hissed in frustration.

As they looked up and down the entire area, the dead suddenly started moaning and shambled off away from the grave site. Both Hitsu and Loke looked at each other in surprise, wondering where are they moving off. "What's happening?" The two of them quickly scrambled into cover, hiding behind a pile of dead wood, watching the undead shuffled off.

"I think someone had taken control of them?" Loke guessed, "They look like they are heading to the Orc camp."

"Damn! We need to warn Tyrier!" Hitsu whispered urgently, "Claymore Actual, this is Squad Two, do you copy over?" He spoke into his comms, trying to contact Tyrier.

"It's not getting through!" Hitsu cursed as he tried to contact with Tyrier and Squad Three for the fourth time. "What do we do now?"

"We continue to search for the anchor, I am sure they can handle themselves," Loke said seriously, he gestured to the emptied field, "They are gone, its easier to search the site now."

"Do we even know what to look for?" Hitsu asked, as he lifted his head up and peered around the clearing, making sure no hostiles are around.

"The dead are gone, we should be able to use Detect Magic now," Loke pointed out.

"Oh yeah, I totally forgot about that," Hitsu grinned sheepishly. "I cast it then."

Not long several specks of lights flickered around the field, clustering around a point in the middle, were several burrows could be seen under the effects of the night vision goggles. "We got something here!"

They slowly approached the location where the magical specks landed, all the while keeping an eye around their surroundings. "Still looks fresh," Loke rubbed the disturbed soil, "Seems like something is buried here while everything else was dug up."

"Cover me," Hitsu said as he detached a foldable entrenching tool from his back, flipping out a spade and gripping the D-handle and started to digging and shoving dirt away. Loke retreated back to find some cover by jumping down into a convenient looking trench dug out by the buried dead. He braced his M2 against the wet loose soil and kept watch as Hitsu dug away.

After about 40 minutes of digging, Hitsu cried out, "Found something!" And he carried the item he found, dropping into the same grave where Loke was camping. "Here," He tossed it to Loke while he removed his helmet and wiped off the sweat.

"What the fark is this?" Loke held the dirt crusted pouch up, turning it left and right. "Something moved in it!" He dropped the bag hurriedly and tensed up, aiming his M2 at the pouch on the floor.

"You felt that too?" Hitsu asked as he swallowed a mouthful of water. "I thought it was my hands trembling from digging too much or something." He capped his water bottle and return it to its place at the back of his harness. "Salt and burn it?"

"Shouldn't we report to Tyrier that we found the damn thing?" Loke said, his eyes not leaving the pulsing pouch on the floor. "Are we sure its the anchor?"

"Tried, can't get through still," Hitsu removed a small can of purified salt and bottle of flammable fluid. "Only way to find out if its the anchor or not." He smiled, "Go on, open it."

"Wha-What?" Loke's eyes went wide, "You kidding right?"

"Hehehe, come on, I need to salt it and burn it," Hitsu grinned.

"I salt it and burn it then, you open!" Loke reached out for his own set of salt and fuel. "You open it!"

"Hahaha I didn't tag you for someone so timid," Hitsu teased as he kept his salt and fuel. He pulled out his sword bayonet, crouched next to the beating pouch, and looked up at Loke. "Ready?"

Nodding, Loke stood over Hitsu, each hand holding a can of salt and flammable fluid. Hitsu reached down and quickly slit open the pouch and shook out the contents onto the floor. "Aww, what the fark!"

A blackish crimson heart, still beating unnaturally, flopped with a sick slap on the grave floor, looking like some sort of abomination slug. Loke quickly dumped the whole can of salt, burying the heart in a small mountain, and poured the whole bottle of flammable oil into the mix. Hitsu deftly flicked a flint lighter, sending sparks flying and igniting the whole mixture.

"Seriously? A whole can of salt?" Hitsu stood up as the unholy object burst into flames. "You know you can feed a whole family of four for weeks with that amount?"

"Take no chances!" Loke defended himself as he breathed out a sigh of relief, watching the blacken heart slowly cook, the congealed fats popping and hissing in the fire. "Think it's the anchor?"

Hitsu nodded, "Well I think that's obvious." He looked out of the grave and blinked his eyes, trying to readjust them back to the darkness. "Let's go, find a high ground and see if we can contact Tyrier."

"Yeah, let's go," Loke cast a last look at the dying flames, the heart no longer recognizable.

-----

Uncharted Forest, Orc camp, Shaman tents

"Shit, we can't get through to the Squad Two," Tyrier whispered to the rest. "I think there is too much magic interference in the air here."

"Now what?" Doth asked, "We continue or what?"

Tyrier considered his tactical options, they are currently in the middle of an entire Orc camp and surrounded by not only by the Orcs but an army of undead too. If they get discovered, there will be almost no chances of escape.

Yet if they complete the mission, the siege against the Pass will weaken significantly and lessened the chances of an enemy breakthrough.

"Fark it, let's just burn the camps down," Tyrier made his decision, "Douse the tents with all the oil and set up all the reminding claymores we have left."

Doth and Tavel nodded, grinning evilly. They quickly poured the oil onto the hides material of the tents and placing some of the experimental explosive shotgun shells next to the tents. Tyrier planted his stores of claymores, each team member carried four. He purposely faced two of the claymores directly facing the tents, and the remaining two at the most likely venues of approaches.

He unrolled the spools of fuses and laid them next to the patches of oil, making use of the fire later to act as a timer for the claymores. "Ready?" He asked the rest who nodded. "Get to cover," And he crept out to where he last saw a brazier burning.

Seeing no one looking at his direction, he dropped the remaining spool of det cord into the fire, and quickly sprint away to where the rest of his men went. The spool of det cord, suddenly burst into flames, causing the brazier to flare brightly, kicking up sparks and showers of embers into the night sky, and a tiny flame raced down the trailing cord, charging towards the pool of oil at the back of the tents.

89 - Ride of the Valkyries

"You can't find the Elder's Spirit?" Urka asked in surprise at the three hooded Shamans gathered in front of him. "Did you try all ways?"

"Yes, Warleader, we did," The lead Shaman bowed and replied, "There was no trace of his Spirit in this plane."

"How about the Spirit Walkers?" Urka asked after he got over his shock. "Can they be controlled now that the Elder is not here?"

"Yes, we might not be as powerful as the Elder, but we will share the control among our selves." The Shaman said, giving the greeting of the Hand before leaving Urka alone to his thoughts.

"Summon Orth here now!" Urka shouted out from his seat inside his tent to his warriors outside, and shortly after, the flaps of the tent lifted up and a heavyset Oerkin entered.

"Yes, Warleader?" Orth greeted Urka with the Hand greeting.

"Did you find anything in your search?" Urka asked.

"No, Warleader, even the Great Wolves could not find any trace of the soft skins," Orth replied.

"Find them, they killed the Elder right under our noses!" Urka roared, "This is a disgrace to our clan! We must find them and make them wish they were never born!"

Orth nodded, "I will continue the search for the soft skins than."

"Go," Urka waved his lieutenant away, deep in thoughts on how to win this war, and explain about the death of the Elder to the Great Chief.

The Shamans stood before their tents and started chanting, using bones to drum out a rhythm that makes anyone listening to feel their bones aching. The nearby Oerkin quickly departed away from the Shamans, and not long, the area in front of the Shamans cleared, and slowly one by one, the dead started appearing and gathering.

Nodding with satisfaction, the three Shamans split up, each will lead a portion of the dead, they actually felt happy that the Elder has died, thus the position of Elder was now opened. It had been occupied by the Elder for many many generations. The rest of the Shamans were also unhappy with the fact that the Elder used the dark arts to prolong his life and not only that, he chooses elf slaves to be his host, transferring his spirit from one body to another when the previous body started to rot.

Just at this time, as the three Shamans were thinking of plans and schemes to take the position of the Elder from each other, a brazier flared loudly, sparks and embers flying high. Startled, the three Shamans stared at the brazier, the bright flames killing their night vision, preventing them from spotting the burning fuse that ran to the rear of the tents.

Suddenly a flickering brightness appeared among the tents, and the realization came to the three Shamans. "Fire!" They ran and shouted, "Fire!" Standing behind the tents and watching the flames licking the sides of the tents. "Quick! Our scrolls and artifacts!" They shouted for their followers and apprentices to put out the fire and save their magical items.

As they dashed back into the tents, and one of them paused, making sure that the other two didn't notice him, he ran into the largest tent which belonged to the Elder, hoping to salvage what treasures that had been left behind, when the makeshift explosive of shotgun shells exploded.

The explosion of the shells drew the entire camp's attention to the Shamans' tents. The explosion stunned and shocked the Orcs around the tents, making them wondered what was going on.

The two claymores facing the tents were armed by a det cord fuse. Tyrier had set the fuse length for ten minutes and as the Shamans and their followers were inside the tents confused with the earlier explosion, the special blend of black powder and mana stone dust shaped charge blew, each throwing 700 ball bearings into the tents.

The material of the tents was reinforced by magic to protect against both physical and magical attacks. But with the fire constantly draining the magic barrier and the damage by the makeshift explosive, the ball bearings ripped through the weaken barrier and into the thick animal hide material of the tent and despite slowed down by the magical barrier and the animal hides, the spread of ball bearings still carried enough kinetic energy to paint the insides of the tents with blood.

Another five minutes after the first wave of claymores that went off, the Orcs that arrived on scene to investigate and put out the growing fire was cut down by the last two claymores placed in strategically located positions, even some of the gathered zombies were not spared.

Urka who came rushing over to find out what had happened in his camp managed to witness first hand his warriors turned to blood mist by the second wave of claymore mines. "Waaa?" He stood shocked at the sudden deaths of over twenty strong and powerful Oerkin warriors. And as to further pour salt in his wounds, the gathered undead suddenly collapsed bonelessly on to the ground with hardly any sound.

"FIND THE SOFT SKINS NOW! I WILL RIP THE SKIN OFF, TEAR THEIR BONES OUT AND MAKE THEM WATCH BEFORE DIGGING OUT THEIR EYES!"

-----

Uncharted Forest, Enroute to Rally Point Alpha

"-ore Actual co-in over! This - Squad -wo!" Tyrier heard Hitsu's choppy voice in his comms. "Claymore Actual here! Can you hear me?"

"-nk god! -tual, -nal is bad," Came the reply in Tyrier's helmet. "If you can hear me, rendezvous back at Rally Point Alpha now!" The whole forest appeared to come alive after the claymores went off. Tyrier and his team could hear something roar in the direction of the Orc camp.

"-ger tha-,"

"Young, do you copy?" Tyrier switched comms and called for Squad One's Young.

"I copy," Young's voice came in crisp and clear. "Young, get to Command, tell them the Necromancer threat has been eliminated completely." As they retreated, they saw several of the undead collapsing, meaning they must have destroyed something important.

"Tell Command we need immediate extraction, the Orcs are very pissed with us!" Tyrier told Young over the comms. Suddenly a howl cut through the night, followed by another and another, "Oh shit, their pet wolves must have found our scent!"

"Run!" Tyrier yelled as heavy footsteps could be heard coming from the rear. "GO!"

A dark green shape loomed up in Tyrier's night vision as he looked back, the eyes of the wolf flashed brightly like lamps and Tyrier's laser sights interset with the head of the wolf and he squeezed the trigger of the M2, the silenced pops of his weapon and flashes and the clouds of smoke, blocked his vision temporarily.

A yelp and several Orcish cries of surprise could be heard as the wolf flinched from the shots and crashed headlong into a tree, sending the riders on its back flying off like broken toys. The wolf sat down on his hind legs and shook its head, clearly dazed by the impact and Tyrier took the opportunity to switch to his shotgun and fired a couple of explosive shots at the wolf.

Tyrier turned and ran, knowing that there is one lesser wolf on the chase.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain, Marine Support Base

The whine of turboprop fans steadily grew louder and louder and the two Valkyries on the tarmac powered up their engines. The rear cargo ramp laid open and Sergeant James stood on the foot, waving at the Marines to board. "Come on! What's there to be afraid of? We did this in practice!"

"But Sarge! It was just a piece of wooden cutout!" Someone protested as they brunched up before the ramp. "You sure this metal bird can fly?"

James rolled his eyes, god, he kinda forgotten these guys never seen an aircraft before. "Don't worry, I am here inside with you!" He gestured to the other bird on the other side, "Look, section three and four have boarded, now all is left is you pussies!"

The brunched up Marines looked at each other and slowly one by one entered the belly of the beast. James shook his head and the crew chief just smiled and gave him a thumbs up before the ramp doors closed up.

"Alright, buckle in tight!" James yelled over the whine of the turbofans. "Check your weapons are not loaded! I do not want to have someone shoot a hole in this bucket and kill us all!"

The Marines hearing that quickly double checked themselves and their neighbors' weapons making sure no one is loaded. James smiled as he watched the elves panicking as the pilot lift off the bird, "Alright Marines! Do you want to live forever?"

-----

Uncharted Forest, Rally Point Alpha

Pops and barks of silenced gunfire erupted from the line of defense, Tyrier had his men hold. They conserved their shots, making sure each shot counted as the horde of Orcs charged towards them.

Without the night vision goggles of the Hundred and First, the Orcs could only blindly charge at where they believed the soft skins to be hiding at. The superiority of the weapons and training allowed team Claymore One to fight off an enemy hundred times their size.

The M2 Magespitter proofed to be very efficient in close quarters combat as the rate of fire of the weapon allowed Claymore One to down large groups of charging Orcs while Loke and Young sniped at the wolves with the M3 Magekiller, requiring one to three shots to bring down a wolf. When the Orcs rallied to attempt a charge into their lines, Hitsu and Doth will switch to the shotguns, firing explosive shots into their midst, tearing them to shreds.

"I am out!" Tavel shouted, dropping his M2 and drawing out his Single Action Dragon revolver, rapidly squeezing off five shots of 5mm into a blindly charging Orc in front of him, sending it toppling backward. "Reloading!"

"Here!" Tyrier tossed a magazine across to Tavel who fumbled for it in the dark. He himself switched to the shotgun and pump shot after shot at where the Orcs were concentrated. "Come on, where's the pickup?"

"Claymore One, this is Valkyrie One, inbound to your location in five mikes," A welcoming voice came into Tyrier's comms. "Heard you guys got some pest problems?"

"Valkyrie One, this is Claymore Actual, requesting immediate pickup! Area is hot! Repeat area is hot!" He yelled into his comms, craning his head up to look into the dark sky.

Not long the whine of engines could be heard in the distance, "Claymore One, keep your heads down, we got some presents for your friends!"

"What?" Tyrier was confused by that statement, "Oh shit," He then remembered from watching all those movies about helicopter pilots, "DANGER CLOSE! DANGER CLOSE!"

Several whooshes followed by loud clumps of explosions ripped through the forest directly in front of Claymore One, turning the night into day. "Say hello to my little friend!" Peter yelled as he hovered his bird over the rally point, his payload of 70 mm experimental rockets fired from twin rocket pods torn into the forest, setting it on fire.

The 70mm rocket's payload was a mixture of hydrogen, oxygen, aluminum and mana stone dust. Using an impact fuse of fire rune on the nose of the rockets, the thermobaric rockets worked similarly to a fuel-air bomb, which dispenses the aluminum and mana stone dust into the air before the hydrogen and oxygen mix ignites.

His wingman, Tommy staying on his station at 200 meters away, rippled fired a volley of rockets into a patch of the forest, sending huge balls of fire into the sky. "Valkyrie One to Two, I am dropping my cargo, cover me, over."

"Roger," Tommy, piloting Valkyrie Two, spun his bird on its axis and continued to ripple fire volley after volley of rockets into the night.

Valkyrie One turned, its back facing the direction of the Orcs and hovered over the clearing, dropping its tail ramp, and dozens of Marines jumped out and fanned out to form a security cordon.

They fired at the shell-shocked Orcs, who were backlit by the burning forest and balls of explosion raging behind them. Valkyrie Two also hovered over the clearing after One had cleared and dropped off the remaining Marines who reinforced the line, driving the Orcs back into the forest, screaming about dragons and fireballs.

90 - Earth Magic

Uncharted Forest, 1st Fallowfall Regiment of Swords Camp, The Duke's Own

"What is happening with the Oerkins?" Lord Sturm stood on top of an archery tower and glanced toward the Oerkin camp, seeing a large orange glow from the Oerkin camp direction. "How long was this ago?"

"Just after the ringing of the night bell, my Lord," The reporting soldier kneeled at the side.

Suddenly several large thunder cracks and balls of fire could be seen in the distance. Sturm braced himself as the ground shook slightly and looked with surprise at the rising flames.

"What in the thirteen hells is happening?" Sturm cried, "Send your men to find out!"

The soldier bowed and retreated down the ladder, and headed towards his subordinates.

Sturm frowned as he watched more flames bursting skywards followed by a slight ground tremor. Could it be the rebels are attacking? But from that direction? A new passage maybe? Multiple thoughts raced through Sturm's head as he analysis each possible scenario.

"We wasted more than a week here already and the Oerkins attacks are not progressing well enough," Sturm spoke to his officers behind him. "Prep your men for an all-out attack before the sun breaks, we will hit them in multiple places at once."

Sturm leaned on the parapet, the fire from the distance reflecting a mad glint in his eyes, "For the Empire!" he whispered.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base

The rear ramps of Valkyrie One slammed open, and the soldiers of Hundred and First ATI, stormed down the decks, each man holding on to the stretcher bearing one of their wounded.

Several medical personnel with a large red cross armband rushed up, pushing a trolley bed, taking over from the weary soldiers.

"He got mind farked!" Specialist Lance Corporal Young yelled over the scream of the turboprops. He was the team healer or medic as hoomans called them.

"What?" One of the hoomans medics looked at him in confusion. She was digging into her bag for tools and stuff like blood pressure monitor which Young managed to recognized from his first aid courses.

"He saw something he shouldn't have!" Young continued to yell over the rotors as they pushed Altied towards the medical tentage, "His brain couldn't handle the magical backlash."

"Oh," The female human with her name tag reading 'June' had her short hair tied up in a ponytail and a pair of stethoscope over her neck. "Ok, he goes into Trauma One!"

"I gave him a total of 20 CCs of tranq-shot, and hooked him up on IV fluid drip since yesterday evening," Young ran through all the medical aid he gave. "I also cast a Minor Recovery and Minor Dispel on him."

"Got it," June scribbled down the information on a pad hooked to the trolley. "Any physical trauma?"

"No, its only mental injury," Young replied, stopping the thick white curtains of the medical tentage.

"Don't worry," June assured, giving him a comforting smile as she and her team pushed Altied into the tent, "We will heal your friend."

"Ok, I just wait here." Young sat down next to a couple of Marine guards on duty at the medical center, who nodded respectfully to Young. Not long after sitting down, Young dozed off from exhaustion.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass Defense Command Center, The Pit

Major Frank smiled as the word came in that the Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention had landed successfully at the Marine Support Base at the rear of the lines.

The reports from the defending Marines haven't any sights of any undead. And the nightly attacks had ceased, allowing the defenders some rest.

He started clapping in the Pit, "Good work, people," he praised everyone as they paused their work and clapped along. The face of Specialist Sergeant Tyrier on the display screen gave a tired smile of satisfaction.

"Sir, we do have a single casualty from fighting the Necromancer," Tyrier reported, "He's currently in the Medical Center undergoing treatment."

Frank nodded, "Still, Claymore One has done an outstanding job, I am going to recommend the whole team for citations."

"Thank you, Sir," Tyrier gave a salute, "If there is nothing else, Sir, I need to attend to my men."

Frank smiled again, and returned the salute, "Tell your men good job, drinks will be on me."

The display connection cut after they both finished the conversation. Frank look at Pike who said, "Well, the Valkyries turned out to be a blessing in disguise."

Frank nodded, "Even the trial rockets are way above expectations. I am expecting at least half of the rockets to fail or even blow up in their pod launchers."

"Ya of little faith!" Pike grumbled. "I designed those things, they will work, one way or another. He grinned, "Now is to put it into mass production."

"So far our new weapons are working well enough to counter the enemy," Frank said, "I'm curious how they tame those wolves."

Just at this moment, a communications tech called, "Sir, incoming transmission from Command."

Frank nodded, "Put it on in the main screen."

The screen flickered and Captain Blake appeared before him. "Sir!" Frank and Pike saluted.

"At ease," Blake saluted back, "I like to give my congratulations on a successful mission. UAV shows no undead forces attacking the Pass, I hope the undead threat has been totally eradicated."

"Yes, Sir. We currently have no reports of any sightings of undead either," Frank replied.

Blake nodded in the screen, "The modified helos and rocket pods appeared to be also working very well."

Frank grinned, "Yes, way better than expected, I'm sure it will be a nasty surprise for the Empire when we unleash them."

"Good, this war is getting stupid," Blake sighed, "If we can overpower the shit out of them in one attack and end this siege, we will be in a better position to choose our next battle."

Frank nodded, if they can choose their battles, it definitely will give them more of an edge against the Empire.

"Sir, I am sure they will react after this morning's activities," Frank gave his assessment.

"Yes, I concur too, the ship's missiles batteries will be available on your request," Blake said, "but we only have so many missiles, try not to waste it on small fry."

"Yes, Sir and thank you, Sir!" Frank said, "I will also have the Valkyries to provide close-in air support."

Blake nodded, "As much as this fight is necessary, but if possible, like what Master Sergeant Pike had suggested, try to avoid killing the slave soldiers."

Frank gave a grimace, "It will be hard, Sir. From what we know, standard Empire tactics involves using their slave army as meat shields."

"They send them up to soak as much damage as possible, and keep the enemy pinned down while they more mobile units maneuver into a flank attack," Frank explained.

"At times, they also ignore their own slaves' troops and just trample or friendly fire them," Pike added. "Well, I would suggest using the Armed Forces Entertainment Service to blast propaganda to the slaves, you know, get them to surrender and deflect over all that shit."

Blake nodded, "I will speak with the Princess on this in the morning, brief your men on offering the slaves options to surrender."

"Yes Sir," Frank replied, "I will also get a place to securely hold the prisoners and screen them properly."

"Great! Now get some rest, it's nearly 0400 hours, and I'm sure the enemy will come up with something soon," Blake said.

-----

As the sky brightens slightly, thousands of Empire soldiers slowly crept closer to the Pass, their steel hobbled boots muffled by strips of cloth, and they gathered just at the edge of the forest with the grumpy Oerkins and waited for instructions.

Ninety-nine hooded mages in blue trench coats stood in the rear of the lines, they had drawn a massive magic formation among the trees, using precious materials like drops of dragon blood, mercury and enchanted silver for the formation.

Master Mage Dular stood directly in the middle of the spell formation next to a female wearing a dark blue hooded robe which highlighted her figure perfectly.

Two fully armored in blue and gold tones, the Emperor's Lifeguards flanked her by the side, their blank visors covered their faces fully with no eye slits to be seen.

Mage Dular nodded after a while as he inspected his men's work, "To your satisfaction, My Lady? He asked in a mocking tone to the female.

The witch ignored him, crouching down and using her forefinger and poked the markings on the ground. She nodded and stood back up and reminded quiet, casting a cold glaze at Dular, who smiled.

"Do your thing then," Dular said, "Or you can escape if you want?"

She looked away and Dular laughed, "Bring the slaves," He snapped his fingers, "Quickly now."

Three hundred downtrodden slaves of mixed ages and gender, secured together by ropes tied to their necks, were dragged and forced to kneel in specific locations within the magic formation. Three hundred soldiers accompanied them, standing behind with their hands on their sword hilts.

The witch closed her eyes and bowed her head slightly and her shoulders visibly shook, she took a deep breath and looked up, her silver eyes filled with anger and sadness as a magic circle expanded out from her, enveloping the formation.

Dular raised his hand and chopped down, timing it just as the witch finished her enchantment. The three hundred soldiers drew their swords as one and chopped down, cutting off the screams and cries of the bound and kneeling slaves.

Blood fountained out, and as the blood touched the lines of the magic formation, the formation glowed brighter and brighter as it absorbed the blood.

Dular felt goosebumps raising all over his body as the air crackled with energy, and he started to laugh madly, enjoying the feeling of raw power building up in the area. "NOW!" he screamed at his men, who stood in a line, raised their hands up and chanted a spell.

The magic formation glowed brightly, lighting up the forest, and suddenly a massive earthquake erupted, the ground rumbled and shook, and the earth moved, rising higher and higher, uprooting trees along its way before slamming directly against the vertical cliff walls of the Mountain, creating a ramp up, large enough for a dozen land dragons to walk side by side.

The landscape had changed, and a new gentle slope had raised up directly against the Wall of the Pass, just as the first rays of sunlight cut over the peaks of the Mountain.

-----

Sawtooth Pass, Wall Alpha

The rumbling and shaking of the land woke Mills up from his sleep, he kneeled on all fours, wondering what the hell is going go. "An earthquake?"

"Corporal!" One of his men yelled, one hand holding onto his helmet as cracks appeared in the concrete walls, and concrete dust dribbled down from the ceilings.

"Look!" The Marine pointed out of the firing slits where the sky was brightening. Mills pushed himself up, balancing himself against the wall as the ground continued to roll and sway under his feet.

He leaned against the firing slit and looked out, his mouth dropping as he saw the earth climbing up against the cliff wall unnaturally. The earth pushed and rise up like water, before hardening and forming a gentle slope about a kilometer long down the side of the cliff.

"What the fuck?" He rubbed eyes and stared out again, the shaking of the ground slowly stopped but the huge stretch of land appearing in front of him made him wonder if he has gone insane from too little sleep.

Hundreds and hundreds of tiny figures could be seen forming up the slope edge as Mills continued to stare. A whistle went off, and the public announcement system blared, "Stand to, stand to! This is not a drill, I repeat, this is not a drill!" before rock and roll music continued playing.

"Fuck!" Mills yelled, gaining back his senses. "It's an all-out attack! FUCKING HACKERS!"

91 - Anti Dragon Warfare

Urka looked on grumpily as he stood with the members of his clan at the rear, watching the thousands of Empire climbing up the slope under the cover of smoke clouds cast by the Imperial Mages.

He hawked and spat at the side, the soft skin Big Lord has told him to get out of the way. Urka.never had been disgraced and humiliated so badly before. He wondered how he had to answer to his clan for his failures when he returns with his defeated band.

Should he ignore the Big Lord orders and charge in alongside the soft skins? Maybe he could still salvage some credit for the battle still? Yet his pride would not allow him to do that, "Break camp, we return home!" he gave his command to his warriors.

-----

Lord Sturm stood on top of a viewing platform, constructed at the rear, allowing him to see the whole battlefield. He glanced at the retreating Oerkins, and snorted useless beasts. He had thought that he could use them as shock troopers in the front but they turned out weaker than expected.

Ignoring them, Sturm turned his attention to the developing battle, watching his men close up in good order, overlapping their shields as they used the cover of smoke to advance up.

The crossbow regiment followed tightly behind the shields, while the Lancers stayed out of sight, waiting for an opportunity to strike. In the front, a huge ramble of slaves armed with low-quality weapons and junk armor raced up the slope, knowing that by moving fast, they have a better chance of survival.

"What is that heathen sounding noise coming from the walls?" Sturm asked, hearing some unfamiliar music coming from the walls.

"My Lord," One of his lackeys responded, "It is some kind of music the rebels had been playing lately."

Sturm raised his eyebrows in surprise, straining his ears to throw to catch the music, but with the roar of the battle and shouts of thousands of men, he couldn't really catch the tune.

"Oh whatever," Sturm looked at his troops' position. "It is almost time. Signal the Sky Knights to begin their assault."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Wall Alpha.

Mills aimed his Magelock at the dark cloud of smoke in front of him, gauging roughly where the enemy will be and fired. "Damn, how I wish we had some artillery support!"

The loudspeakers were blasting AC/DC's Thunderstruck, which to Mills felt it was oddly appropriate. "Alright, ignore the slaves, go for the Blue Boys!" Mills yelled over the music and gunfire as the slaves emerged out from the smoke, charging with ladders to the walls.

The slaves who carried the siege ladders clambered over the obstacles such as barbwires and planted the feet of the ladder down firmly against the ground in front of the walls.

They climbed up rapidly, only to find that there was no parapet at the top of the walls. A smooth, rounded roof greeted them, and they couldn't find any way to climb or walk on the rounded surface.

Major Frank frowned as he watched the slaves milling in confusion at the roof of the wall, as they could neither advance or retreat. Already a few had slipped off and fallen to their deaths from losing their footing.

"Damn, what kind of magic is that that can terraform the earth?" Frank sighed. "Fucking cheaters."

"No such thing as cheating in war, Sir," Master Sergeant Pike spoke up. "I wonder how much energy is needed for a magic that large scale."

"Thought you hated them magic?" Frank teased, "Didn't you get a headache every time they used magic that acts against nature?"

"Marines learn to adapt and improvise," Pike responded, "We get better and better at killing things!"

"Sir, radar is picking up multiple bogies in the air." A tech reported from his station. "Distance 2070 meters and closing in."

"Do we have visual?" Frank asked, turning serious.

The tech played with the controls and a UAV visual feed appeared, numerous black dots in the sky could be seen, and as the image zoomed in, they enlarged to become huge winged lizards and dozens of smaller ones.

"Damn, they have so much flying dragons?" Pike cursed. "I thought they were quite rare?"

"It's probably all they had left," Frank replied. "Seems like they are planning to airdrop troops behind the walls, judging by the number of soldiers on board the dragons"

Dozens of soldiers could be seen, riding in special harnesses, strapped to the sides and the back of the dragons. "I count about forty plus aboard each dragon," Pike said. "Ten large dragons, and roughly fifty or more smaller ones. Those look like escorts or skirmishers."

"Say forty troops not counting the dragon crew, ten of those means around 400 soldiers," Frank calculated. "Most likely all are veterans or Knight class warriors."

"Let's just shoot them down while they are still some distance away," Pike suggested. "Looking at their flight path, they would be passing north of us and most likely will swing in and land at our rear."

"Missiles or railguns?" Frank rubbed his chin as he debated between the two weapons. "I suspect they probably have some kind of magical shielding, they must have learned from the previous time."

Pike nodded, "One thing is for sure, they ain't stupid for some low tech pukes."

"Railguns than, we can afford the ammo," Frank grinned wickedly. "Direct Guns One and Two to engage the transport dragons."

Pike shook his head at Frank's gleeful expression. "You just wanna play with the new toys."

"Hey, its been down for servicing for so long," Frank argue his point, "Now it is its trial under fire."

-----

The two modified Mitsubishi XLM 5 megawatts Point Defense Laser turrets, which was salvaged and turned rail gun emplacements, finally had the chance to prove its worth. After weeks of tampering and redesigns, it was finally able to be fired in anger.

The gun loader manually slammed in the 105mm discarding sabot anti-dragon shot into the chamber of the railgun and turning the chamber hatch shut. "Ready!" The loader yelled.

The gunner peered through his gun sights, and the gun laying system calculated distance and heading, using the fire-control radar which displayed the information on the target's azimuth, elevation, range and range rate on the targeting screen.

The gunner laid the sights over the predicted dots and squeezed the butterfly trigger, and a dull thump echoed within the turret followed by the whine of the electromagnets discharging the build up static electricity.

Gun Two fired a second later, and five seconds later, Gun One fired again, followed by Two, again and again.

The kinetic energy penetrator exited the railgun barrel at a velocity of 3,675 m/s, the crack of its passage through the air caused shockwaves as it ripped through the air causing a sonic boom.

The penetrator rod fired from Gun One flew directly at the center of mass of the leading dragon, and a magic circle appeared just before it impacted the dragon. A shockwave erupted from the kinetic energy given off by the penetrator and the magic shield flickered. Five seconds later, a second sabot slammed into the shield again, followed by another five seconds later.

The magic shield fractured and exploded as the third penetrator rod slammed into it, and the crew of the dragon panicked, they made the dragon dive down to dodge the attacks but was too late as the fourth armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot clipped the hindquarters of the dragon, despite a glancing hit, the kinetic energy imparted, rent off the dragon's rear legs and tail, effecting a dying screaming from the beast and sending it into a death spiral to the ground.

A second dragon exploded into chunks of meat and broken bodies of the soldiers onboard as its magic shields failed, and the remaining eight dragons including the confused escorts scattered, diving for cover and taking evasion maneuvers.

The gunner tracked the diving dragons, the turret servos traversed the turret at 100 degrees per second, and the gunner fired when the lock on tone beeped.

In less than five minutes, all the ready ammunition of armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot or APFSDS were used up, and the loader scrambled out of the turret, screaming at the nearby support crew to bring more APFSDS up.

The crew piloting the dragons took the opportunity in the lull to close the distance over the mountain, planning to use the mountain as cover. The smaller dragons couldn't fly that high, instead, they hug as close to the terrain as possible, aiming for the Pass directly.

Gunner/Commander Newt of Gun One whooped with satisfaction as he saw his shots took down two of the large dragons, he used to be a ballista operator back in the day of the Goldrose Army. He yelled to his loader who was busy dragging in bundles of APDSDS shots from a support crew outside the hatch. "Hey, Taki, just load the canisters shots first, the smaller dragons are almost onto us!"

The loader, Taki yelled, "Argh we need more space for ammo and maybe another loader!" He hoisted the bundle of three penetrator rods onto the inside of the turret and lifted up a large canister from the ammo racks. He shoved the canister into the mouth of the gun chamber and closed the breach, yelling, "LOADED!"

A high pitch whine followed by a chest pounding thud could be felt, and the canister containing 1150 lead balls dispersed out upon exiting the muzzle at 1710 m/s, like a giant shotgun, swatting off several of the smaller dragons as they attempted to close in over the mountain tops. The rest scattered, some keeping as low to the ridgeline, while others went as low as the treetops, trying to dodge from the 'deadly bee magic'.

"LOADED!" Taki yelled again, as he reached for another canister shot. The gun whined and thumped, spitting out its load of grapeshot, sending another bunch of dragons spiraling down. Despite both guns best efforts to shoot down the dragons, dozens slipped pass, their crews threw firebombs down, setting the Pass defensives on fire.

Thick black smoke billowed out from the incendiaries within the Pass, the smoke providing cover for the larger dragons to glide in closer to land their cargo. One of the larger dragons flared its wing as it attempted to reduce speed and land directly in the middle of the two walls, ate a shotgun blast directly from Gun Two. Its body parts and blood painted the entire courtyard and wall dark red with stinky blood and guts.

The remaining six heavy dragons spread out, some landing on the roofs of concrete structures, others just crash landed, spilling their live cargo out like toys. The Marines took the opportunity while the Empire soldiers were recovering from the landings, rapidly fired their Magelocks, creating a killing zone. The dragons spread their body and wings as wide as possible to protect the men, soaking up the bullets and crying tears of pain.

-----

Frank cursed, "Alright, tell the Valkryies we need close air support now! Get them to hit the front of the walls, don't let the enemy pile up at the gates!" He gave his commands to the communication operator who nodded and started speaking urgently into the boom mic.

"They are inside the compound," Pike reported, "So far the boys at Beta are pinning them down, but sooner or later, they gonna cast some shitty spells and break out."

"Send in the Hundred and First," Frank decided after considering that they might be facing Knights class soldiers. "Have the Marines on site support them."

Pike nodded and headed towards the exit, "I am going out for some air, it's getting stuffy as hell in here."

"Go get some for me," Frank grinned, "And don't buy the farm yet, I still got tons of paperwork waiting on your desk!"

"With all respect, Sir, fuck paperwork! I rather die!"

92 - All Out Attack

Sparks and smoke exploded against the gleaming dome of a Level 4 magic shield covering the Third Fallowfall Regiment of Swords. Commander Elosen dressed in his blue ornate armor, waved his heirloom sword yelling encouragement to his three thousand men. "Advance! Our mages' spell Protection will protect us from their weak magic! Just another 400 paces away!"

The Third Regiment of Swords carried shields and short stabbing swords as standard gear, they were a veteran regiment, fighting in several wars and trained to the highest Imperial standard. Their tactics were to storm up to the enemy in a tight wall of shields and hammer into them, the second line will use their short stabbing swords to stab at any exposed body parts, feet, arms, faces etc. Working like mechanical clockwork soldiers, they grind their enemy down bit by bit and so far no other army was their rival. Their morale was high as they marched in step, shields locked together and followed their commander to victory.

The Regiment's mages held their staves tightly, their faces white and sweating from the effort of holding the Level 4 Protection spell. Each impact against the shield drains some power from them and there is a lot of damage being dealt with the shields as evidenced by the constant sparks exploding on the surface of the shield.

The Third finally exited the cover of the magical smoke and emerged within full view of the Wall, less than a 100 paces away. Elosen's pride swelled as his Regiment will be the first to scale the walls, ignoring the fact that the slave army had already arrived way before him.

He raised his sword and pointed directly at the Wall and roared, "CHARGE! FOR THE EMPIRE!" And the whole world around him exploded.

-----

Skies over Sawtooth Mountain

Flight lieutenant Peter, whooped with glee as he pulled up from a strafing run. "Valkyrie One to Two, did you catch that?"

His Valkyrie dived down over the side of the mountains directly from the flanks just as he spotted a huge perfect infantry square marched out of the cover of the smoke directly in front of the Wall. He gave them a good strafe with a dozen rockets directly in their flanks.

He pulled up and jinked his bird hard as an Empire dragon nearly rammed into him. "Woo that was close," Peter said to himself. The air was thick with Empire dragons and lead from the gun turrets which were blasting away at the highly agile flying reptiles.

Without guns onboard the Valkyries, Peter and Tommy focused on rocketing the enemy infantry, ignoring the dragons. His Valkyrie shook wildly as an Empire dragon somehow managed to latch on his bird. Warning alerts beeped and blared, as he twisted his head back and fore, trying to locate where that dragon has grabbed on to.

"It's on your port wing stabilizers!" Tommy's voice came through the warning sirens. "Directly behind your rocket pods!"

"Oh, you wanna play?" Peter grinned, ignoring the warning alerts. "Let's see if you can handle this!"

He tilted his bird downwards and looped towards the battlefield, lining up for a strafing run. Pushing his head against the armored sapphire crystal canopy, he grinned and squeezed the trigger, firing off a salvo of rockets.

The Empire dragon with its rider gripped tightly onto the weld on stabilizer wings, with the rider using its javelin trying to pierce the magic beast hide while the dragon tried to bite chunks off the beast. But to both the dragon and its rider surprise, the 'hide' of the beast appeared to be made of metal when suddenly the three roundish pods erupted in flames, torching the dragon and burning the face of the rider off.

The dragon fell off with a bird-like cry, as it death spiraled down the air, its wings folding as it slammed down into the battlefield, shattering a company of infantry.

"Woot! First air to air kill! A few more and I am an Ace!" Peter crackled wildly as he looped back his ship, and fired off his remaining rockets, "Valkyrie One, Bingo on ammo, RTB."

"Thunderchief, Roger, watch the skies, forecast today is heavy with dragons and lead."

Peter laughed as he pulled his Valkyrie away from the battlefield in full speed, ignoring the few Empire dragons that attempted to tangle with him.

-----

Sturm hammered the wooden railing and cursed loudly as he watched the black flying creature rain dragon fire on his troops as they finally reached the walls. "Signal the Dragons Corps to focus on taking those two creatures down!" He gave his order to his runner who ran off to the signal flags.

The 17th, 18th, 25th, 26th, and 32nd Imperial Dragon Corps weaved through the clouds of grapeshot and smoke, the dragon crews lobbing flasks of alchemist fire directly at the walls as they flew past. The Empire classified dragons into three categories, light, medium and heavyweight class.

Under 10 tons, lightweights such as the Yellow Swift Wings, mostly function as couriers or the blue colored Lightning worked mainly as rapid passenger transports, While the medium and heavy weights dragons are mostly used for combat doth some were used to transport personnel or goods too.

Medium weights were classed between 10 to 30 tons, were mostly rode by a single bonded rider or with a crew up to four, depending on the breed. The Empire used mostly domesticated Silver Wings named for their silver scales which weight over 12 tons, were renowned for their speed and agility, requiring a single dragon rider to pilot them. The rider normally uses a light crossbow or javelins as their weapons of choice.

The other commonly used medium weight dragon was the Razorback, average weighting around 20 tons, with black and gold scales, and a spiked spine It can carry a crew of up to four and its bonded rider, tho normally a crew of two was used, to reduce the total weight. The crew mostly worked as crossbowmen or as grenadiers, throwing firebombs.

Heavyweight dragons are slightly special, as most heavyweight breeds have breathe abilities, like spitting or breathing fire, acid, lightning or even blasts of compressed air.

The Empire had successfully breed its own fire-breathing heavyweights called Spitfires, weighing on average, 32 tons, with a wingspan of over 15 meters, a body length from head to tail at 22 meters and their scales are a mix of dark blue and dark crimson. Crews of up to a dozen typically served on board with the dragon with its bonded rider or Captain.

The Empire Spitfires wore specially woven baskets and harnesses that allowed the crew to move around the dragon during flight. They can carry ordnance like firebombs to rocks for bombings fortifications.

The heavyweights that did not manifest any special abilities were negated to beasts of burden roles or as troop transports. It allowed the Empire to rapidly deploy its soldiers and move supplies rapidly over vast distances.

An Imperial Dragon Corps consists of twenty mediums and two heavies, and for this battle, Sturm had committed five Imperial Dragon Corps.

Raising his eyeglass, he watched the battlefield, seeing the Third Regiment decimated while the First and Second got hammered by dragon fire despite having Protection spells. "Order the ballistas to load the Dragonlances, a reward of a hundred gold coins for the crew who brings down the rebel's flying beasts."

"Order the left flank to push up and support the assault in the middle," Sturm continuing giving orders as he observed the battlefield. "Have the siege engines brought up, make sure more smoke is cast to cover their approach to the gate!"

The giant siege engines were towed by two heavily armored land dragons. Massive plates of metal and leather covered all the vulnerable areas of the land dragons as advanced up the slope pulling the giant 'door knocker' siege engine. A massive wooden construct designed to destroy walls or gates. Runes and enchantments covered the whole body of the siege engine and hundreds of crews piled up alongside the construct, riding along.

As the massive siege engines approached the gates, a sudden flash of light erupted directly on one of the siege engines followed by another on the second siege engine. Sturm cried out in surprise as the light seared into his eye. He fell back, rubbing his eyes as his guards quickly surrounded him.

As Sturm recovered his eyesight, he looked back at the pass, seeing the burning remains of the two siege engines and the collapsed dying land dragons, which effectively blocked most of the approaches to the gate. "Damn, those rebels! Where did they get such powerful spells!"

"Get the witch here, I want that wall taken down now!" Sturm yelled at his frightened runners. "Once the walls are down, I want the Lancers to push full force in."

"But my lord, the auxiliary slave army is still at the forefront of the battle," One of his lackeys pointed out, "Are we going to... ?"

"Why? You care for those slaves?" Sturm glared at the lackey who spoken, "Than why not you join them at the front too?"

"Eh, no my Lord, I didn't mean that," The lackey bowed his head down and tried to keep himself as small as possible.

"Enough of this nonsense, I want the Witch to destroy those walls now!" Sturm commanded, "I want the Imperial flag raised up by noon!"

Not long, the Witch was escorted up to the viewing platform with Mage Dular following behind. "Great, I want that wall destroyed now," Sturm went straight to the point.

"That is impossible, it is protected by several enchantments and spells," The Witch immediately said, staring at the walls.

"How about the Mountain walls?" Sturm asked, standing next to the Witch and watching the battle. "Can you collapse the mountain?"

The Witch laughed merrily, and asked, "How many lives are you willing to sacrifice? A thousand? Two thousand?"

Sturm's face turned red as he reeled in his anger. "Don't play games with me, Witch!"

The Witch stopped laughing and her face turned serious, "To make the ancient mountain move, will require far more magic than ever. Even if you sacrifice thousands of lives, it might not even be enough!" She gestured at the imposing peaks, "They have been here for thousands of years, the amount of magic has seeped right into their very fabric of existence. And you, just a man, wants to command the ancients to do your bidding?"

She laughed again, "Using the topsoil of the surrounding area to create a way up to the walls is already going against the natural order of things. Now you want to move mountains?" She sneered at Sturm.

Sturm angrily backhanded the Witch, his ring scratched across her face, causing a trickle of blood to flow freely down. "Enough! You are here to help, so help! Or my report back to the Emperor will not be so good for your people!"

The Witch straightened up, ignoring the blood flowing down her cheek. The slap had knocked her hood off, and her thick long silver hair flowed out. Her silver eyes glared daggers at Sturm's threat and she took a deep breathe, calming her anger down. "The next best thing I can do is create land bridges over the walls." She said after calming down. "The rest is up to your men, I can only do so much."

Sturm nodded, admiring at the Witch's beauty, "Dular, bring her and prepare the materials needed for the spells to be cast."

"Yes my Lord," Mage Dular bowed, before gripping her forearm and pulling her back down the tower.

"Get the battle mages to bombard the walls with fire, I want the walls to burn," Sturm ordered to his runners, "And get the rest of the regiments to advance when the Witch's spell is cast." Sturm glanced at the skies where the dragons circled and dive bomb the area behind the walls.

"All forces are to make an all-out attack! NO MERCY!"

93 - The Witch

Balls of rising flames, billowing smoke and cracks of thunder could be seen and heard coming from the Walls. The cries of the wounded and dying echoed down the mountain pass, as the Witch escorted by her two handlers strolled without a care, walking up the gentle slope leading up to the Pass. As before, she has experienced many such battle scenes, except normally these scenes were reserved for large cities walls or huge fortifications.

The death cry of a Silverwing dragon screamed passed her head, its wings filled with gaping holes. Crunching as it slammed neck down first, its bones breaking and its bonded rider and crew crushed under its weight and speed of the fall. Mage Dular whistled as he watched the dragon crashed, looking intently at the twitching carcass with rapt fascination as he followed the Witch and her handlers.

"Have you ever wonder how something so large and heavy could fly?" Dular cheerfully asked, seemingly obvious to the chaos and bloodshed around them. The Witch ignored his question and continuing climbing the slope.

A Regiment of Spears parted way for them as they approached from their rear, the regiment's Imperial battle standard, a long staff, topped off with a figure of a diving dragon clutching spears with the letterings of figure nine, showed them that this was the 9th Fallowfall Regiment of Spears. The figure of the diving dragon was the crest of the Duke of Fallowfall.

Dular cheerfully greeted the soldiers, who stared back at them with dull eyes and grim faces. "Hurry along now, won't want to miss all the fun, yes?"

They exited the regimental lines and stood about 300 paces away, roughly 150 meters in human measurements and stared at the walls wreathed in smoke. The approaches to the main gate were blocked by two shattered frames of the monstrous 'Door Knocker' siege engines, flames licking out from the wreckages as the fire consumed the construct. The four dead land dragons, their hearts, and eardrums ruptured from the close approximation of the two spells explosions laid at where they had fallen over.

Dozens of slaves soldiers and Imperial troops huddled behind the massive carcasses as they took cover from the spells raining around them, ignoring the scorching heat from the burning constructs behind them. "Alright, do your thing now." Dular gave a theatrical bow to the Witch, gesturing with his hands as if inviting her for a ballroom dance.

She flinched slightly as a whizz buzzed over her head, making her instinctively ducked, but she recovered quickly and saw a 9th Regiment of Spears soldier behind her suddenly keel over and vomited blood, dying as he laid there, his companions started to drag him off to the rear and another spearman stood over in his place.

She looked at the featureless face masks of the two Imperial Lifeguards, both watching her without any movements or feelings and looked at Dular who stood watching her with a weird sicko smile. She felt very tired of all the fighting and killing suddenly, and the burden of protecting her people from the Empire weighting her very soul down to the thirteen hells.

If she died, her burden would be someone else, should she be selfish and wish for death? She looked at the trail of blood underneath the 9th Regiment, it looked some simple, just a spell from nowhere and she will be free of this life. She turned and looked at the walls, willing for one of the defenders to direct his magic at her, to kill her. And as if the Gods had granted her wish, suddenly the two Lifeguards leaped into action, one of them rising his shield, blocking a spell from hitting her. The loud clank of metal impacting and the force of the spell sent the Lifeguard sliding on his feet backward for several paces, before recovering while the other hunched over his shield, covering himself and the Witch with it.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"What the FUCK!" Corporal Drake jerked his head back as he blinked his eyes in astonishment. "Where did that came from?"

"He blocked your shot with his shield!' Private Kont explained, "He's good, very powerful too."

"Are you praising your enemy here?" Drake cursed as he ejected the spent cartridge from his M3 Magekiller. "That's some fucking OP equipment he has!"

"They appeared to be protectors of that female," Kont peered in his bino, "Great reflexes and intuition too. They don't know where we are, and of course, they retreated."

"Damn, I was planning on round two with them," Drake worked his M3 anti-material rifle's smoothly oiled bolt, chambering a new round into the breach. "Come on, don't think you can hide in the group of low leveled minions!"

"There, you see her? The silver head, center, fourth file from the front, behind the shields. 430 meters."

"Got her," Drake whispered, his scope aimed directly at her pretty head. He held he breathe, listening to Kont give the command and wind direction and was about to squeeze the trigger when she turned her head up and looked directly at him and smiled before closing her eyes.

"What the fuck?" Drake whispered as he worked his bolt again, sending the empty cartridge spinning out.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 150 meters in front of the Gate

The Witch sensed rather than saw the killing intent coming directly at her from a great distance. She looked up and in her mind's eye, she saw a man, with very short ears, lying prone, holding a huge long tube-like object, pointing directly at her and she knew at that moment, her time has come. She smiled at the man, thanking him in her heart for releasing her and closed her eyes, waiting for the spell to come.

Instead, she heard and felt a blast of wind, followed by a loud metallic clank again, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw the Lifeguard that blocked the spell earlier, lying clumped up in a mess of blood on a pile of 9th Regiment soldiers, missing his left shoulder. She looked surprised and spun around looking at the distance where the strange short-eared man was, wondering why didn't he kill her.

Before she could think of anything else, another loud clank and the second Lifeguard slipped backward, his shield heavily dented and deformed. The Lifeguard looked stunned, as he recovered and then his upper torso blew up. The few soldiers directly behind him also suffered the same fate, exploding into bits of meat and blood flew everywhere.

Despite seeing many battlefields, this was the first time she saw someone or lots of people exploding directly in front of her and she vomited out the acidic juices from her empty stomach, some of the weaker-willed soldiers also vomited or even started to retreat, citing angry commands from their officers and sergeants.

Dular laughed, his eyes crazed as he stood over the mangled body of the Lifeguard. "Wow, I want this spell so much!" He crouched down, poking at the gory remains of the body.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"Target in the open, 420 meters." Kont looking at the scene with his bino. "Good kill on those two tough sons of bitches."

"No, leave her." Drake tilted his sights up, looking at the Nazi looking elf crouching over the dead body. "I want that mage."

'Why didn't you shoot that silvered hair, girl?" Kont pressed, as he adjusted his binoculars.

"I am not sure, she looked at me in the eye and was ready to die," Drake confessed, "I just couldn't shoot her then."

Kont raised his eyebrows, turning to look at Drake and teased, "Someone's in love?"

Drake rolled his eyes, "Yeah right, serious time. let's kill something then we talk later."

"Hahaha, sure!" Kont sniggered as he returned to his task, "Alright, Target in the center of the infantry square..."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 150 meters in front of the Gate

The Witch stared at the chaos happening around her, and made a decision, she will escape the bonds of the Empire and fight them to death. With her powerful magic, she was sure she could deal a huge blow to their forces.

Another buzz blew by her head and she turned her head just in time to see Dular flew back several paces, his mouth in an 'O' shape, surprise in his face as half his lower half body was blown away by a powerful spell.

The soldiers looked with confusion and fear at the scene, their morale dropping rapidly as they watch one after another, high leveled fighters and mage getting killed from nowhere.

The Witch suddenly went down on one knee, her right palm pressed against the rocky floor. And a magic circle expanded out, her lips rapidly chanting a spell and suddenly jagged spikes burst out from around her, ripping into the men of the 9th Regiment.

Cries and screams rang out, as bodies were pierced by razor sharp rock spikes. "Kill her!" An officer in the 9th screamed, pointing his sword in her direction. The men finally having a target to focus all their pent-up fear, confusing and anger, roared out a war cry and charged past her spikes, their spears stabbing at her.

She slammed her left palm down, and another magic circle expanded out, and a stone wall punched out, slamming against the frontmost soldiers, denting their plate mail and breaking bones and internal organs from the force.

They crumpled down, blood streaming out of their mouths, drowning in their own blood and fluids. The rest of the men stood back, stunned by the attack. The Witch wasted no time, throwing another blast of Stone Spikes, impaling dozens of men with her attack.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Sniper Tower Beta

"Oooo, I am starting to like your girlfriend," Kont joked as he watched the battle. "Ow! That got to hurt!"

"Shut your trap about what girlfriend shit," Drake yelled, "She turned against the Empire, she must be an ally."

"I know right?" Kont gave Drake a wink, nudging his eyebrows, and laughed at Drake's expression. "Alright, let's save your girlfriend."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, 130 meters in front of the Gate

She was getting exhausted, taking deep breaths while wiping the sweat off her head. Her silver hair, stuck wildly all over her forehead, making her wish she had cut it short.

She stepped back, dodging another low-level Fireball thrown at her from the 9th Regiment support Mages and the remaining Battle Mages from Dular's company.

Kicking up a shower of pebbles, she quickly cast a spell on the fly, turning the pebbles into spikes, sending them flying into the raised shields of the 9th. Three meters long ax spears stabbed at her from all directions, wounding her everywhere, casting blood to stain her dust covered robes.

This is where I fall, she thought to herself. Dodging backward, she clapping her palms together and started a chant, pouring all her remaining mana into the spell. Just as she was about to finish the spell, a fireball slammed into her, sending her toppling backward, her magic shield flickering away as it deflected the spell.

She looked up to see a semi-circle of shields and ax spearheads facing her. She closed her eyes, waiting for the end to come when a wet slap and something splat against her face. Opening her eyes and rubbing the wetness on her face, fingers came away red with blood.

She then noticed the soldiers stepping back, their shields raised up warily, on the guard against something. Another soldier blew up, and his unfortunate companions behind joined him in painting the scene red with gore.

An officer screamed something which she could not catch, and his head and helmet flew off, his upper torso exploding, bits of metal and meat flying backward, and the 9th broke. Some dropped their shields and spears, lightening themselves so they can run away faster. Another Officer yelled for them to stop, only to join the fate of so many others in exploding into a bloody mess.

She laid back on her back, feeling the wounds and mana burn creeping up on her. She smiled, wonder who was the rebel mage that saved her, was it that stranger with the short ears, before she lost consciousness.

94 - 26th Imperial Dragon Corps

York of Tression was a young man inspiring to be a Dragon Rider when he grew up. He ran away from his village of Tression, stowed away on one of the river barges, before jumping off and swimming ashore, reaching the Dragon Fortress, where dragons were bred by the Empire and where Dragon Riders are born.

To be bonded with a dragon, it mostly involved luck and of course influence and money. For a penniless youngster with just his clothes on his back, he couldn't bribe his way past the dragon handlers. The young dragon hatchlings bonded the easiest during this period, thus many noble families sent their scions to be selected, presenting themselves to the best dragon breeds to be bonded.

He managed to be picked up an Imperial recruiter, looking for adventurous and brave young men to fly as part of a dragon crew. York signed up immediately, earning a single gold coin as a signing bonus, which he spent on a pair of boots and a short dagger.

Earlier, he clung tightly to the rope nettings secured around the belly of the dragon. The wind screaming in his ears, his eyes protected by Imperial issued, crystal goggles. He and his fellow crew mates of eight others sat in baskets on the side belly of the heavyweight dragon called, Blue Thunder, with another forty odd heavily armed and armored fierce looking soldiers.

At an age of twelve, Blue Thunder was still a baby considered by ages of dragons. A typical dragon of the Spitfire dragon breed can live up till a hundred and ninety years.

Yet Blue Thunder was fully grown, its.head to tail measured at 23 meters and a with a wingspan of 16 meters. The Dragon Rider or Captain Qon as the crew called him, was the son of some noble whose father bribed his way into been selected to enter the hatchery.

Captain Qon was just fifteen years old when he bonded with the two-year-old Spitfire hatchling and named him Blue Thunder from his thunderous roars and color of its scales. They lived and trained together for nine years before recruiting a crew and further training together with the crew for another year.

York remembered the months of running and climbing in the cold mountain air, their trainers wanting them to get used to the cold air and high attitudes. Now they were flying into battle, freshly joined the 26th Imperial Dragon Corps a few months back.

His crewmate consisted of him as part of a four-man rigger team, in charge of securing the nets and rigging, which constantly got loose by the stress of flying and maneuvers. A Sergeant at Arms, in charge of the four gunners who carried heavy crossbows, the navigator in charge of finding their way, a lieutenant as the second officer and finally Captain Qon.

York was excited at the prospect of going into battle at the start as were the whole crew. Captain Qon even bought them drinks back then. Now Captain Qon face was white with fear, and Lieutenant Fowl was gone. One moment he was yelling something at them, the other he was just gone. Some of the fierce looking soldiers that sat at the passenger harnesses at the back and sides of the dragon were also missing, the netting and rigging were torn or loosen during the stress of the mad dive and dodging maneuvers.

Somebody shouted and pointed, York turned and looked, his eyes widening in horror as the right wing of Blue Thunder was ripped and torn, gaping holes appearing in the wing membrane.

York turned and looked at the dragon which breathing appeared to be laboring. He then noticed several bleed cracks in its flank scales and some of the soldiers strapped to the side had body parts like arms or legs missing and appeared to be dead or dying.

The past ten minutes was like a ride through the thirteen hells. Their wing dragon, a senior heavyweight Spitfire called Ravager, suddenly stalled in the air, it's magic barrier artifact specially prepared for this mission, shattered and while everyone was wondering what happened another heavyweight dragon suffered the same situation.

When it happened again, everyone realized that it was a long-range magic attack. The flag dragon roared out, commanding the rest of the dragons to scatter from the formation and take evasive maneuvers. But it was too late for the 26th Imperial Dragon Corps's Ravager.

Something hit its back spine, tearing its tail and a large part of its hindquarters out, spraying hot dragon blood across the sky. Everyone was shocked and the next ten minutes was hell. Every dragon took flight in several directions, but still, another heavyweight was hit by a spell, sending them crashing down.

Then suddenly a sound like hundreds of bees buzzing passed them loudly and when York looked around, they were already in this situation.

He prayed, hoping that this nightmare would come to an end, remembering his parent's words forbidding him to ever join the army or the dragon corps. He wished he had never run away from home then, a dark stain appearing in his pants as Blue Thunder slowly tilt over and spiral downwards, and those still alive started screaming.

-----

York slowly opened his eyes. He felt like he had been hammered by a Troll followed by an Oerkin. He slowly tried to sit up but found himself dangling at the side of something scaly. His mind slowly refocused and he slowly remembered Blue Thunder crashing.

The hammering sounds slowly became roars of thunder, and he found himself in the middle of a courtyard surrounded by bodies and bits and parts of things he didn't want to find out what they belong to. He tried to unbuckle himself down, but his weight was pressing against the buckle, so he used his dagger and sawed against the leather, slowly parting it and falling down a short distance to the hard surface.

Moaning in pain, he pushed himself against Blue Thunder and rested. The constant loud roars of thunder increased his headache. As he closed his eyes against Blue Thunder resting, suddenly someone crouched next to him. He looked up and found a fierce looking soldier with scars all over his face next to him.

"What happened?" York asked timidly. "Where are we?"

"Boy, we are in the middle of the nest of rebels," The veteran smiled, "Just where we wanted to go."

Did Blue Thunder landed them at their objective? York reached out and patted the hard scales of the dragon. "Good work, Blue. You have done well."

"Yeah, that's all good and touching. Now, this thing is the only thing keeping us alive from those cursed thunder spells," The veteran said, his head looking at all directions constantly. "We need to move, boy, or when those cursed rebels come around with those bloody thunder spells we will die here."

York groaned as he tried to stand up, but his leg was broken. "My leg, its broken I think." He sniffed, trying not to cry in front of the Knight. "I won't be-be much help to you, Sir."

"Good lad," The veteran Knight smiled, his fierce expression looking more kindly. "Stay here and don't move, you did your part. Now it's time for this old man to do his." The Knight turned and yelled something, and getting a response from someone else which York couldn't see.

"Alright, boy, keep your head down, and play dead," The veteran Knight cast a quick healing spell on his broken leg, "This should help take the pain off a bit."

"Than-thank you, Sir!" York looked upon the Knight with wonder.

"See you at the Gates of Heaven, boy!" The vet grinned and stood up yelling a war cry brandishing his sword and shield, "For the Empire! Charge!" Other cries and shouts joined him, and the survivors of the crash charged over the body of Blue Thunder, and fire and thunder greeted them.

York dragged himself over the side of the dragon, peeking out and watching the last heroic moments of the Knights. Domes of Protection spells covered the dozen ragged looking Knights as they charged towards the Gate, and almost immediately, hundreds and hundreds, puffs of smoke and sparks erupted all over them, and when their Protection spell failed, they fell on the spot no longer moving.

York couldn't help but cry, seeing the heroics actions of the Knights and the old veteran reached the Gates, leaning against it and stopped moving. "No!"

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Wall Beta

"Cease fire, cease fire!" Sergeant James yelled over the gunfire, chopping his hand horizontally, signaling his men to stop firing. "Damn, they sure die hard." He saw the last warrior charging to the Gate and died as he touched it. "Brave sons of bitches."

He nearly had a heart attack when the dragon slammed down in front of the courtyard, which shook the entire Pass. There were some survivors who threw spells at them, which mostly were negated by the defensive runes and spells built into the Walls. His men returned fire, forcing them to take cover under the dead dragon, but that last banzai charge was hardcore crazy.

Suddenly explosions shook Wall Beta, and a massive shadow covered the firing slits. James did a quick peek and saw another massive dragon, hovering above its dead kin, spitting balls of fire at Wall Beta. He quickly dodged as he saw the dragon's head turn his way, feeling the scorching heat and smoke coming in from the slits. "Get the firemen into action now!" He yelled, "Fucking dragons! I WANT ONE TOO!"

-----

Private Lorner had joined the Marines as the first batch picked from the remnants of the Goldrose Army. He was skeptic about it at first but soon grew to love the magical weapons the hoomans introduced. He volunteered immediately when the fearsome hooman Master Sergeant Pike asked for volunteers for a special team called 'Fireman'.

He thought it was something to do with fighting with fire and he wasn't exactly off the mark. Now dressed a hot and stuffy full body suit of a silvery white material, with a full transparent face mask. Lorner and his buddy, Private Entor dressed similarly, charged out, dragging along a heavy hose. He and his buddy aimed up at the dragon spitting fire at random targets and braced themselves.

Just as he was about to pull the charging handle down, the dragon spotted them in the openings of the wall and spit a ball of fire directly at them. The two of them screamed as the fire covered them, and they keep screaming even when the fire had extinguished. "WILL YOU TWO BITCHES SHUT THE FUCK UP!" Pike's voice screamed into their earpieces. "You can scream all you want when you get butt fucked! BUT SPRAY THAT FUCKING DRAGON NOW!"

That's when Lorner and his buddy realized that they were still alive and they barely felt any heat at all. "Gods in all heavens, we are still alive!" Entor yelled excitedly. "Damn this armor is great!"

"Yes, you dumbfucks! You better wish you are dead if you make me come over there to tell you to spray that dragon again." Pike's angry voice cut in their comms again. "Don't make me come and make you scream!"

"Oh shit," Both Entor and Lorner cried, "Yes Top! Engaging dragon now!"

They both gripped the hose tightly shot a spray of thick foam at the confused dragon who roared, trying to spit more fire their way, only to swallow firefight foam. The choking dragon tried to flap its wings to gain attitude but the thick foam covered all over its body, and it gave a wet cough before flopping belly down on the hard concrete courtyard, cracking it and shaking the whole Pass.

"Good work!" Pike yelled in their comms, "Now spray the fires and put them out!"

The dragon and its surviving crew and elvish cargo were all covered in firefighting foam, blinded, confused and bruised from the crash landing. The dragon kept coughing and sneezing, trying to force out the foam coating in its throat. Each time it coughed or sneezed, the crew onboard was shaken so badly, that some were thrown off its back, the rigging torn from the violent sneezes and coughs.

"Ooo, I like this job," Lorner grinned, "Firemen are awesome!"

95 - Rout

Base Colony, UNS Singapore Command Bridge

Captain Blake tapped the tactical tabletop with his forefinger, watching the battle raging at the Pass from the eyes of the recon UAV. "How many fucking dragons do they have?"

Commander Ford replied calmly, "Approximately about a hundred small ones and about ten of the larger ones."

Blake sighed, "I need to bring forward my plans for an airforce way earlier than anticipated." He turned and look saw Princess Sherene speaking with the communications officer Clara at the side.

"If a bloody border duke has this much fighting air elements at his disposal, I cannot imagine how much flying dragons the main standing army of the Empire has," Blake said, jabbing his finger up north at the territory of the Empire.

"But we yet had discovered any fuel source here," Ford raised his concerns. "Even using hydrogen as a fuel source, we don't have the industrial capabilities nor the tech to manufacture hydrogen engines."

"I know, simple combustion engines we can make, but any further we need to research and develop along the way," Blake responded, "Damn, I wish we had uploaded the whole astropedia into the ship's databanks when we were still over Earth's orbit."

"We can try methane for fuel or alcohol, we just lack the manpower for all these projects," Ford gave some ideas.

"What are you two talking about?" Princess Sherene walked over, joining them at the tactical table. The glow from the table top, highlighted her elfin features, making her look like a goddess.

"Nothing much, just production and plans on how to handle that," Blake pointed to screen, showing dozens of dragons swooping over the defensives and some of the larger dragons crash landing on top of the Pass.

"Oh," Sherene frowned, "But you two don't look very worried?" She narrowed her pretty eyes suspiciously, making Blake cough and look away.

Ford grinned, enjoying the discomfort the Captain was having, knowing fully that the Captain has some feelings for the Princess. "Well, we trust that Major Frank at the Pass will be able to handle this situation easily."

"Besides, Frank has Pike, there won't be any problems." Blake added, "Well, we also tasked all our weapons in support for them if they need it."

"Hmmm, I see," Sherene looked sadly at the battle. "But people are dying there."

"It's war, either you kill or be killed," Blake comforted the princess. "Harsh realities of life."

Ford smiled and softly walked away, leaving the two of them haloed in the glow from the table, a tiny island of a quiet moment for the two, surrounded by the chaos in the command bridge.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Courtyard between Wall Alpha and Beta

A foam covered dragon raged and choked, thrashing wildly in the space between the two walls, when a series of pops and explosions riddled all over its body, sending it against the mountainside, before emitting a death rattle as it choked to death. Its blood staining the mountainsides and pooling around the cracked concrete flooring.

Another largely sized dragon crash landed beside its dead carcass, belly flopping down as its wings were ripped and torn. The dragon panted heavily, sparks shooting out of its mouth and nostrils with each heavy breath. Dozens of figures leaped off its back and magic circles flickered into life from the newcomers.

Specialist Private Hitsu of the Hundred and First Arcane Tactics and Intervention, Team Claymore One, broke open his double barrel sawed off shotgun, slotting two explosive shells into the open breech and in one motion, flipped the barrel up, locking the breach closed.

Hoisting a ballistic shield, he looked at his buddy, Specialist Private Loke, armed with an M2 Magespitter, without the bulky silencer, who nodded and gripped the right shoulder of Hitsu with his left hand, his right raising the carbine in a ready stance.

Both of them wore surplus armor from the Security Section, MK VI 'Riot' armor, modified with several extra plates of armoring with strengthening runes carved on them. The armor plating made them look large and bulky with pieces of armor covering all vital points of their body.

"Go!" Loke yelled, and thumped Hitsu's shoulder hard, if not he wouldn't be able to feel anything through the heavily armored and padded shoulder plating. Hitsu lifted the transparent ballistic shield, made out of nanocrystal graphene sapphire glass, and charged out of the sally port from Wall Beta and into the madness happening in the courtyard.

The first thing Hitsu saw was a couple of fucking huge dead dragons, with bodies and puddles of blood all over. Smoke and cracks of spells and Magelocks echoed loudly in the confined area. The sky had several dragons madly swooping and dodging fire from the rail gun turrets.

And it was raining dragon blood. Blood was falling in a light drizzle, as the dragons in the air keep fighting despite suffering wounds. A fireball streaked towards Hitsu who quickly angled his shield up, letting the spell glance off his shield. A three round burst fired next to his head by Loke, dropped the Knight who cast the spell.

Hitsu was thankful for the hoomans for inventing earplugs, or he would have gone deaf from the burst fired next to his head. As the smoke cleared, they caught the attention of Empire Knights bunched up next to the clearly winded and heavily wounded dragon.

Bracing his sawed-off shotgun against the edge of his shield, he rapid-fired off both barrels, sending two explosive shells which exploded in their midst, sending those without magical protection screaming and dying. He kneeled and reloaded, "Reloading!" making himself a solid cover for Loke, as Loke fired into the stunned group.

"Reloading!" Loke yelled next, crouching down behind Hitsu as crossbow bolts and fireballs and lightning bolts erupted all over them. "UP!" Loke yelled as he finished reloading and stood up, returning fire back calmly with single shots.

-----

Issen was a veteran Imperial magic Knight, under the command of the Knights of Twelve, serving under the banner of Duke Sturm, fighting in several campaigns with him over a period of five years.

The orders for the Knights came in the morning before the sun was even up, they climbed on board with the 26th Imperial Dragon Corp, the Fireborn, and took off with four other Dragon Corps.

All of them were skeptical that the Duke will send over a hundred Knights just to invade a tiny Pass, but everyone kept their peace and followed the orders. And now he understood why Duke Sturm sent over a hundred Knights into battle with the rebels.

The two strangely fat armored rebels holding a flimsy looking glass like shield crouched in the open ground between them and the walls. Already they had killed or wounded at least half or more of the Knights and soldiers just by themselves with their cursed magical thundersticks.

He looked at his squad of three, and nodded, knowing for them to be able to advance up and take over the walls, they needed to defeat those two first, knowing not to underestimate them despite their fat appearance and just the two of them.

"You and Ern go left, you with me," Issen ordered, pointing to the last Knight "Go fast, use everything you have to kill those two and rally at the walls." And everyone nodded and started to cast support spells. First was Haste, Agility Up, Strength Up, and finally Endurance Up. "GO!"

Charging out from two directions, they sprinted with inhuman speed despite wearing over 20kg of armor and weapons. They charged towards the clumsy looking rebels and flickered out their swords from their scabbards.

Suddenly, the Knight charging in front of Issen toppled down, his throat blown away by a spell. And Issen sensed danger, he raised his shield just in time and felt a couple of heavy punches against the prized mithril steel, yet despite the protection of the shield the impacts shattered his left arm.

Gritting his teeth, he dropped the mangled shield, and continued charging, moving left and right, his left arm dangling uselessly at the side. Just a few paces more!

-----

Hitsu calmly said, "I'm on the guys on the left, right side is yours!" As two groups of Empire soldiers sprinted out in two directions. He fired both barrels again, dropping his shots roughly where he predicted both of them to go, missing one but turning the other into bloody meat paste with the shrapnel from the exploding shells.

Loke tracked the fast movement of the two Knights and fired twice, taking down the foremost before switching aim and double tapping the next knight. He cursed when that knight blocked his shots with his shield and came up to knife range, swinging his longsword directly at his neck.

Loke sidestepped away from Hitsu and the sword swing, his speed not losing out to the Imperial Knight despite his heavy armor. He raised his heavily armored left shoulder pauldron, taking the second sword strike directly, and the Knight's sword snapped. He countered with thrusting his M2 rifle's muzzle out like a spear, aiming for the unarmored throat of the Knight, and punching through the larynx. The Knight's eyes bulged wildly, coughing out blood while his good hand gripped the hot barrel, stopping the thrust from going in further.

Loke growled and squeezed the trigger, blowing out the back of the Knight's neck, and gun smoke erupted out from the dead Knight's gaping mouth and nostrils.

-----

While Loke was distracted by the sword swing, the other surviving Knight charged at Hitsu, swinging his war ax in a double handed chop.

Hitsu rolled out off the way, dropping his empty shotgun and came up on the side and slammed the edge of his shield against the left arm of the Knight, denting the armored rerebrace, and snapping his humerus bone. The Knight roared with pain, his left arm useless and yet he tried to swing his battle ax with his right hand from an awkward angle.

Hitsu dodged the attack, its speed had dropped noticeably, and rammed his shield edge against the back of the Knight's left greaves, cracking the shin bone and forcing the Knight down on his knees. Hitsu than ended the fight with a smash of his shield edge against the back of the cervical spine, killing the Knight instantly.

"That was satisfying," Hitsu puffed out, "Your kill was gross." He commented on Loke's kill, seeing the gore on the muzzle. "It's gonna be a hell to clean later."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain, Rear of Wall Beta

The remaining heavyweights managed to land or crashed here, between the barracks and admin structures. The dragons spit fire at the concrete structures, scorching the grey surfaces. Gunfire and smoke from Marines forced back the dragons, and the rest of Claymore One decimated the remaining Knights and soldiers that landed.

Tyrier stood over the body the heavyweight dragon he had just slain, reloading his pump action shotgun. The damn reptile kept attempting to eat him despite already half dead, so he gave it a few shots of explosive shells to eat. It must be because I killed its rider, thought Tyrier as he looked at a bullet-riddled corpse in a thick blue fancy looking jacket with gold bridles.

The only remaining flight-capable heavyweight dragon tried to take off under heavy fire and attracted the attention of Gun Two, which sent an armor piercing fin stabilized discarding sabot shot, nailing the dragon at mid-flight, the force of the explosion, showered the rear base structures and its defenders with dragon gore and blood.

The remaining smaller dragons seeing the death scene lost all motivation to continue to fight. They dropped the last of their firebombs and retreated, dodging flak from the guns.

The Marines defending cheered as the dragons retreated and turned their attention to the sieging army in the front, just as Valkyrie One and Two had returned fully rearmed and refueled, and some tech had rigged up some external speakers, blasting "Ride of the Valkyries" over the air.

The two space haulers turn gunships volley fired their 70mm rockets at the shocked army, each fuel-air thermobaric blast shattering bodies, sucking the air out of lungs and then turning the air into flames.

Those caught in the after blasts had their eyeballs, eardrums and internal organs ruptured. Most of the elves went mad by the sheer destructive power of the rocket salvos and ran screaming away, discarding weapons and armor. "Run Blue Boys!" Flight Lieutenant Peter yelled as he looped back his bird, going for another strafing run.

The retreat soon turned into a rout, as hundreds of Empire soldiers broke formation, ignoring orders and commands and scrambled to the safety of the forest, while the radio broadcast was repeating messages calling the Empire to surrender.

"Soldiers of the Empire, nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on… Drop your weapons and surrender please…"

96 - POWs

Captain Blake stepped off the rear hatch of the Valkyrie, holding on to his peak cap as the powerful turbo wash from the turboprops threatened to blow his cap off. He reached out his hand to Princess Sherene, helping her off the flight cabin as the whine of the engines slowly died down.

Major Frank waiting at the other side of the landing pad with his other staff officers and saluted when Blake strolled up to him.

"Sir and Mdm! Welcome to Hell's Gate!" Frank grinned, his face youthful face losing the harshness. "I got the whole tour for you."

"Good job with the battle," Blake praised Frank, "You and your men did well holding the Pass and routing the enemy."

Frank kept grinning, "Yea, it was a close job, especially when those dragons landed." He led them to a jeep and personally drove.

The smoke from the battle two days ago still lingered all over the Pass, damages to the structures and defenses slowly became more apparent as they neared the walls and the wailing of wounded dragons echoed down the mountain from their holding pens.

"17 dead and 152 wounded over a week of constant combat, and 42 needed to have parts regrown in the Tank," Frank reported, yelling over the wind as he drove. "Intel estimated a total of seventeen thousand dead on the other side. We also captured close to 400 tons of weapons, armor and food supplies from their abandoned baggage train. Also another five land dragons, almost two hundred war dragons and close to a thousand livestock ranging from bird wyverns and some kind of pig."

"A total of five thousand surrendered and another three thousand captured wounded," Frank continued, handing over a tablet while driving with one hand. They charged up the rocky road and was waved past the checkpoint by the Marine sentries. "We also liberated close to a thousand five hundred slaves."

"We will need supplies for the prisoners, as the supplies we captured will only be enough for two months. Feeding over ten thousand mouths isn't easy," Frank said as he pulled to a stop and parked the jeep at the covered parking lot next to a heavily guarded complex.

Princess Sherene spoke up, "I will see what I can do to supply food for them, but we barely have started growing crops for this season. It will be difficult."

"Yeah, wait till you see the dragons," Frank said, "They eat a lot."

Sherene face turn white, "Dra-dragons? How am I going to feed dragons and over ten thousand more people?"

"How many dragons do we have?" Blake asked, putting his hand on Sherene's shoulder to calm her down.

"We got two of large ones which they called Spitfires and seven medium weights, a breed called Silverwing." Frank pointed to a series of hangar-like structures on the other side. "Currently we are holding them there, under the threat of their masters' life."

"They speak?" Blake was surprised, it was the first thing he knew of such things. "They won't rampage or something?"

Frank winked, "Yup, in Common too, they are surprisingly polite and gentlemen like. They agreed to good behavior and not fight us as long as we save and spare their captains and crew."

"Seems like they are the most sensible ones here," Blake said. "And the remaining Empire forces?"

"We are using the Valkyries to conduct harassing operations on them, forcing them to retreat deeper into the forest, also, the Hundred and First and Marines will be several raiding operations targeting their supplies and ground harassment," Frank added, "If they can capture supplies, we get the Valkyries to pick up supplies for our own use, if not we deny them to the enemy by burning."

"Great job," Blake nodded, walking into an entrance set into the mountainside guarded heavily by Marines.

"Master Sergeant Pike with Lieutenant Tavor of Intelligence is personally running the screening process of the prisoners," Frank continued his report. "We have gotten a 'Truth Stone' from Magister Thorn."

"Truth Stone? What does it do?" Blake frowned, unfamiliar with the object.

"It's a magical artifact that can detect truths or lies," Princess Sherene explained, "The stone changes color depending on the answer given. It's a royal artifact, used to test the loyalty of the royal guards."

"Yeah," Frank nodded, "But Tavor found out that it actually detects intention instead of truth or lies. If you intend to be truthful, it shows up as you telling the truth while if your intentions are evil, like telling a lie, the stone glows red." Frank waved the sentries aside as they passed another checkpoint before entering into the command center.

"So it actually detects good or bad intentions?" Blake clarified, looking around the busy command center.

"Yes, Sir and welcome to the Pit."

-----

She found herself running in the forest, sounds of beating hooves as soldiers riding war dragons chased after her and her people. She screamed as she watched her people dying, soldiers driving spears into their bodies and woke up, finding herself in a strange bright room.

White curtains blocked her surrounding view and she could feel the soft mattress and pillows beneath her but when she tried to move her arms and legs, she found them bound against the bed frame.

She looked at her body, she was wearing some kind of robes, a clear tube with some liquid inside seemed to be stuck to her arm and her body was covered with bandages. The boundings looked like some kind of grey leather but with magical runes carved on them, which she recognized as an anti-magic rune.

She coughed as her dry throat itched and suddenly the white curtains parted and a female wearing strange grey white clothing holding some kind of board looked and smiled at her.

"Finally you're awake," the stranger spoke in Common and picked up a jug of water on the side table which she didn't notice at first. The stranger poured a cup of water and that's when she noticed that her ears were short and rounded.

"W-who are y-you?" She asked, her throat parched and painful. "W-where am I?"

"Here have a sip, slowly," The short-eared stranger gently fed her cool and refreshing water and she felt better after drinking some.

"Don't worry for now," The stranger said and gestured to her restrains, "These are for yours and our safety. Please bear for now till we are certain of your intentions."

She tilted her head in confusion, wondering what does the stranger meant, her eyes growing heavy and she yawned before falling back to sleep again.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Defense Base, Monster Holding Pens

Captain Blake stood before a hanger like structure. He looked down the side and saw several similar structures and shook his head, thinking of the time and resources spent on making these in such a short time.

The single Marine guard saluted Blake and pushed open a side door, letting Blake enter.

As Blake entered the holding pen, a strong musty smell hit him and as he saw the massive blue red dragon lying on its side, in the center of the pen, eyes closed and snoozing away.

Blake circled the sleeping dragon, marveling at the creature, looking at the beautiful blue red scales as light reflected off them. Wow, this guy must weight like 30 or 40 tons at least.

Several spots on his body had cracked scales with dried blood, most likely caused by gunfire. Its wings were torn and appeared to be repaired up with sticky tape or duct tape.

He wondered which Marine did that, most likely by his original guys. Shaking his head, he returned to admire the dragon.

Suddenly the dragon snorted and opened its golden dinner plate sized eyes and looked at Blake. It raised its massive head and yawned, displaying its impressive array of sword-like teeth, as long as his arms.

The dragon stared unblinkingly at Blake and a long uncomfortable silence stretched out. Finally, Blake cleared his throat, "Hi, my name is Blake."

The dragon cocked its head, "Ba-ke? What manner of creature are you?"

"We are humans, from a place very very far away from here," Blake gave his best salesman smile.

"Hoomans? Interesting," The dragon rested its head against his front claws. "And?"

"Oh, I just want to see a dragon up close," Blake scratched his head in embarrassment, "I mean I never seen a real dragon before, it's mostly in stories or CG, that kind of stuff you know?"

The dragon looked confused but nodded, "Satisfied?"

"Ah, I am sorry," Blake apologized, "I didn't mean to disturb your rest." Blake gestured to the dragon's wounds. Damn, he sounds like some ancient Englishman! Blake thought to himself.

"It's alright, I am your prisoner," The dragon settled down, "I have nothing much to do either."

"I see," Blake pointed to a bench at the side, "do you mind?"

"Go ahead, I am sure you have some questions for me," The dragon sighed, "The other hooman always has questions."

It must be referring to Lieutenant Tavor, Blake thought, "Well, to be frank, I don't know much about your kind and am frankly very curious."

"Same here," The dragon replied, "Oh where are my manners, my name is Blue Thunder." The dragon rosed up and dipped a bow, which Blake unconsciously returned a bow too. Blue Thunder settled back down onto his forearms and asked, "Do you have any news of my captain?"

"Ahh," Blake remembered Frank's report on the health of the dragon crews. "I am sorry, but he did not make it," Blake replied honestly.

"Captain! Why did you inform him that!" Tavor's voice screamed out in Blake's earpiece. Blake flinched, quickly pulling his earpiece out and rubbing his ringing ears, "Damn."

"Thank you for being honest with me, hooman ba-ke." Blue Thunder appeared to sink down lower on his forearms, "I already had the feeling that he didn't make it, you know the bond and all that. At least I know your people tried their best to save him."

Blake felt the urge to go up to the dragon and give it a comforting pat. Blue Thunder eyes drool up and looked like a lost puppy. "I am sorry for your lost."

"It's alright, lives are lost in wars and we are constantly at the frontline," The dragon sighed sadly, "I have seen many of my comrades passed away."

"What are your plans now?" Blake asked, as he walked up to the dragon and gave it a pat at its higher arm. "Any plans?"

"Plans?" Blue Thunder repeated the word, "I am your prisoner, having surrendered, I am submitted to your bidding."

Blake looked surprised, "Even if we want to execute you?" He blurted out.

"Yes... If not who will look after us?" Blue Thunder raised his head up and look at Blake with its large teary eyes and hissed. "We are your slaves now. To the victor goes the spoils."

"I see," Blake raised both hands up in a calming manner, as he looked at the mouth full of teeth directly in front of him, the smell of sulfur from its breath nearly choking him. "But we have no slaves here. Everyone is a free man."

"Free?" Blue Thunder narrowed his eyes in wonder, "There is such thing?"

"Of course! We will offer the prisoners a choice, to either join us or we let them go back," Blake explained. "We need people, and free men and women work better than unwilling slaves."

"That is very interesting," Blue Thunder scratched its chin in a very human, elvish like way, most likely picked up from its crew. "I can do what I want?"

"Eh yes, but of course you have to follow the laws laid down by the government," Blake continued to preach. "If you are willing to work, we, of course, will be willing to accept you. But know one thing, everyone has to work for their meal, there is no free food in this world."

"Oh like a salary?" Blue Thunder looked excitedly at Blake, its huge mouth gaping opening. "I always hear my captain and the crew say they like to spend their salary in the pub or to a whole house or war house?" It scratched its head as it tried to remember the word they used.

"You meant a whore house?" Blake laughed, "No that's not for you, but yes, you get paid and what you want to do with the money is up to you."

"You mean I can buy lots of meat to eat?"

97 - Post Victory

Uncharted Forest

Duke Sturm's face was pale as he rode his war dragon hard, pushing it to gallop faster. The music coming from the sky rose to a fervent height as the singer screamed the lyrics of some unknown heaven cursed song.

"War, whoa, lord,
What is it good for,
Absolutely nothing, listen to me."

Followed by explosions going off at the rear of the retreating Lancers. The enemy flying beasts charged past over Sturm's head and he ducked reflexly, his war dragon starting to foam in its jaws.

"Faster!" Sturm whipped the dragon's side, ignoring the gasping cries from the mount. He looked up again, as the volume of the music rosed up again, indicating those cursed flying beasts were back to throw their fireballs at his men.

For the past three days, Sturm and the remnants of his forces had been harassed constantly by the enemy's flying beast, which spits fireballs at his frightened troops. He had his remaining mages and crossbowmen, forming an ambush for the flying beast, but it just shrugged off the spells and crossbow bolts, playing its demonic music as it looped back spitting fire at his troops again and again.

Starving and exhausted, the remains of the entire army of Fallowfall consisting of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Regiment of Swords and the 9th, 10th 11th, 13th and 15th Regiment of Spears, 2nd, 5th 6th and 8th Crossbow Regiment and the 2nd and 3rd Lancers retreated in a disorderly manner through the Uncharted Forest, many falling prey to the goblins tribes and monstrous beasts living inside the forest.

Reports constantly came in either outdated or unclear from the rearguards and scouts as the army was running scared and confused. The remains of the Imperial Dragon Corps had flown away, leaving them without any air cover, not that it will do the Fallowfall army any good. Conflicting reports of rebel soldiers attacking in the front, the flanks and the rear keep pouring in, making Sturm disregard them totally.

Finally, the cursed music faded away, meaning the flying beast had returned to whatever hell it came out from and Sturm reined in his war dragon. The poor beast stumbled and choked as it gasped for breath, its side heaving up and down. Sturm jumped off the saddle and stretched himself, his back aching while his inner sides of his legs chafed from the constantly riding.

"Gather the commanders or whoever is left. I want the regiments to be back under control!" Sturm yelled at his subordinates. "Bring me some food and water, now!"

His men dispersed to do his bidding and not long his manservant came up with a handful of trail bread and a half-empty waterskin. "My apologies my Lord, this is the best I could find,"

"What? Where are our rations?" Sturm growled, "I made sure that we have more than enough field rations to last the whole army at least two months!"

"My Lord, we lost a third of the baggage train when we retreated and the rebels had constantly harassed us." His manservant explained calmly. "The remaining half were abandoned along the way or were destroyed by the rebel's flying beast chasing us."

"Damn you," Sturm cursed as he crushed the hard trail bread in his right fist, grinding it to powdery pieces. "Oh, just you wait, I will be back."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass Defense Command Center. The Pit

"You been constantly visiting the dragon pen," Frank said as they headed towards the meeting room. "Anything interesting to share?"

"Hmm, I learned quite a bit in fact," Blake said, "More insight on the workings of the Empire and how they train and breed dragons."

"So we gonna have our own dragons?" Frank grinned excitedly, looking like a kid again. "Damn, I only saw those in CGs."

"Maybe, if we can convince those unbonded dragons to our cause," Blake smiled. "Those whos bonded captains were still alive, will only follow the wishes of their captains."

"Feels like so kind of slavery to me," Frank said, "But then again, how awesome is it to fly it!"

"I am surprised at the way they talk," Blake said, "They don't feel so scary, they seem more like a ... very wise child?"

"You know, Lieutenant Tavor been up against my ass all day, grumbling about you breaking protocol and all that shit on the dragons," Frank laughed, "I rarely seen him so worked up."

"Haha, that was my fault, the dragons were just too ... polite and it just slipped my mouth when they asked about the fate of their crew," Blake shook his head, "Maybe I should leave the interrogation and interviews to the professionals next time."

Entering the room, they found Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn in a heated discussion, with Thorn gesturing wildly and his Einstein-ish hair making him look like a madman as usual. "If we can harvest the blood from the dragons, we can use it for many alchemical purposes!"

"Have you wondered why dragon blood is so rare?" Dr. Sharon hissed in frustration, "You think they will let you take a needle and draw their blood just like that?" She snapped her fingers in irritation.

"Hmmm true, but we can drug their food, you know all that," Thorn grinned.

Dr. Sharon rolled her eyes, "If it was that easy, don't you think there would be more dragon blood out there?" Dr. Sharon soften her tone when she saw Thorn looking downcast, "You told me for the magic in dragon blood to be potent it has to be a wild dragon and not bred."

"That's true," Thorn peaked up, "Oh Captain, greetings."

"Oh," Dr. Sharon looked around and saw Blake and Frank standing there watching the two of them chatting, and quickly rose, "Captain."

"At ease," Blake smiled, "So you guys wanna get some dragon blood? Didn't we harvested tons of that?"

"Yes, yes, but the blood quality was very low," Thorn sighed, "Seems like the magic from dragons bred in captivity weakens them a lot."

"Holy Fu-," Frank coughed, "I mean that was considered weak?"

"Yes, yes, if it was a wild dragon, its powers would be at least say, ten maybe twenty times stronger," Thorn absentmindedly replied, "Maybe its due to their young age? Rarely do breed dragons reach their mature ages of a hundred."

Frank looked at Blake with horror, and said, "I gonna have to review my defensive plans again."

"Hi, has the meeting started?" Princess Sherene stuck her head in, her gold pink hair tied in a bun and she was wearing a formal sky blue formal looking robes.

"No, come in," Blake smiled warmly, lately he found himself looking forward to seeing the Princess.

"Alright, everyone's here, let's start," Blake nodded to Frank.

"Ok, I asked for this meeting, due to several reasons," Frank said, "Supply, manpower, prisoners and what's next."

"For supply, I will be requesting from City hall," He nodded to Sherene, "To help catalog the supplies and equipment we had captured off the retreating Empire army. Also, we will be needing your help to provide food for the prisoners. And we also badly depleted our ammunition stores in that one week of combat, so I would like to request extra production of ammunition to meet our needs."

Sherene nodded, "I see what I can do," She turned and whispers to her aide.

"Next is manpower, so far we suffered very little loses, but we have a large amount of wounded both ways. Our priority of course is to our men first then the prisoners. Dr. Sharon, I will like your team full-time assistance in this manner, I am not sure if our medical supplies will hold out or not."

"It's not really an issue for now," Dr. Sharon replied, "I got a few magical healers which helps to decrease the usage of our medical supplies but the regeneration Tank can only be used so much. I am still working on a substitute for the nanite solution."

"Ok, next is the prisoners, what are we going to do with them?" Frank asked, "Are we gonna to let them go or recruit those that are willing to join us?"

"For the prisoners, release them if they choose to leave," Blake said, "No point in feeding the enemy for them. If we keep them locked up or even as labor, we need to spend food and manpower to keep watch over them and also there is always the threat of sabotage."

Everyone nodded at the table, "But if we let them go. won't they come back and attack us again later?" Sherene raised a point.

"Yes and no," Blake smiled, "If you were given freedom after a life and death battle, would you want to return to it again or return to your families?" He pointed out. "Also if we show mercy now, their hearts will also be moved, and they will show mercy back to our men if should they be captured."

Sherene nodded but didn't look very convinced. "I understand."

"As for those who are willing to join us," Blake continued, "Run them through a dependable test, I heard Magister Thorn had loaned us a Truth Stone?" Blake asked, which Thorn nodded.

"Dr. Sharon and Lieutenant Tavor, I want the two of you to come out with a list of psychological questions to determine their intentions and loyalty." Blake ordered, "Then we let these people in, on a probational basis on their behavior and work performance, before granting them full citizenship."

"For the dragons, if they are willing to join us, we will, of course, welcome them," Blake added, "They will be very useful for some of the things I could think of to help us."

"Yes Sir," Dr. Sharon and Lieutenant Tavor replied, while the others nodded.

"Ok last point, what's next?" Frank continued, "Currently two companies of Marines are harassing and doing combat sweeps of our surrounding areas of the Uncharted Forest, supported by the Valkyries. As for the artificial ramp created by magic, it is almost impossible to destroy using conventional means, so we are stuck with it."

"Also there are reports of increasing goblin activity, now that winter is went and truly gone and spring is here," Frank reported, "We can't extend our forces too much into the forest and there is a limited amount of ammunition left for our Valkyries."

"City hall had started to send men to clear and tilt the land, we will need protection from the goblins if that is the case," Sherene pointed out. "We need to prepare for the next winter."

"Sir, if I may," Lieutenant Tavor spoke out, "I think that it is a good time for us to regroup and focus on material needs now, the 2nd batch of Marines are being trained now, and look at what one battalion can do?" Tavor gestured at Frank, "We should focus on building up our supplies and tech, if we had better equipment, training, and supplies, we can focus on a highly trained and professional force rather than branching out all over the place."

"Noted, Lieutenant," Blake frowned as he steeped his fingers together. "Alright here's what we do, Magister Thorn. continue your research and development with Chief Matt, Gale, and Pike."

"Dr. Sharon, you continue your R and D on medical practices with magic and also training of doctors and nurses."

"Princess Sherene, please work out a plan for supplying the troops and prisoners, and what is lacking or needed. I expect that we will need a lot of materials soon. And the dragons, they need a lot of food."

"Frank, pull back your men for much-needed rest and repair the defensives at the Pass, also oversee the next batch of recruits. You also need to provide patrols and protection to the loggers and farmers."

"Tavor, I need the psychological test for the prisoners, also continue interviewing the prisoners for information on the Empire. the more we have, the better we can prepare for."

"Oh yes, I need HR to do up a recruitment and marketing speech for the prisoners..."

98 - Recruitment

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Rear Marine Base, Hell's Gate

Princess Sherene had spent the last day helping out at the medical center, tending to the wounded Marines and even the prisoners of war. She also visited the defenses and worked on her public relations, boosting the morale of the troops.

Now she just the sun was on its zenith, she stood under a covered platform, facing thousands of prisoners, who all either sat or stood at the enclosed parade square where armed Marines guarded them. "Good afternoon everyone. My name is Sherene Goldrose, I am the former princess of the Goldrose Kingdom. I am sure most of you are confused and worried about what will happen to you in the coming days."

Sherene paused and looked over the crowd who whispered among themselves. "Most of you are just following orders from the Empire in waging war here if not every one of you would be still enjoying the comforts of your home. We do not blame you, but your masters."

"My country was brought into a war it did not wish, and it was conquered by the Empire and yet the Empire still persists in destroying all that remains of its people. I know some of you also came from conquered land and the only way for you to survive is to join the Empire," Sherene's voice echoed out from the broadcasting speakers. "Here we only wish to be left alone, to live in peace and freedom, but we are willing to fight and defend for that peace. In the traditional way of the New World, losers in battle with become slaves or subjected to the whims of the winner. but we will offer you two choices."

"One, you join us on probation and after the period of probation is over, you will be part of us." The whispering and muttering rosed louder as the crowd started talking among themselves.

"Two, you will be released, you are free to go where you want to go. You will be given a few days of food and a simple weapon for defense and that is all." Sherene continued. "You have one day to make your choice."

"Those that are worried about their families and yet want to stay, we will find ways for them to join you here for a better life!" Sherene promised, "We protect and look after our own!"

The crowd burst out in a discussion as she finished her words, some yelled demanding to know more while others yelled pro-empire slogans and insults. "One day later, you will be asked to make your choice, think about it carefully." Sherene stepped off the platform and into the hot sun, following her aide as they head to a waiting jeep.

"What's next?" Sherene asked as they sat down inside the cloth covered jeep.

"You have a meeting with the medical staff at the medical center with Dr. Sharon, in twenty minutes," Her aide replied as the driver drove them off towards the command center.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass Defense Command Center. The Pit

"Why didn't you do the speech or say something yourself?" Major Frank asked as he and Captain Blake watched the live feed from the display on the Princess's talk at the parade square. "The speech from the HR dude is pretty bad,"

"The speech's so so... Anyway, we are too alien to them still," Blake shrugged, "Besides its always nice to have a pretty face doing the recruitment talk, yes?"

"Is that why you joined the Navy?" Frank deadpanned.

"Of course!" Blake grinned, "Have you seriously seen any female Marines?"

Frank groaned, tired of that stupid joke. "We do have females in the Marines you know?"

"Hahaha of course of course," Blake winked, "Well, the speech ended and we shall see tomorrow on who is willing to join us."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, POW Holding Camp Charlie

In one of the Empire issued tents, a large group of Oerkins huddled together, "What does everyone think about joining the rebels and strange hoomans?" A bald grey skinned Oerkin questioned the group in Oerkin Tongue as he gazed at all the Band leaders involved.

The whole party had scars and freshly healed wounds all over their bodies, as they were picked up and held as prisoners after the battle was over. Most of them had fainted or could barely be moved when the army of the Empire was routed. Close to two hundred of the Oerkins were picked up by the Marines and dropped off at the POW holding camp.

Now after the speech from the rebel ex-princess about the hoomans willing to recruit people, they were honestly tempted by the offer. They know that if they returned to their tribes they would suffer humiliation and scorn from their own people for falling into the enemies hand.

"Hmm, I don't mind, if we can have those loud thunder sticks to play with!" Someone yelled, and the almost all of the Oerkins grunted in agreement. "Make big boom! I like!"

The bald grey Oerkin nodded, "So all in agreement?" The Oerkins growled and grunted in agreement, "Done than tomorrow we shall be part of the rebel hooman tribe!"

-----

All over the five POW holding camps, discussions among the Empire soldiers were ongoing constantly, as they debated they would stay or leave, or if was it a trap or something. The discussions soon split the camps into three groups, those that were willing to stay, those that were on the sit and wait, and the last group were those against the idea of staying.

The next day, the strange clothed rebel soldiers opened the gates of POW holding camp Alpha, letting the two thousand plus prisoners to the parade square. As they were herd to the square, they saw two gates leading to other places which they couldn't see.

This time, instead of the Princess, it was a grizzly looking old timer, dressed in the same strange patterned uniform, addressing the crowd from the raised platform. "Alright, listen up! I am only going to say this once and once only!" The soldier bellowed, his voice echoing down the parade square with the need of any magical assistance.

"Those who willing to stay, enter this green gate on my right!" He pointed to a gate on the right with a green colored banner hanging on the sides. "Those who want to return to the Empire, enter the red gate on my left," And he repeated his gesture, pointing to the left gate with a red banner.

"Now form up in an orderly manner! Do not push or rush, disobey and suffer the consequences," He warned, glaring at everyone. "Form up now!"

The crowd looked at each other before someone timidly walked up to the green gate, and soon a steady stream of people started to be processed through the green gate while others scorning the traitorous rest, headed out of through the red gate.

The whole process for the five camps took almost the whole day, those willing to stay were than returned to the holding camps while those that want to leave, were each given a 5-day rations pack and every group of five were given a single dagger, a sword, a spear, a shield and a bow with ten arrows and pointed down the slope towards the direction of the Empire.

The wreckages and bodies of dragons and soldiers were long removed by the prisoners, but the stench of blood and voided excretions lingered strongly under the hot sun. A warning was given to those that want to return that if they remained within sight of the walls, they will be shot on sight, with several warning shots given off, scaring those defiant men off into the forest.

Finally, as night falls, the last of those wanting to return to the Empire had vanished into the sea of trees and the base slowly returned to normal activity.

-----

"So tomorrow we will start to process those staying," Captain Blake said, "Make sure no spies or assassins are hidden in this time."

"Yes, Sir!" Lieutenant Tavor and Master Sergeant Pike responded. "We estimate it would take almost a week, our week not their's, to process everyone."

Blake nodded, there were almost four thousand who decided to stay, in fact, many expressed concerns about leaving their families and skepticism on whether the hoomans could deliver their promises of bringing in their families from the Empire.

"Well at the dragons are simpler," Major Frank added, "Blue Thunder is willing to sign up with us and so are the two Silverwings without their masters. Sadly none of their remaining crews except one kid is staying with the dragons, hopefully, that kid knows enough handling of dragons than us, course none of us, including the Goldrose people knows anything about dragon care."

"On the interesting side, we have more than 200 Orcs very willing to join us, in fact, they all specifically requested to be part of the military force, something about bangs and booms," Blake grinned, "Well, Major, they're all yours."

"Ooo, Orc Marines, how clique!" Frank rolled his eyes, "I hope they are not as dumb as they look, but they will make good shock troops or heavy gunners."

"What are you planning to do with the dragons, Sir?" Master Sergeant Pike asked curiously. "Gunship dragon or anti-air support?"

"Oh, I was thinking more of them being aerial recon, the Owleye UAVs badly need some downtime for servicing and maintenance or we going lose them forever." Blake said, "Blue Thunder could double up as a rapid troop transport or heavy cargo lifter."

"You think they will be willing to?" Frank inquired, "We don't even know how to control or even manage them."

"We will have to create an Air Force to manage all dragons and air units in the future, for now, we just learn as we go," Blake answered. "Take things one step at a time for now."

"Sir, we do have an interesting character who wants to join us," Tavor spoke up. "May I?" He gestured to the display.

Blake nodded and sat back, as Tavor fiddled with the display and soon the screen showed a portrait of a pale looking female elf with silver hair in hospital gown lying on a hospital bed. "Her name is Irisval von Aston and is currently held in a heavily guarded isolation ward at the medical center."

Tavor played a video next, replaying back a few videos of the battle days ago, "We suspect she is the culprit for the creation of the earthen ramp here." He played the appearance of the earth forming a ramp in slow motion. "And in this video, apparently due to our Marine snipers, the death of those two creepy looking masked knights, she turned against the Empire." Another video was shown, the silver-haired elf casting spells against the Empire forces.

"According to her statement, she was held against her will, using the threat of termination of her people that she was forced to work with the Empire," Tavor continued, "She stated that due to the deaths of her handlers that she decided to fight against the Empire, apparently, she said and I quote, sick and tired of fighting and all the killing, end quote."

"Can she be trusted?" Blake asked the most important question.

"Well, she passed the psychological, profiling and truth stone test we gave her," Tavor shrugged, "Well if she turned out to be a sleeper agent, it will be hard for us to keep tracking her all the time. So unless she has to prove her loyalty in one way or another, I say she's a keeper."

Blake nodded, "What are her skills?"

"She said her powers involved with earth magic. The Empire mostly use her powers to destroy enemy fortifications or create gaps, allowing them to break through," Tavor answered.

"So she's like some sort of magical combat engineer?" Frank raised an eyebrow at Tavor, who coughed and nodded.

"Interesting," Blake looked at Frank and smiled, "Well, you got yourself a combat engineer now."

99 - Dragonite Crystal

As the week passed by peacefully, the damages to the Pass were repaired and most traces of battle were cleared, except for some blood stains still lingering behind despite some rain. 1st Marine Battalion, 2nd Company, slowly emerged out from the forest edge, finally after more than a week of combat patrols and sweeping of the area of any remnants of the Empire army and the prisoners that were released a week before, had ended their week-long patrol mission.

The tired Marines cheered when they saw the Wall in the distance and picked up their speed, marching in lines of two as they climbed up the slope. Suddenly a with a flap of wings and a dragon swooped down over the Marines, sending them diving for cover, the Marines yelling and shouting, "Aerial contact!"

The dragon flared its wings, beating furiously to hover on the spot and the Marines who raised their Magelocks found the dragon was actually dressed in armored barding, in counter shaded digital camouflage scheme, all dark above except for a multi-scale pattern at the edges.

It crackled out something suspiciously like laughter before flapping its wings away, heading towards the forest as it went on its aerial patrol. "Damn, fat lizard!" The Marines yelled insults and shook their weapons at the dragon flying away. "Goddamn Air Force pukes!"

"Alright, funs over," The sergeants ordered the men to continue their way back. "I want a shower!" The massive repurposed cargo doors slid open on oiled tracks, granting entry for the weary company, they noticed several changes made to the defenses, such as dozens of Czech hedgehog laid along the slopes, which served to prevent siege engines from being pushed up.

As they pass through Wall Alpha. they saw the sides of the mountain were being flattened, and the beginnings of concrete towers and bunkers were being constructed. Finally leaving behind Hell's Gate after passing through Wall Beta, the men were dismissed back to their barracks.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass Defense Command Center, The Pit

"Attention on deck!" The Marine on duty called out as Captain Blake entered the staff meeting room, before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.

"At ease, people," Captain Blake gestured everyone to take their seats. "OK, what's today's agenda?" He looked around the room and the display screens showing other people's images.

Most of the command staff were present at the meeting room, while those not physically here were present via video conferencing from the ship's meeting room. "Sir," Commander Ford spoke up from one of the displays, "Today will be a briefing on our current material and supply situation and future plans on how to handle the new growth and our stance against the Empire."

"Great," Blake rubbed his hands, "let's start."

Quartermaster Chen's image on the display screen flickered as he stood up and said, "Sir, our current material needs far outstrips our production capabilities. Be it ammunition, weapons, rune stones, and even clothing. Our fabricators and simple factories are barely able to keep up the demand at our current rate of consumption."

"We are lacking in many vital resources such as niter, copper, zinc and even our stocks of salvaged steel is dwindling. We need to secure sources of resources! Even with the iron and crappy steel that was looted from the Empire army, it still barely enough!" Chen's face was full of worry as he gave his report.

"Princess," Blake called out, "How are the mines going for those sources of copper, zinc, and iron we found?"

"Slowly, my Lord," Sherene's image in the display replied. "There had been several reports of goblin activities going on south of the new mining locations, we are still trying to secure the area."

"Captain," Major Frank spoke up, "I have sent in another company of Marines to sweep the goblins out of the woods, but it takes time to ferret out the sneaky green skins."

"Work with the Air Force on this?" Blake suggested, "Get the dragons to help sniff out the goblin nests."

Frank nodded and sat back down, casting a look at the newly promoted Flight Lt. Commander Tommy, who was taking the role of Air Force Commander, returned a nod to Frank.

"Food production just still ongoing," Sherene spoke next, "We erm, stored the dead dragons and the meat yield from them are more than enough to sustain the population needs for meat for a couple of months." When the hoomans proposed to use the dead dragons for food, Magister Thorn nearly had a fit, while Sherene was kinda put off by the whole idea, but when she first tried dragon steak cooked by the hooman chef, she changed her mindset almost immediately.

And the fact that the other living dragons didn't really mind them eating their kind also helped, as to them dragons, meat was meat, they said all things followed a natural order, the strong preyed on the weak.

"The designated farmlands had been just cleared, thanks to the wonderous vehicles and planting has begun. We implemented a land lease scheme with the citizens, granting parcels of land to anyone willing to farm the land. Farming equipment was loaned to the farmers at 25% of their harvest for a period of two years." Sherene looked directly at Blake and gave him warm smile, "Response was great! We currently have over 800 hectares of land being cleared and farmed right now. It should be more than enough to support our needs with a surplus when harvest comes."

"Most of the ex-slaves and soldiers are farmers, to begin with," Sherene continued, "Once they are cleared to work, we can increase both our minerals. materials and food production greatly."

"Good work," Blake praised Sherene, earning a sly look from Ford, whom Blake ignored.

"And we have some good news," Sherene beamed, "In the saltpeter mines, the miners found a large deposit of Dragonite crystals!"

"Dragonite crystal?" All the humans looked at each other with confused looks. Magister Thorn nearly jumped out of his seat, almost pressing his face against the display screen. "DRAGONITE?"

"Calm down. Magister, can you all explain what that is?" Blake gestured Thorn to calm down.

"Dragonite is a very rare mineral!" Thorn explained excitedly, "It is suspected to be formed from the bodies of dragons after many many years!"

"How does it looks like?" Blake narrowed his eyes as he vaguely felt it was something very familiar. The rest of the humans also leaned forward.

"Oh, it looks like some sort of dark red crystal, like ruby." Thorn nodded to himself, "But the magical powers it possesses!"

"What are its uses for?" Frank asked next, while Blake was slightly disappointed that it wasn't crude oil that he was expecting.

"Hmmm, it has many properties, like highly flammable, able to increase magic usage and explosive too," Thorn listed out a few he can think of. "It is quite rare to find. The ancient scrolls do speak of them using as a fuel to power their floating castles."

"Fuel?" Blake's eyes lit up at the word, he rubbed his chin as he looked at Ford meaningful, who smiled in understanding.

"How much trouble will it take to mine it?" Blake asked, "It is dangerous?"

"Hmm no, and yes," Sherene replied, "It can be mined like how you mine ores, but as it is flammable, we have to use special tools to extract the Dragonite crystals out, as sparks could ignite it, causing an explosion."

"Then won't that Irisval girl be of use?" Blake asked Sherene.

She pondered about the question before answering, "I believe she should be of great help if she truly is a Geomancer."

"Awesome!" Blake grinned widely, "We talk in detail on this later! Next, military?"

Master Sergeant Pike stood up and said, "Ammunition consumption is at an all-time high, most of our ready stockpile are badly depleted, we couldn't sustain another all-out siege like before till ammunition production replenishes our current needs."

"Under weapons development, R and D are still ongoing with a man-portable mortar system, we do have a simple prototype but we actually need more production of gunpowder for the guns munitions."

"The M2 Magespitter has been proven in combat during the week before, so large-scale production can begin once the Hundred and First submits their comments and reviews on improvements of the weapon." Pike continued, "Also the new gunpowder mix of adding powdered mana stone has vastly improved the force of the gunpowder by a large as 20%. It will be very useful as a high explosive component."

"Next the experimental explosive shells and thermobaric rockets have also proven to be of quite effective, so we will refine those and being mass production as long we have the raw materials for them." Pike paused and looked at Magister Thorn's screen, "The stores of mana stones we captured from the Empire are all that is left as of now. We are seriously lacking mana stones of all types, we need to find a source for those fast."

"A mana stone can actually be used for many years," Thorn explained. "Cutting the stones into wafers and constant usage in the Magelocks are burning them out faster than we can replace them."

Magister Thorn furrowed his eyebrows, "Well, the only source of mana stones are harvested from beasts and monsters from the land. We used to have guilds that sent out requests for mana stones to be harvested, and those are typically taken care of by adventurers."

"So, we will require teams of men to go hunt beasts and monsters for their stones?" Blake asked, "Isn't it too ineffective?"

"Well, demands for mana stones ain't really high previously," Thorn pointed out. "Well, that is the only way to obtain more stones, unless of course, you raid the Empire stores for them?"

"Got it, I will think about what we can do," Blake scratched his chin, "Pike, I need weapons R and D to focus on making a proper fuse, rather than using up the mana stones as disposable fuses." Blake than leaned back and asked, "What's next?"

"Our patrols had spread out to a distance of 50 km radius from the Pass and found no traces of the Empire's army," Frank said next, "With the newly recruited dragons, we are using them as aerial recon while the UAVs are taken offline for maintenance."

"The two Silverwings had an endurance of roughly 2850 km per day or even more as long as adequate food, water and rest is given," Tommy said, "Their average cruising speed is roughly 142 km per hour and their sprint speed and jump up to 210 km per hour, but they could only keep it up for like 20 mins or so."

"They can keep going non stop on their cruise speed for up to twenty hours before needing to rest and properly feed, and the lesser the weight, the faster and further they can go," Tommy said. "The larger Spitfire could fly up to 30 hours non stop while its cruise speed is roughly at 120 km and sprint speed at 180 km. But the Spitfire can carry up to its own body weight in cargo as long it is distributed evenly along its body, while the Silverwings could only carry up to a third of its own weight."

"So far, the dragons are performing recon patrols around the Pass and flight trials to determine their full abilities," Tommy continued, "Also we have put up several recruitment notices for pilots and crew for the Valkyries and the dragons." He sat down as he finished his report.

"Ok, all done?" Blake looked around, "Ok, now for the Empire, I want us to stay on a lower alert level, but make no mistake, people, we are at war." Blake stood up, his arms leaning on the table top. "I want intelligence on the Empire," Blake turned to a display, showing the map of the land and pointed, "I want a team of intel gathering unit to insert here, pushing into the borders of the Empire to collect information, for this I would like to send the Hundred and First in."

"Communication rally points will be established and seeded along the mountain ridge and the forest for the intel team to communicate with us and also for future usage." Blake turned to Frank and Tavor.

"I want a plan of action by end of this week. It's time to hit back and we need to know how!"

100 - Mines of Sea Cliff

A couple of half-tracks rumbled down the unpaved road, along with a scenic route of the ocean, ferrying miners to their destination at the Sea Cliff mining facility. Irisval Von Aston sat nervously on the padded seat, staring wide-eyed at the moving scenery flying past her window.

When she woke up from the healer tent, she found herself questioned by a strange short-eared male, wearing some kind of uniform, after which the healer came in and told her that she collapsed due to magic exhaustion and minor blood loss.

The next few days, the same strange male calling himself as Tavor, made her answer strange questions and look at weird pictures, and she later found out that a truth stone was used on her while she questioned the strange hooman questions.

She told them everything she knows, and what they wanted to know. Like how her Aston family was from a conquered nation and her family held the bloodline of Elementalist which when the holder of the Aston bloodline awakens, has the power to control an element type. The Empire was greatly interested in using their bloodline to wage war against the whole world.

In exchange for the lives of her family, she forced herself to fight the Empire wars. At the start she resisted, but when the fingers of her younger siblings were given to her for each day of her refusal, she caved in. Now she hopes that the Empire thinks she had died here at the edge of civilization.

Her belief in these hoomans was raising with each day as she saw the way things happen and magical things work here. She firmly believes that if one day her family could be saved, it will be with the help of the hoomans.

Now she sat in an unadorned form-fitting and unfamiliar uniform in light grey tones and a scandalous skirt that ended at her knees, showing off her calves. She looked at the piece of paper in her hand, which had perfectly printed letters in Common and Eng-ish, telling her to appear at the mining station with directions and information.

She folded the precious piece of paper carefully and slipped it into her only bag issued by the 'government' with a few possessions. Finally after over an hour of traveling, both the vehicles pulled up before a heavily fortified compound. The metal grill gates rolled open, as guards in black armor waved the vehicles in, before shutting the gates.

Irisval followed the group of burly and friendly miners down the vehicle and did a slow turn as she took in the view. Squat buildings laid tidily on the side, surrounded by a grey wall with towers at fixed intervals. Several arcane machines sat under a shed and what looks like a pair of metal strips on the ground exited from a huge barn-like building with several tall round chimneys that gave off clouds of smoke.

Her eyes followed the thin metal strips, as they lead into the side of the sea cliffs, and into a gaping hole in the cliffs. The compound walls ended next to the cliffs with those metal wires she remembered seeing during the battle at the Pass. Four large strange looking windmills spun rapidly against the sea breeze and she wondered why they need mills here.

"Miss Aston?" Somebody called out to her as she looked around the compound. She turned and saw a mid-aged suntanned male in a red jacket waving at her, "I am Petty Officer Letts, in charge of construction and mining." He put out his hand for her to shake.

"Please call me Irisval," She gripped his hand in greeting, learning that is a form of greeting from observing the hoomans in the past week. "I was told come here to help with some construction and mining?"

"Yes, yes," Letts smiled, warming up to the pretty lass. "I was told to welcome you here, come I'll show you to your room first then a quick tour of the facilities."

The room assigned to her was overlooking the seaside, large enough for a single bed, a desk and chair at the side, and cupboard. A simple bathroom was also included, she had learned how to use the bath facilities while she was under the healer's care.

Letts waited patiently the room while she looked over her new lodgings, and next showed her the communal canteen, kitchens and the recreational room. Following that, he brought her to the offices, saying that she will be stationed at the office next to his during office hours, unless she was on site. Work hours are starts from nine in the morning and end at seven in the evening, while a mid-day break for an hour and a half for lunch.

Next, Letts led her to a place which he called the 'Locker room', where he said equipment for going into the mines are stored. He looked at her uniform and said, "Hmm, we need to get you some work clothes, don't wanna dirty your uniform if you wear that into the mines."

She was given a pair of slightly oversized overalls and work boots which she took a few minutes figuring out how to wear it in the changing room. After which Letts assigned her a locker and told her to place her uniform and other things that she didn't want to bring into the mines.

She was also given a safety helmet with a magical device that can light up an area, a handheld magical communication tool, and a face mask. These hoomans must be very rich, she thought as she carefully clipped the communication tool onto her belt, mimicking Letts.

Letts taught her how to operate the communication tool and lamp on her helmet. After certain she is proficient enough, he led her out from the building and towards the barn-like structure.

Inside, dozens of workers were pouring cartloads of soil into large vats, the smell of shit and urine overpowering in the workspace. Remembering her face mask, she put it on and breath deeply, then noticed that Letts was already wearing his mask and grinning at her through it.

"Come, this is where we process the soil they dig out for nitrates." Letts explained, "We dig the soil out and transport it down with carts on those rails tracks than we pour them into those vats and pour water in."

"We leave them for several days for the nitrates to get into the water, before pouring that water out and boiling them," He points to a few of the workers dressed in white frocks and masks, stirring the vats with sticks. "We add in wood ash to the mixture and boil off the water. The remaining mixture will then be sent off to the gunpowder mills to be further processed."

"I see," Irisval replied, only understanding half of what Letts said.

"Haha, don't worry about all the technical stuff yet," Letts good naturally laughed, "You will learn it all in time!"

Next, Letts led her out towards the mining cave, where several carts rumbled down the tracks towards the processing plant. "Remember to not walk within the yellow line," Letts pointed to the ground were lines painted in yellow next to the tracks. "Keep out of the yellow line and walk along the designated path, because those carts may just come out of the caves at any time." Just as he finished saying that, a cart came barreling out, filled to the brim with soil and rolled down towards the plant.

As they entered the mines, Irisval immediately found that the caves were brightly lit, which is different from what she knew of, as she had some experience helping out in mining and tunneling with her magic when she was in the Empire service.

Dozens of lamps giving off white light hang from the ceiling with cables and wires secured to the walls of the cave. Something like music was echoing down the tunnels and voices of the workers could be heard singing and laughing as they worked. "Now this way, walk your step!"

They headed downward, for almost 30 minutes as Letts pointed out details and gave explanations along the way before coming to a dead end. There was a fissure in the walls and Letts kneeled down and shone his handheld light into the crack, letting Irisval see what was inside.

"Look, can you see that?" Letts's face looked eerie as the light cast shadows on his features.

Irisval lowered her self down and peer into the crack, and saw a passageway inside, the walls of the passage glowed red as fist-sized crystals reflected the light from Letts's magical torch. "Oh my, are those Dragonite crystals?"

"Ah huh, they sure are beautiful," Letts replied, "Now here's where we need your help. You know earth magic yes? We need you to help expand the hole here for us to mine the crystals."

Irisval stood up and patted her hands and knees, and turned on her headlamp, walking in a circle around the area as she looked around the cave. "Hmm, it shouldn't be a problem."

"You know we can't use tools to widen the passageway, as they might explode from a spark," Letts asked, "So we need you to do this nice and safe."

"I understand," Irisval said, "I do it now?"

"Now?" Letts looked startled, "Don't you need to prepare or something?"

Irisval laughed, her laughter echoing down the tunnel, "No no, it's very simple, you just want to widen the hole large enough for people to enter and also those carts of yours, yes?"

"If possible of course!" Letts nodded excitedly, "You can do that?"

"It's easy," Irisval smiled and placed her palm against the rock wall, and started to chant softly. A brownish hued magic circle appeared over her palm and the flickered as the spell completes.

The wall slowly crumbled, like falling ashes, onto the floor and an opening large enough for a jeep to pass through appeared. Soft red glow shone through the small mound of crumbled rock dust. Irisval gently swept away the dust and picked up a Dragonite crystal the size of an egg and held it out towards Letts who looked with an open mouth expression of surprise.

She giggled, "You hoomans had never see magic before?" She teased. "I weathered the rock into dust so there will not be any damages to the surrounding area."

Speechless, Letts shooked his head, "Seriously, not till we came to this planet. You really broke down the rocks to soil?" He blurted out.

Irisval raised her eyebrows, and kept the tiny nugget of information in her mind, "Yes, so is this good enough?" she asked.

"Oh yes! YES!" Letts yelled, "Oh my god! You are wonderful!" He grabbed Irisval and hugged her, spinning her around in joy. "This is so amazing! Thank you!"

Irisval was very surprised by the manhandling but she felt warm inside, it was the first time since she sided with the Empire that someone praised and thanked her sincerely. She quickly looked away, hiding her tears forming in her eyes and quickly said, "Let's see what is inside?"

"Oh yes, wait, I need to report this first!" Letts quickly pulled out his walkie and started to communicate with the mining control team.

Irisval stepped over the pile of rock dust and looked around with the help of her headlamp. The passageway stretched out far into the distance with several other tunnels branching away. She found fossilized bones edged with crystals, jagging out from the rock surfaces and even the ground she walked on was covered with Dragonite crystals.

The passageway ended at a huge cavern where the sight shocked her, as hundreds and hundreds of bones of dragons laid all over the cavern floor, her lamp lighting up the Dragonite crystals formed over the bones and surfaces of the cavern, casting an eerie red hue to the entire area.

But what shocked her the most was not the Dragonite crystals or the bones of the dragons, it was a door. A plain simple looking door set at the end of the cavern, her headlamp shone directly on it.

"Oh my, a dungeon!"

101 - Dungeon

The news of Dragonite crystals and the discovery of a dungeon in the mines had spread to the city within a week. The news brought much discussion within the city citizens.

Even the city broadcasting system was talking about the discovery and everyone were both hyped by the success of the Marines defeating the Empire forces and now the news had spread about the discovery of the valuable Dragonite crystals and news of the dungeon.

"So what is a dungeon? Captain Blake asked as he looked around Magister Thorn's office in the Academy with interest. There were all sorts of strange and weird fetishes one would find in some museum being haphazardly placed all over the shelves. Large tomes and rolls of scrolls made out of animal hide were stuffed in all corners imaginable.

Thorn sat on his chair behind his desk furrowed his eyebrows as he thought about the question, while Princess Sherene sat opposite the desk sipping tea with Dr. Sharon. Commander Ford lounged on the sofa with his legs crossed while Master Sergeant Pike stood at parade rest next to the door.

"Hmmm, well a dungeon or labyrinth is a construct left behind by a god," Thorn said, " To be exact, it is an ancient spell that the gods used to create their strongest warriors."

The humans looked alert as they heard the explanation. "Are there really gods?" Pike asked.

"Well, I don't know for sure if gods still existed at this time, but they sure are mention greatly in the ancient and historical texts during the Age of God as the historians called it," Thorn replied. "Well, to give a brief understanding, there was a war among the gods in the ancient times, vying for control over the heavens, you know all that usual drama."

"During the Age of Gods, the gods had split into three camps, the so-called old gods who defended their place in heaven, the new gods who wanted change and challenged the old regime and the neutral gods who sat by the fence and watched the show."

"Massive armies formed from both magic and recruited from the mortal realm waged war among themselves following the orders of the gods," Thorn appeared to be giving a lesson in history to the hoomans. "But what the old and new gods did not know was that the neutral gods watched and learned as they created these dungeons and labyrinths to create the best soldiers for their own armies."

"And when the time came when both the old and new gods were weakened, the supposedly neutral gods attacked with their armies, crushing all opposition from both sides," Thorn said, "But at the final fight in the heavens, the old gods used a spell which ended the war but following that all traces of the gods vanished."

"So you meant that goblins and dragons were created by gods?" Dr. Sharon asked, her eyebrows raised up in disbelief. "Even the people?"

"Well, in a way, yes," Thorn nodded, "the magical creatures that you see now are the descendants of the gods' magical armies. For us the people, legend has it that we are the children of gods without any godly powers nor the immortal lifespan of a god, thus we were called mortals."

"Wow," Blake spoke up, "But the question is how do the dungeons fit in? As to how do they work to create the best warrior?"

"Oh, I am not very sure," Thorn said sheepishly, "I only know that it's a maze and that the creatures fight constantly and the victor will be picked by the gods."

"Wait that sounds familiar," Pike spoke up, "Isn't some kind of Japanese Kodoku? Or the Chinese call it a Gu? Except for poisonous insects, monsters are used instead?"

"Now that you said it, it does sound so," Blake frowned. "So we got some kind of ancient construct from the age of gods in our backyard, nice..."

"Ko-do-ku? Ku? I would like to know more about them please, and, you are looking for a source of mana stones, yes?" Thorn asked, "Well, the monsters inside the dungeon will drop mana stones after getting defeated."

"What?" The humans all cried out the same time. "There is something so convenient?"

"Well, each dungeon or labyrinth has a heart, it basically is a huge mana stone that attracts the dead spirits of creatures," Thorn explained further, "And there must be a huge abundant supply of magical energy, like a fey line than it can happen."

"A massive magic formation is created at points of magic energy naturally gathers, this is used to power the magic array and the dungeon heart. Using these energies, the dungeon heart will use the spirits of creatures it gathers, forming bodies, bringing the spirits into life with flesh and blood." Thorn frowned, "as to how it all came back, you have to ask the ancient gods."

"It acts as some kind of magnet to attract spirits and souls? That's amazing!" Dr. Sharon exclaimed, "I can't wait to explore it!"

"I don't think that's such a good idea, Doc," Ford said. "How deep or large will the dungeon be?" Ford asked Thorn.

"Well, I explored a couple of dungeons in my days," Thorn said proudly, "Depending on the magic source, it can go from three or four stories underground to a hundred levels! There used to be a couple of dungeons within the Goldrose Kingdom, both were small dungeons that mostly used by adventurers to hunt for monsters."

"For this dungeon, I suspect it should be around 10 to 15 levels deep," Thorn guessed, "We will only know more when we explore it."

"Wait, so the dungeon has creatures inside, so what happens if we killed everything?" Pike asked. "And what happens if we remove the dungeon heart?"

"Oh, most countries forbid the removal of the dungeon hearts, as the creatures inside will reappear again even after being defeated," Thorn answered. "Usually takes two days or more for the monsters to reappear. Adventurers normally use dungeons to hunt for materials and items from monsters this way, and the country with the dungeon charges an entrance fee."

"So, the monsters respawn?" Pike eyes glowed, "So we can keep farming the monsters for mana stones?"

"Oh yes," Thorn nodded, "But the treasures and artifacts don't respawn when taken out of the dungeon."

"Wait!" Blake stopped Thorn, "There are treasures and artifacts?"

"Of course!" Thorn nodded again, "Well the gods wanted to entice mortals and creatures to join their armies in the past, so it's common to have treasure and artifacts stored inside the dungeons."

"As for the heart," Thorn said, "removing it will destroy the dungeon. The monsters wouldn't respawn anymore and the dungeon will become a lifeless structure. So I would advise not to touch the heart at all if you want a constant source of mana stones."

"Great…" Blake looked at Ford who grinned. "So we should lock down the dungeon first to prevent anyone from entering till our forces cleared it first?"

"Well, you can charge a fee for anyone willing to enter the dungeon," Thorn shrugged. "That's how it was done normally."

"How difficult would the dungeon be?" Pike asked again. "Do many people die exploring a dungeon?"

"That depends on the dungeon type," Thorn replied, "Also it does get harder the deeper you venture into the dungeon, and if you encounter champions or even bosses inside. Some dungeons are even well known for mechanical traps and devices."

"There had been many deaths in the past till the adventuring guilds tend to assign a grade to known dungeons, from Rank One to Rank Five. With Five as the hardest." Thorn continued, "It helped to reduce the number of deaths greatly as the guilds also assigned a rank to each adventurer, so they know what's the approximate level for them to enter a dungeon."

"They have champions and bosses?" Dr. Sharon excitedly asked before looking at Captain Blake, "Captain! Request permission to be part of the exploration team!"

Blake groaned and shook his head, "Doc, please, it is dangerous, and we can't have anything happening to you!"

"Well, you can have Claymore One to escort me!" Dr. Sharon argued.

"I been in a dungeon too when I was younger," Princess Sherene suddenly spoke up, "It was alright, I and my brothers fought against some undead."

"Princess, you're NOT helping!" Blake muttered, shaking his head.

"Hahaha," Ford laughed, "Doc, let the Marines take a look first, if Pike deems the danger level to be acceptable then we organize you and a team to enter the dungeon. How's that, Captain?"

Blake nodded, "Yes, and Princess, no, you don't get to go either!"

Both Dr. Sharon and Sherene pouted and started whispering some conspiracy between themselves.

"Alright, so to sum it up, this dungeon can provide us with a steady supply of mana stones." Blake summarised, "Also chance of finding treasure and magical artifacts. But we do not know what grade the dungeon is."

"So how do the guilds grade the dungeons?" Blake further asked.

"By the number of levels and monsters type," Thorn said, "Generally a dungeon up to five levels deep are rank one, up to 10 levels as rank two, up to 20 levels deep as rank three and 30 levels deep as rank four and anything more than 40 levels deep as rank five."

"So you estimate our dungeon to be rank two to three?" Ford asked which Thorn nodded. "Great! So who wants to form a party?"

"Me! Me!" Dr. Sharon hopped up and down excited, her short 150 cm height made her look like a child at times, especially now.

Blake sighed and glared at her till she settled down quietly at her chair. "As we had said, wait till we assess the danger level."

"Sir, I like to volunteer the Hundred and First on an armed recon of the dungeon first," Pike said.

"How's the wounded Claymore One member?" Blake asked.

"He's alright now, he will be having nightmares for a while, but there aren't any long-lasting effects to his mental health," Dr. Sharon answered. "He shouldn't be possessed or carry any unwanted things on him. He just failed his sanity check."

"Yes, Sir, Doc had given him a clean bill of health," Pike said, "I would like to have the Hundred and First run through the dungeon as a training exercise for them. You know, idle hands are the devil's tools and all that, and I do so love a live fire exercise."

"I see," Blake grinned and rubbed his chin. "Alright, Top, I approve. Send them in for a look see look see, if things get too hot, pull them back."

"Yes, sir!" Pike acknowledged. "I will have them map the dungeon out as well, and also a company of Marines will be in support should they need more firepower."

"Alright next, how are the test results on the Dragonite crystals?" Blake asked Dr. Sharon next. "Are they suitable for us to use as a form of fuel?"

"Oh, very!" Dr. Sharon smiled, "Apparently we can refine it into a liquid form which works similarly to gasoline, in fact, the Octane index is rated at 90 just purely on its own!" And with a few minor refinements, we can make aviation grade fuel as you have requested."

"I think so far this is the best turn of events since that incident involving those deserters," Blake said, "I got plans for a couple of all wooden construction airframes, just that we lack fuel and proper weapons for them."

"Now we have the fuel problem solved, we need to solve our gunpowder issues," Blake continued, "Black powder really isn't suited for fully automatic weapons, fire a few dozens rounds in it and the weapons will jam."

"Top, I would like to prioritize on the research of making smokeless powder." Blake instructed Pike, "Artillery can still be put on hold. If we have smokeless powder, the problems caused by black powder in the breech-loading artillery will also be solved too."

"Also anti-air artillery," Blake raised up next, "We need some sort of delay or proximity fuses for anti-aircraft shells. We can't use impact fuses against flying targets."

"Intel has estimated that if the Duke's force of roughly 20 thousand regular troops gets supported by a hundred dragons, the main standing army of the Empire of half a million would have at least two thousand five hundred dragons on call, not counting irregular or reserves if they have it!"

102 - Peace through Superior Firepower

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base

The concrete hangar doors laid open and Lieutenant Commander Tommy walked past the parked Valkyries undergoing maintenance by a crew of techs. He paused to admire the squat hunching ragged look of the birds and walked towards the office at the end of the hangar.

He entered the side office and found Captain Blake and Chief Matt had already gathered around the office desk. "Sir!" He quickly gave a salute.

"At ease, Commander. Here, take a seat," Blake gestured Tommy to an empty chair while pouring a bottle of whiskey into a glass and passing to him.

"Since this is an unofficial meeting, so I brought some drinks," Blake grinned and the three of them toasted. "Cheers!"

"So what's the meeting about, Sir?" Tommy asked after taking a swig of the whiskey.

"Well, it's about the formation of the Air Force of course," Blake replied as he took out a tiny display stand and placed it on the desk before switching it on.

A holographic 3D model of a biplane appeared, slowly rotating above the circular display stand. "This is a World War One British Aircon DH 2 biplane model," Blake said. "Designed by Sir Geoffrey de Havilland who later formed the De Havilland Aircraft Company which built and designed one of the most successful multi-role combat aircraft of World War Two, the de Havilland DH 98 Mosquito which frame is built almost entirely out of wood and they also built the first commercial jet airliner in the world."

"I abit of a history buff and I got a hobby of 3D holo kit modeling old planes," Blake explained. "I am thinking of using this as the base design for our first aircraft here. The DH 2 runs on a pusher configuration and its design is very maneuverable and relatively easy to fly. Historically, its engine is prone to stalling but we should be able to fix its stalling issues."

"Isn't it too primitive?" Tommy raised his eyebrows as he took a sip of the whiskey. "It looks flimsy, won't a monoplane tracer design be better?"

"Well compared to everything we have, yup very primitive," Blake agreed, as he poured another round of whiskey. "But considering the technical knowledge and resources we have, this is a good learning and starting point for our people to learn how to build and design aircraft."

Chief Matt nodded, "Cap, has a point here, we know how to maintain the Spacebus turned Valkyries and UAVs due to that was what was taught and we have the manuals. But straight up building an aircraft? Well, frankly I doubt anyone has the proper expertise on building one. Not to mention knowing the Cap, he plans to build our aircraft using metal-wood and metal-metal bonding techniques."

"Even me, if you ask me about building you a car, I could still wing it, but a whole aircraft? It's gonna be hard," Chief Matt admitted, "This design here at least looks similar to ultralights which some of my boys have some experience on, it will be a good learning lesson for everything on this project."

Tommy nodded, and picked up the holo kit, examining the plane. "So the wings are made out of some kind of fabric?"

"Well, for the frame we can use wood and nano carbon tubes while the wings we can opt for using our limited salvage stock of carbon fiber polymer or even treated leather," Blake said. "Matt will work with his guys in coming out a way to use wood as the main material to replace metals such as aluminum and other advanced materials which we have no way to produce."

"The elves appear to be quite proficient with woodworking techniques and hopefully we can work something out," Matt grinned next. "If not, we try magic. The aircraft will be a twin seater pusher engine design. With a wind resistance and weight reduction runes, and at least a 200 horsepower engine, it will be more than enough for our current needs."

"I plan to have the aircraft with a proper canopy instead of an open-air top, the forward gunner will be more like a ball turret carrying dual heavy machine guns while the aircraft primarily carry cannon or rocket pods," Blake said. "But of course only after we get a prototype up and flying than we see what we can do to upgrade it to more modern standards."

"And with fixed wheel carriage, we won't even need a proper runway for them to take off and land, as long the field is flat and without any foreign objects and debris littering the field," Blake grinned.

"Sir, that is a lot of guesswork and ifs," Tommy pointed out, "We don't even have a combustion engine yet!"

"Haha, I know, that's why we are drinking now!" Blake joked before looking serious, " Look, Chief Matt here already have plans and designs for a nine-cylinder air-cooled radial engine rated around 200 horsepower."

"We already successfully built a prototype five-cylinder air-cooled radial engine, roughly rated at 100 horsepower and tested it," Chief Matt said next, "We used methane and ethanol fermented from potatoes as fuel for the prototype and it somewhat worked,"

"What we lacked was a sustainable fuel source as using potatoes currently just to make fuel will dip into our food stocks greatly," Chief Matt continued, "But now we found out that Dragonite crystals are similar to our fossil fuels, and it is more efficient and cheaper to produce compared to using and producing methane or ethanol."

"So now the more powerful nine-cylinder engine can go into testing phrase once the fuel has been refined and tested," Blake finished.

"Well I chose the DH 2 is also because it can be built by hobbyists in their own garage," Blake smiled, "I got the exact specifications and plans, that came along with the holo model kit."

"I want you in this project not only because your the Air Force Commanding Officer, but also due to your previous experience in flying monoplanes," Blake asked, "How're the dragons?"

"I see," Tommy nodded, he had some prior experience in flying monoplanes in the past. "I am currently coming out a doctrine for dragon combat with Blue Thunder and a training manual for integrating dragons into the whole combined arms doctrine."

"From what we know of the Empire dragon tactics are they group 20 middleweights and two heavyweights into a unit or Corps as Blue Thunder explained to me," Tommy explained, "The heavyweights are the anvil while the middleweight worked as the hammer."

"They will conduct harassing tactics against enemy dragons to force the enemy to close in with them and use the heavies to punch through while the mids flank or distract," Tommy finished his drink in one swallow. "It works well against an enemy whose numbers are lesser than theirs, which is all the time."

"When engaging heavy against heavy, they normally have the dragon exchange long range breathe attacks, like fireballs and stuff then close into crossbow range, which from what Blue Thunder tells me, the crossbow bolts tend to have special spells inscribed on them that hurt a lot."

"The next and final move is boarding action, which the crew on either side jumps onto of each other dragons and try to kill the crew or take the captain hostage which the dragon tend to surrender."

"That sounds like some old school age of sail naval action. Range with cannons and close in before entering boarding actions," Blake raised his eyebrows.

Tommy nodded, "That's why I'm coming out with a new doctrine against the Empire dragons."

"Just hit them from afar before they come into crossbow range," Chief Matt suggested. "Or have aircraft like what the Cap, suggested, gun them down before they can react."

"Yes, Chief," Tommy nodded, "If the first prototypes proved themselves, I will switch to aircraft as the main force while the dragons will be playing the roles of bombers and close air support."

"Apparently autopsy results from Dr. Sharon explains a bit of how dragons with over 30, 40 tons of weight could fly," Tommy shared some information he gotten from Dr. Sharon. "The dragons have these sacs inside their lungs and chest cavities that get filled with hydrogen. Seems like their lungs are able to process hydrogen from the air they breathe in and stores them in sacs like organs in their body."

"The compressed hydrogen proves lift for the dragons and Dr. Sharon believes that is how they are able to breathe or spit fire out," Tommy continued, "And with their innate magical abilities to fly and most likely weight reduction. That's probably how something heavier than a dinosaur could fly even without hollow bones."

"Even the scales of the dragons are almost similar in properties with kevlar," Tommy shook his head, "Anything short of 12.7 mm is not gonna do shit to a dragon."

"I did plan to put 20 mm autocannons on the planes," Blake hinted, "provided we come out with a smokeless propellant soon."

"So to sum it up," Chief Matt downed his drink in one gulp, "It's all magic!"

"Well, yea, in a nutshell," Tommy laughed. "I am starting to not question any weird shit this planet throws at me anymore. I just explain it as magic."

"Yea, but we need to know how these magic can help us," Blake said, "I am not really keen on fighting half a million troops from the Empire. Even if I have a nuke, I seriously wouldn't wanna nuke them."

"Why, Sir?" Tommy asked, curious. "Why not nuke them then everything is solved."

"Have you ever thought that we are here accidentally? What right do we have to meddle with an alien planet's politics?" Blake asked. "How would you feel if an alien race comes and nuke us? Like the Swarm?"

"Erm, all-out war? Either they die or we die?" Tommy guessed.

"You have it," Blake said, "Look at the Swarm, we didn't provoke them and yet they are determined for our destruction."

"In this case, we helped a group of refugees in this planet from another nation," Blake explained, "To us, we might be self-righteous in saving these people, but what other the other side? To them these are rebels, despite all that slavery shit, to them we are the meddling ones."

"So does it make it right if we have a weapon of mass destruction to bomb them for following their culture, beliefs, and ideas that are alien to us as ours are alien to them?" Blake pointed out. "Also the collateral damage? Are we willing to take the blame for killing countless unknowing innocents? And the UN banned the use of nuclear weapons on green planets in the 2061 Peace Accords to prevent events like the Sirius Incident where the Chinese nuked the French colony and kicked the planet's ecosystem into a nuclear hell, wasting 30 years of terraforming efforts."

"Not to mention we lack any means to produce a nuke, or even do perform any nuclear cleanup," Blake added. "Almost all our equipment for that was lost in the rear portion of the ship."

"If that's the case why are we helping the natives?" Chief Matt asked, "Shouldn't we be minding our own business?"

"I wish it could be that simple, Chief," Blake sighed, "We crash landed here without anything except what's onboard the ship, the locals can provide us with food and a workforce for our survival needs."

"If we rejected them, our current food and industrial capabilities won't be what it is today," Blake explained. "Almost 90% of the crew are all city kids, without any proper skills of surviving out in the wild. That's why we need them just as they needed our help. This one of the reasons why I want to make this war with the Empire to be fucking expensive, making each lost so great that they take years to recover and forcing them to negotiate with us instead of sending more troops against us."

"And not only that, we don't have any means of returning home yet, and most likely we will have to stay here for generations, so having the natives integrate with us also helps our objective in surviving in the long run." Blake gave a sigh and stared at the bottle of whiskey. "And the creatures and monsters here, all being hostile and with our fighting force despite being first grade, are very limited, having locals as part of our armed forces also boost our survival rate."

"But to do that, we need to have a war machine capable of crushing any force sent against us. We don't have the manpower or the need to invade the Empire. That's why I am pushing weapons development more than civic development for now." Blake poured another roll of drinks for everyone and gave a toast, throwing back his head and finished the whole glass in one shot.

"Peace through superior firepower, bitches!"

103 - Golems

Following the discovery of the Dragonite crystals and the appearance of a dungeon, the mining station underwent a frenzy of changes. A company of Marines was dispatched to reinforce the mining station and provide security to the miners.

As Captain Blake's jeep rumbled to a stop at the parking lot, he noticed several large rocky figures pushing carts filled with soil along the tracks. The strong stench of waste assailed Blake's nose as a gentle breeze blew the smell over.

"Hey," Blake stopped one of the workers along and way and pointed to the weird rock figures working in the yard. "What are those?"

The worker looked at Blake and his dirt covered face gave a toothless grin, "New here? Why those are Mistress Irisval's akmekal!"

"Akemkal?" Blake scratched his head as he repeated the unfamiliar Common Tongue word. "Mistress Irisval?"

"You don't know who Mistress Irisval is?" The worker looked at Blake's confused face like he was some country bumpkin. "Well let me tell you then, Mistress Irisval is our mining community benefactor!"

The elf pointed to the animated rock figures and said, "With her help, those akmekal can do the work of three men, greatly helping us increase our output and work!" He said proudly.

"Hmmm," Blake rubbed his chin, watching the slow movements of the rock figures. He thanked the worker and walked up next to one of the working statue.

On closer view, the moving statue looks like a hunk of rock with very humanoid features chiseled out from its surface. A featureless lump served as the head, with a large broad chest and wide shoulders which two blocky arms dangled down to its stubby legs, ending at the knees area. Each hand had three digits that looked like a clamp.

One of the rock figures was unloading the carts of soil into a vat and Blake stood next to it, ignoring the stench and it towered over Blake, taller than the four meters tall vat, which a platform and stairs were constructed on the side for workers.

Blake rapped his knuckles against the stone legs and the akmekal paused its work, turning its featureless face to him. The akmekal appeared to examine Blake before returning back to work, carefully shaking the cart of saltpeter rich soil into the vat.

"Goddamn!" Blake whispered in wonder, these things appeared to be made out of rock or stone, yet it could move its arms and legs like it was not made out of solid matter. "What kind of magic is this?"

"Captain?" Someone called out from the processing plant and Blake turned and saw Petty Officer Letts dressed in work overalls, safety helmet on and in a face mask. "What are you doing here, Sir?"

"Oh, I'm just here to take a look around," Blake said and gestured to the stone figure working behind him. "New help?"

"Haha, so you met our automations?" Letts grinned as he led Blake towards the admin building. "The locals call them elementals, which translate to elementals or golems."

"Where did they come from?" Blake asked, "from the dungeon?"

"No no, it's that girl whom you all sent over, made them," Letts clarified. "Irisval von Aston, she made them."

Blake stopped in his tracks and stared at Letts, "I know she is an earth elementalist but she has the power to do that?"

"Actually no, she could make baby sized golems, and they will only have enough magic power to last about an hour before she has to transfer her magic to power it again," Letts explained, "At the start she wanted to use the baby golems to help out with the mining work, but it depleted her energy greatly."

"I see, than looking at this giant, I say there has been some kind of breakthrough?" Blake guessed.

"Oh yes," Letts grinned even wider, "Those Dragonite crystals? It seems they are chock full of magic power and goodies inside. Well, she placed one of those crystals into the baby golems and it ran like some energizer bunny, its operating time lasting a solid three days and it is still running."

"So we experimented with a larger version of the golems and it powers them well," Letts proudly said. "We managed to gauge that per 100 grams of Dragonite crystals is equaled to roughly five hours of battery life for these monsters."

Letts gestured to the giant golem diligently unloading the contents of the mining carts, just as a trio of baby-sized golems carrying a crate over their heads ran past Blake and disappeared around a corner.

"It has very basic intelligence, so you need l to tell it specifically on what you what it to do, seems to work well with programming style commands," Letts said. "I got a couple of IT eggheads to see if we can apply programming language onto their magic core to see if they can write some kind of basic AI for them."

"That is outstanding!" Blake praised, seriously impressed by Letts's mind and initiative. "How do they move their arms and legs if they are solid rock?"

"I don't have an answer for that," Letts shrugged, "Even if you ask Irisval she will just tell you its magic. Maybe Dr. Sharon or Chief Matt might explain it with science?"

"Hmm, interesting," Blake and Letts entered the main admin building were Letts started to strip off his work overalls and safety gear. "Keep me constantly updated on the golem AI development."

"Yes, Sir. Almost strangely we can't use concrete for the golems," Letts added as he led Blake towards the offices. "Irisval said something about living rock and concrete has no life or something along these lines."

Letts opened the door to his main office and a room with several desks against the wall with two other staff could be seen working, filling columns and ticking checklists in thick books.

"Welcome to Mining Incorporated!" Letts grinned, "That's my office, and this is where my staff handles the records of output and other expenses and accounts."

"That's Irisval's office on the right," Letts pointed out, "Looks like she's not in."

"Aetter?" Letts turned to a young female elf with blonde hair, who was busily punching numbers into a calculator amidst the messy pile of paperwork around her desk. "Where is Irisval?"

"Mistress Irisval?" The blonde elf paused her work with an irritated look, "She should be at her workshop." She returned to her work, ignoring the two of them.

"Sorry," Letts smiled in apology to Blake, "They are very hardworking and focused."

Blake grinned and followed Letts out of the admin building and back into the courtyard. "Why are they calling her Mistress?"

"I think its a form of respect, due to her powers," Letts shrugged, "Seriously I am also not too sure. Oh, here we are." A large two-story wooden shed with both its large swing doors opened painted in red stood by three other similar building in parallel. A large white '4' was painted on the side of the workshop and a pair of rail tracks led into the open doors.

As they entered the workshop, Blake noticed there were mini cranes and hoists all over the ceiling, their chains hanging overhead. At the center of the workshop, a large magic formation was drawn and carved into the floor, drawings of unknown symbols, signs, and runes were drawn all over the walls and floor, followed by cables snaking all over the flooring. If the lighting and atmosphere of the workshop weren't so bright and sunny, he would have thought he entered some sort of cultist den.

Work tables occupied both sides of the workshop, with several monitors, laptops, and tools of all kinds and scrolls, candles and jars of unidentifiable stuff laid haphazardly all over the tables while a radio was blasting some rock and roll. Stairs on the side led to side plankway on the second floor to a bridge suspended over the middle of the room.

A huge rock boulder over four meters tall and two meters wide with moss still present on its surfaces sat at the middle of the magic formation where the pair of tracks cut right through. They must use the tracks to travel the rocks over here using the carts and the cranes to hoist it over the formation, thought Blake.

As they neared the rock, a head full of thick silvery hair tied in a ponytail appeared on the other side, and he saw a girl dressed in a pair of dirty work overalls carrying a bowl of what he assumed to be liquid silver and brush, drawing some arcane symbols onto the rock surface.

Letts cleared his throat and coughed, and the girl who was humming along to the tune jerked up and noticed the two of them standing at the entrance. "Oh, Boss Letts!" She cheerfully called out and placed her work tools down on the side.

She removed her gloves and paused, recognizing Blake and pulled up straight, "Eh, my Lord!" she cried in surprise and quickly went down on her knees to kowtow, much to Letts and Blake's amusement.

"It's alright," Blake waved for her to get up. "You don't have to do that here or call me Lord, just Sir or Captain will do. Is this what do you call it, an akemkal?"

"Yes, my lo-Sir," Irisval blushed as she quickly got up. "Yes, this is an akemkal, or golem as you call it in Eng-ish."

"Amazing," Blake walked around the rock with his hands behind his back, looking at the arcane symbols and runes drawn here and there. "How does it works?" Thinking that Dr. Sharon would go apeshit crazy if she knew about these.

"Sir, I cast an enchantment spell onto the rock, making it come alive," Irisval explained as simple as possible. "My magic will grant it life and it follows my orders or anyone imprinted with my magical mark. It will continue to be able to move and do simple commands until its magical reserves run out or if I remove my magic."

"Can anyone just remove its magic?" Blake asked as he stopped next to the silver-haired elf.

"No, only by destroying its core and only me can stop it," Irisval replied. "Normally, my magic only allows a much much smaller version of the akemkal to be made, they normally work as simple servants, carrying objects for you and last an hour or two before I need to recharge them with my magic."

"But," She turned to the table at the side and picked up a blood red crystal quartz. "Dragonite crystals, this can increase the lifespan and strength of the akemkal, allowing me to increase the size of it."

"And Boss Letts has someone helping me to program the akemkal, allowing us to give them more complex instructions," Irisval added, gesturing to the computers on the tables.

"How do you program them?" Blake asked curiously.

"For me, the spells I draw on the akemkal are mixed with instructions like walking, running, lifting and other basic movements," Irisval explained, "The hooman Tae-joon Pak, is helping me analyze my enchantments with those devices." She points to the pillars of the workshop where cameras could be seen.

"Where is him now?" Blake asked again. "I would like to talk with him."

"I think he has gone to lunch," Irisval shrugged, "He should be back soon."

"Senior Spaceman Tae Joon Park," Letts said, "He's our IT support here, responsible for the robotic mining drones we have. But since we are not using them, and he saw what Irisval is doing here, I assigned him over to see if he can do anything to help out."

"Apparently, he thinks that he can crack the drawings she is drawing on the golems," Letts continued, "He thinks that as he long as he can crack it, he can work with it like some kind of programming code, and laser print out more complex enchantments onto the golems, you know like some basic AI stuff."

"Damn," Blake turned and looked at Letts in excitement, "If he succeeded, you know what?"

"We can have fucking heavy combat walkers!"

104 - Looking for Group

Third Sergeant James Bone of 1st Marine Battalion, 1st Company, 3rd Platoon leaped down the tailgate of the military half-track, his boots slamming down on the hard concrete. He took a look around as he grabbed his weapon and gear off the storage bin. Other than the smell, the mining outpost look neat and tidy.

He walked towards a large sign with an arrow that said, "Marines" and entered the building where an elf with corporal strips, most likely newly promoted after the battle of the Past sat on duty behind a desk at the lobby. "Sergeant! How can I help you," The corporal stood up in parade attention.

"Here, I am supposed to find Top," James hands over his orders printed in a paper over to the corporal who took a quick glance before directing him to the top floor and informing him to hand over his weapons to the armory behind him before going up.

James nodded and head over to the armory, dropping off his Magelock, Single Action Revolver, machete, and ammunition before climbing the stairs up to the third floor, where he entered a large room with chairs set out in rows enough for twenty people.

Some of the chairs were occupied, and James spotted a familiar face, and carried his gear over, flopping next to the shortly cropped red hair grinning at him. "Hey, James," Petty Officer 2nd Class Kristine looked up at him as he sat next to her. "How's it going?"

"Can't be better," James smiled at Kristine, "Long time no see, how are you?"

"Busy," She smiled back, "Teaching the natives in the academy most of the time." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh, what subjects?" James asked as he removed his load bearing harness.

"English and mathematics," She replied, "I also help out with basic computer knowledge too."

"I thought you majored in archeology and history if I remembered correctly," James furrowed his eyebrows in thought, "Why are they getting you to teach such stuff?"

"Apparently being from Cambridge makes you wildly popular with the higher-ups," Kristine explained, "Well, blame me for acing my English and Maths scores."

James gave a low whistle, "So Teacher Kristine, what brings you here?' He gestured around the meeting room.

"Beats me," She shrugged and leaned back on her chair, "How about you?"

"Oh, mines simple," James kicked back and yawned, "Got pulled to be an instructor at the Camp Alpha, trained out a batch of Marines and then the Empire came for round two, and we kicked their asses."

"That sounds simple," Kristine grinned, "So know anything why they called us here?" She looked at the other group of elves dressed similarly to James, who was mostly dozing off at the chairs.

"They are from the Hundred and First, team Claymore One," James gave a quick explanation, "Seems like something big is gonna happen if they are here too."

"Hope it has nothing to do with the dungeon the radio is talking about all week," Kristine said, "I dunno if I can go into another tunnel again."

"Hmm, well, to be frank, I think it has to do with the dungeon," James gave his guess, "You and me being in a ruins, and you being knowledgeable Cambridge gal, had major in archeology and had proven capable under fire..."

"Noooo... please stop!" Kristine pleaded, "I have nightmares about that!"

"Come on, if we go in, at least this time we are more prepared!" James grinned. 'It will be like a Role Playing Game now! Go in kill monsters and find treasure!"

"What's with you guys always about killing and treasure?" Kristine moaned, just as the door opened and several people entered the room. Magister Thorn, Dr. Sharon, Top, Captain Blake, and an unfamiliar silver-haired elf entered together and Top, yelled, "Attention on deck!"

The dozing Claymore One team woke up almost immediately and following James and Kristine, shot up in parade attention and saluted as one. Captain Blake saluted back, "At ease, men." And other than Top who stood at parade rest at the door, the rest of the group found seats and the room settled down.

"Alright, I have called everyone here for a mission," Blake began the brief, "By now everyone has heard of the dungeon right?" Nods were returned from everyone. "So we are going in to explore it."

"Claymore One will be split into two, Squad One and Squad Two will under the command of Master Sergeant Pike and supported by Magister Thorn," Blake started to assign team roles. "The second party will be Squad Three and Specialist Sergeant Tyrier under the command of Sergeant James and supported by Petty Officer Kristine and erm, Mistress Irisval."

The seated soldiers nodded at Blake's instructions while Kristine's face fell. "Dr. Sharon will be providing support remotely at the operation center here."

"Now, this dungeon is something most of us are new to," Blake said next, "Magister Thorn will give you a brief of roughly what you can expect to find inside. Magister Thorn?" Blake invited Thorn up.

"Thank you, Sir," Magister Thorn stood up and faced the group seated. "Well, I entered two dungeons when I was younger, back in the days," He smiled, "What can we expect inside?"

"For one, monsters, but what types or species, we won't know till we explore the place," Thorn said, "Next, traps, there might be some or there might not be any, also dependant on the dungeon."

"For this dungeon, we estimated using ground penetrating radar, that it will be roughly thirteen levels deep," Blake added, "The size of the levels is roughly one acre or less. The radar could only pick up rough patches of subsurface objects and changes in material properties, but not the layout of tunnels and rooms."

"So, we will be going in to explore and map out the first level and see what is inside first," Thorn continued. "The monsters get stronger as the level deepens, so it should be easy for us to clear the first level."

"Ok? Any questions?" Blake asked.

Kristine raised her hand, "Sir, why do you need me here?"

"I want you in the team is due to your archeology experiences and since you been under fire before and can keep a cool head.' Blake smiled.

James silently mouthed, an I told you so, which made Kristine rolled her eyes and gave a glare to James who grinned back.

"You are all allowed to use deadly force and the rest is up to the team leaders discretion," Blake continued. "Also gather all materials you could from the monsters back for research purposes. You will be carrying your standard weapons, except for team leaders, who will be issued the M7s, just in case."

"Anything else?" Blake asked again, "No? Ok, you will set off tomorrow morning at 0900 hours, gather at the Ops room by 0700 hours for a final briefing. Team Leaders to gather at 0600 hours, clear?"

"Aye aye, Captain!" The men chorused and broke up into their teams.

James stood at one corner while his team gathered around him, He looked at the three Claymore One soldiers, who greeted him, "Sergeant James, you were one of our instructors at Camp Alpha." Tyrier grinned.

"Great!" James grinned back, "Let's introduce ourselves to each other," He gestured to Tyrier to start.

"I am Specialist Sergeant Third Class Tyrier Lodess, I am Claymore One's team leader."

"Corporal Doth Leodin, Squad Three's Magic Assualt, team Claymore One."

"Private Tavel Kan, Squad Three's Sharpshooter and support medic, team Claymore One."

"Erm, Petty Officer 2nd class, Kristine Perry, Auxiliaries Department, I work in the life support systems, apparently I have knowledge of studying ancient ruins that is why I am here."

"Sergeant 2nd Class James Bone, 1st Marine Battalion, 1st Company, 3rd Platoon." And all eyes turned to the last member of the team, the silver-haired girl.

She looked unease and spoke in a soft voice, "Irisval von Aston, I am an Earth Elementalist."

The Claymore One guys whistled and wowed as they heard Irisval was an Elementalist, much to the confusion of James and Kristine. Tyrier seeing their confusion explained, "An Elementalist is very rare in this time and age. They have the ability to control the elements and for Irisval she said she's an Earth Elementalist meaning she can control the earth."

'Compared to your magic power?" James asked, "More powerful?"

"Oh yes," Tyrier nodded, "Say if I want to compare her magic vs mine involving the use of Earth element, Irisval's level one spell will be equaled to my level three spell even if it is the same spell using the same amount of mana power."

"But compared to other elements, she will be weaker especially against water-based spells but strong versus air based magic," Tyrier further explained, inciting a shy nod from Irisval.

"Very interesting," James rubbed his chin, wondering how should he deploy his team. "Alright, let's take a break for now, and let's meet up again later to discuss the dungeon after lunch? How's that?"

Everyone agreed and nodded, "So where should we meet up? The cafeteria?"

"Sure, why not?" Everyone was new to this area and does not know where else to go.

But Irisval stopped them. "Why not come to my workshop? It is quieter there and easier to talk."

"You have a workshop here?" James raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, I work here." She timidly replied she wasn't too good with new people.

"Great! Then let's go there instead!" James declared and got her to give the location of the workshop. "Workshop No. 4? Alright, let's meet later!"

Two hours later, the whole group gathered outside a large wooden building with a huge number 4 painted on the side with Irisval waving at them at the entrance. "Welcome to my workshop," She gave a shy smile. "Come on in."

"Why do they call you Mistress?" James asked as they entered the workshop, seeing two hulking rock sculptures set in the middle of the building surrounded by drawings on the floor.

"Erm, I think they call me that in as a form or respect after I helped some of the miners during a cave in," Irisval blushed, "I told them not to but they insisted."

"I see," James nodded, the rest looked around the brightly lit interior of the workshop in curiously. And saw a human sitting behind some computers at one side of the room, tapping away at his keypad with the radio running some music at his side.

"Is sculpturing your hobby?" Kristine asked as she peered at the featureless face of the rock statues. "Is this your workshop to make sculptures?"

The Claymore One members laughed, as they heard what Kristine said, and replied, "Ma'am, Mistress Irisval here is an Earth Elementalist. Meaning these sculptures are her akemkal!"

"Akemkal?" James and Kristine looked surprised and confused at the unfamiliar word. "What's that?"

Tyrier grinned, "I guess you guys just arrived and hasn't seen anything here yet." He rapped his fingers against the hard rock surface and gestured for Irisval to explain.

"Erm, an akemkal is a golem or puppet in other words," Irisval explained, "We will be bringing these two upgraded golems in with us tomorrow to act as our support."

'Wait, what?" James cried out, "You mean this rock sculpture can move?"

"Of course, Sergeant!" A voice suddenly cut into their conversation, and an Asian man dressed in a grey jumpsuit with rolled sleeves wearing glasses joined them. He was the human that was working at the corner earlier and hearing their conversation came over to join in.

"This is the apex of magic and human ingenuity!" The Asian male continued, a wide grin on his face, "Using the modern science of robotics and mixing with Mistress Irisval's control of Earth magic, we are able to create pseudo robots with basic AI without the need of complex machinery and wires!"

The Asian male appeared to be raving at this point as he launched into an explanation which most of them couldn't understand what he was explaining, making Kristine whispering to Irisval, "Is he alright?"

Irisval sighed, "He's fine, just .... over passionate. He's Tae Joon Pak the 'sis-term' support for the mining here and the Captain called him an 'Oh-ta-Ku' or something like that."

"He did however taught me and showed me some images and videos of how a person's anatomy like the joints of arms and legs, this allowed me to visualize a better way for the golems to move, thus increasing their agility and speed of movements," Irisval explained over the words of the Tae Joon Pak, which everyone was ignoring now. "I am creating the skeleton of the golem first than I will add in the rest like the armor for the body, which Tae Joon is helping me with on his 'corn-pu-er'."

"Damn, this is going to be fun, we got fucking armor support!"

105 - Dungeon Level 1

As dawn slowly break, members of the dungeon exploration team gathered once more at the meeting room on the top floor of the admin building. Everyone involved was already waiting anxiously, most of all James and Kristine didn't get much sleep the night before.

James sat next to Kristine, yawning as he woke up earlier than her and had to sit in an earlier meeting, he sighed and glanced at Kristine who ignored him. "It was nice last night," He whispered in her ear, making her blush slightly and giving him a hard pinch on his arm.

Rubbing his arm in amusement he laid back on his chair and smiled, refocusing on the topic at hand, which Top was detailing out final instructions to both the teams. Finally, the final briefing was over and the whole room filed out and gathered at the front of the admin building where a couple of large dark green tents were set up.

"Alright, enter the tents one by one, inside you will draw equipment and supplies for the mission," Pike pointed to the two tents behind him. "Ensure you have enough food and water for two days. Spare ammunition for your weapons, and rock climbing gear."

Kristine looked nervous as she entered the first tent, and saw two tables inside. A couple of Marines dressed in battle dress uniforms gestured her over and handing her an armored tactical harness and helmet to her size, instructing her how to wear it properly. Next, she was given a Single Action Revolver, which she had qualified in the gun range many weeks ago, which the Captain mandated all personnel to go through.

When she left both the tents, she carried only the revolver with spare ammunition, a katana-like blade in a scabbard, strapped to her left leg, as she was supposed to be rear support, she didn't carry any other weapons, except a tablet and the M314 Motion and Heartbeat Tracker. She was also given a day pack which carried a multi-tool, spare batteries, 10 chemical light sticks, a first aid kit, 2 days worth of rations and water and also has 15 meters of dynamic rope strapped to the side of it.

"We do not expect you guys to take more than five hours exploring the first level," Pike said as everyone gathered before him again. "Each of you will be carrying a tracking device, and extra food and water, just in case. This tracking device," He held up an oblong shaped matt black object, "may or may not work inside, to be truthful, as we do not know what may interfere with the signals it gives off. So all the best!"

Irisval handed over a flat piece of rock each to Pike and James with arcane runes carved into it and said, "This will give you control over Number One," She points to the two 2.5 meters tall golems at the rear.

James whistled as everyone looked over the support golems and admirably said, "Damn this looks so doped!"

The new golems looked more futuristic than her earlier works, with clean lines and sloped armor. It also has a lower center of gravity, making it looked hunched, with both its arms nearly touching the floor, which also enables it to walk with all fours, allowing it to climb steps if needed. The drawings of the arcane symbols were hidden under a layer of rock armor, protecting it from damage and numerical marking to indicate which unit is marked over the right chest plate and left shoulder pauldrons.

A large mechanical repeating crossbow almost half the size of Irisval was mounted on the left arm of the golems, similar to the ancient Chinese repeating crossbows. It can fire a bolt in every three seconds from a box magazine contain twenty half meter long wood and steel bolts attached to the top of the crossbow by pumping the corking lever forward and backward.

As they walked up towards the entrance of the mines, the workers and miners lined up at the sides and cheered them on, "Damn, I always wanted to grow up to be an adventurer when I was a child," Hitsu commented as he waved at the cheering people, "I used to line up along the streets watching and cheering adventuring parties when they returned from the dungeons."

"Why didn't you then?" Pike asked as he was curious about life in Goldrose.

"Well, for one, the toll to enter a dungeon is too expensive," Hitsu shrugged as he recalled his childhood, "Also my parents never wanted me to expose myself to unknown dangers. A lot of adventurers didn't return, and they wanted me to be a clerk."

"Well, look at you now," His buddy Loke joked, "A budding adventurer!"

They followed the brightly lit interior of the mines and past the widen entrance to the Dragonite cave, where several scaffoldings and lamps had been set up, the lights turning the Dragonite cave like some kind of psychedelic display. Further down the cave, a Marine section could be seen manning a checkpoint a short distance away from the dungeon door with dozens of techs and workers doing some chores here and there.

Pike turned and looked at Specialist Private Altied, "You ok, son?"

"Yes, Top!" Altied with a slight ashen face replied back. "Can't wait to kill something, Top!"

"Sound out if you are not well," Pike said, "We don't need heroes."

"Yes, Top!" Altied gritted his teeth as he approached the gaping hole in the cliffs. His brain had suffered a shock from peering into the abyss and looking at the dark door sent shivers down his spine. Sweat slowly formed over his forehead and he felt someone patting his shoulder, and saw his buddy Young smiling at him.

"You alright bro?" Young asked concern shown on his face, as he observed the dilation of Altied's eye pupils. "You can still rest you know?"

"Fuck rest," Altied cursed, "Mind over matters! Didn't Top taught us that shit during hell's week?"

"Yeah, but you didn't get mind fucked," Young argued. "Seriously bro, if you can't do it, no one will think less of you."

"I have to do it," Altied responded firmly, "Or I will forever for scared of the dark."

"Good to hear that bro!" Hitsu looped his arm over Altied's shoulder, "We got your back!"

"Yeah!" Loke added from the side, "Claymore One forever!"

"Hooraah!" The group of brothers chorused, and Altied grinned, his fear of the dark diminishing as he stood with his brothers in arms.

-----

Magister Thorn stood before dungeon door and placed a hand on it, giving it a gentle push, which to the surprise of the rest, it swung inwards with barely a creak. "Come on now?" Thorn looked at the surprised faces of everyone and grinned, "You think it will be hard to enter?" He gave a bark of laughter and walked into the darkness, invoking a light spell as he entered.

"Alright everyone, put on your war face," Pike shrugged and waved everyone in, "Hitsu, I want your war face, not your fuck face!"

"Top, this is my war face!" Hitsu quickly wiped the smile off his face and he readied his weapon and entered behind Loke. "Damn, does Top has some magical eyesight or something?"

"Eyes front! Less talk!" Pike barked as he entered next, following the team in.

The dungeon corridor stretched further than their light beams could reach, while Thorn's light spell floated above his head, illuminating the arched corridor. Kristine immediately went and poke around the walls as she noted the architecture of the tunnel, the walls seemed to constructed out of layers and layers of bricks, with some carvings on the upper arches of the tunnel. "Interesting," She muttered to herself.

As they continued down the corridor, Kristine waved a sensor wand around, which Irisval looked on in interest at what she was doing, and the two girls started chatting away at the middle. The heavy footsteps of the two supporting golems followed docilely behind, walking on all fours they navigate through the spacious corridor. "Anything on the sensors?" Pike asked as they walked for almost five minutes.

"Nothing Top," Young said as he waved his motion tracker left and right in front of him. The brick corridor looks clean, and not even dusty at all.

Kristine used her helmet cam to record all the drawings on the walls and after a while, "The drawings and carvings repeat themselves after a while, looks like some kind of hieroglyphics. Magister Thorn, you know anything about them?"

Thorn shook his head as he looked at the hieroglyphics, "No, my apologies, I do not have knowledge of ancient words or symbols." He suddenly pointed to the front and said, "I see another door."

"Wait!" Young hissed, "I got some movement behind the door! The signal is too weak, to detect much, I think something is blocking the scanning signals but so far comms with Ops is still ok."

Pike looked at Hitsu and Loke and jerked his head once. The two of them nodded and ran forward, each taking up a position next to the door while Altied, Young and Pike formed up them. "Ready!"

"Lights off. Go!" Pike ordered while James's team stayed back, holding the rear. Loke swung the door open, and pushed right, while Hitsu went left and the rest followed, each covering a sector. They entered a dimly lit large room with five openings, and what appeared to be dozens of ants the size of a large dog attacking several amber colored slimes. "Ok, fuck magic!" Pike cursed as he mentally rolled his eyes at the giant ants.

"What do we do now?" Hitsu whispered, the room was surprisingly lit by several large clumps of glowing moss, that gave off enough ambient light to see. The ants so far have not noticed them as they were busy harvesting the slimes, by cutting them up with their mandibles and secreting some sort of substance, that they use to collect the slime fluids.

Thorn stuck his head into the room and exclaimed "Oh my, those are spider ants! And honey slimes!"

"Danger level?" Pike asked as he kept an eye on the ants who busied themselves with the slimes.

"Hmmm, I would say spider ants are a level 3 creature," Thorn replied, "Those slimes are a level 0, they are not hostile, great for making desserts but beware of the ants, if they swarm you, they are quite troublesome."

Pike did a quick calculation, Empire Knights are around level 4 to 5 while Wind wolves are classed by the elves as level 5 to 6. "What are the spider ants characteristics?"

"They have the strength of about ten men, very fast movement speed, ability to climb walls, carapace harder than iron, lives in a hive, communicates telepathy and has a queen in control of all," Thorn ticked his fingers as he recounted the traits of a spider ant. "Weak to fire and their joints are their weak points and strong against earth magic and pierce attacks."

"Top!" Hitsu whispered, "I think they noticed us!"

The ants squeaked and chirped as they turned to faced a new threat, while several ants hurriedly bundled up the collected honey from the slimes and ran off into one of the tunnels. "They don't look so happy to see us," Loke added, his M2 Magespitter's buttstock snuggled tightly against his shoulder, as he looked down his sights at the angry ants.

"Well, if they are rife up, they turn hostile to whatever that disturbed them," Thorn added helpfully from the rear. "Yup. they look angry."

Pike closed his eyes and took a deep calming breath, "Fuck this, kill them all!" Just as the ants rushed up to them, waving their mandibles threateningly and Pike opened fire with his silenced M2.

The 6.5 mm solid lead bullet punched a hole into the head of the lead ant, the hard exoskeleton cracking and hemolymph fluid exploding out from the exit hole and the dead ant curled up as its body systems no long pumped hemolymph to its body parts.

"Fuck magic!"

106 - Waste Not, Want Not

Pops of suppressed gunfire echoed down the corridor and James looked up with narrowed eyes. "Top, what's the situation?" He radioed using his communicator.

"Fucking bugs!" Top replied, "We got some giant ants here."

"Need support? Over," James asked, as he held his weapon ready, watching the doorway, where sounds of gunfire drifted out.

"Negative," Top replied over the radio, "It's over. Come on in, it's cleared."

James stood up from his crouching position and waved from everyone to follow, "Top says it's cleared, let's see what's inside." He told his team.

As they entered the room, Kristine and Irisval both coughed, as the thick cloud of gunsmoke lingered inside the room. Thorn raised his hand and form a simple spell, and a small breeze dispersed the smoke in the room.

Over twenty plus bodies of ants the size of large dog laid curled up in death. The remaining honey slimes appeared to have been frightened off and had disappeared somewhere. The ground was wet with leaking hemolymph from the dead ants as Kristine went up next to a dead ant to snap a photo with her camera.

Thorn bend over a dead ant a poked around, "The mana stones are normally around the forehead or the thyroid part of the ants." He deftly used a dagger and sawed at the hard exoskeleton of the ant's head, before digging into it and pulling a slimy yellowish mana stone out.

"Here," Thorn tossed the finger-sized stone over to Pike who rubbed the slime off the stone before examining it in the light of the moss. "Nice," He turned to the rest and said, "Well, what are you waiting for? Grab the stones from the bodies!"

Pike asked Thorn next, "What else is usable from these creatures?"

"Well, the silk from their rear abdomen could be harvested to make cloth," Thorn said, "Also, the carapace when treated, works better than leather and steel armor."

"Some artisans use the eyes of the ants to make jewelry while the eye cases can be used as clear bowls," Thorn listed out a few of the usages he knew off. "The mandibles can be used as saw blades too."

"Damn, that's a lot of usages for them," Pike replied, watching the team cut up the ants for mana stones. "Is it edible?"

"Oh yes," Thorn nodded, "I never tried it before but I heard that people do eat them and apparently it tastes pretty good."

"Alright, Ok guys, stop what you doing," Pike called out, "The way you guys try to harvest the stones is making my eyes bled. Mistress Irisval, can you command your golems to transport the bodies of the ants out to the main door? Give it to the people outside the dungeon and let them do the proper job of harvesting, while we focus on exploring the area."

Irisval nodded and started to direct her golems to collect and transport the ants out. "Bring along those bundles of silk of honey slimes, waste not, want not," Pike added.

The golems have a large wicker basket secured to its back, and one of the golems gently dropped the dead ants into the basket of the other and once all were collected, they lumbered off back to the exit of the dungeon.

While that was going on, Kristine looked around the room, finding more drawings and carvings along the walls which she recorded down. She did a quick measure and found the room to be roughly 20 meters by 32 meters.

"So which tunnel we go first?" James asked Pike as they prepared to move out again.

Pike pointed to the second tunnel from the right and stated, "The ants used that tunnel, most likely it leads to their hive." He walked up to the hive and took out a piece of chalk and drew a large ant-like symbol next to the opening with an arrow point to it.

"Let's split up here," Pike said, "My team takes the rightmost tunnel, while your team takes the leftmost. Mistress Irisval, I will like your golems to hold this room when they return, is it alright?"

Irisval nodded. "James, once the golems returned," Pike said next, "Explore the leftmost tunnel, clear?" Pike started to mark the stone floor with his piece of chalk, indicating which direction and which tunnel they entered including the time.

"Alright, Team One, let's go!" And Team One followed Pike into the rightmost tunnel, their lamps lighting up the way while Team One under James waited for the golems to return.

As Pike's team entered the tunnel which turned and bent here and there, they entered more ants and honey slimes. After fighting their way through the ants, they found a fork in the tunnel and took the right turn, marking the walls with arrows and soon found a huge cavern filled with sand.

"Look, is that a chest?" Hitsu asked, his light beam shining at a distant object. "Holy spirits! I never expected to find a treasure here!" He started to approach the chest.

"Halt!" Pike yelled, stopping Hitsu's advance. "There might be a trap here." Pike kneeled down and grabbed a handful fine sand, letting them run off his gloved fingers. "It's just too quiet here."

The men on alert following Pike's words looked around cautiously, checking every hook and crook in the cavern ask they slowly approached the chest at the end of the seemingly empty cave. "Squad One check it out, the rest wait here," Pike ordered.

Young and Altied nodded and advanced cautiously from both sides, they made their steps as light as possible as the approached the chest. Young looked at Altied and nodded, using his M2 barrel to flip the squarish wooden chest open. Both of them leaped back, on the guard, in case of some traps but nothing happened. Hitsu sighed happily and straightened up, when suddenly the ground under him exploded upwards, sending him flying head over heels over a couple of meters away.

Spitting sand out of his mouth, Hitsu scrambled for his weapon, just a massive reddish shaped appeared out of the sand. As the sand slowly washed off the dark red carapace of a giant scorpion, Thorn yelled "Sand scorpion! Watch out for its poisonous twin stingers!"

A massive twin-tailed scorpion towering over three meters snapped its claws seemingly in anticipation of the meal it will be having. It's three pairs of eyes eyed Hitsu laying a few meters away from it with hunger and scuttled on its many legs towards Hitsu. pincers snapping in eager happiness.

"Oh fark!" Hitsu cried out, rolling on the sand to dodge the snapping claws. "FARK THIS!"

"TAKE IT OUT!" Pike yelled, and fired in the sides of the giant scorpion, causing it to flinch in pain, his 6.5 mm rounds not penetrating the thick carapace. "Fuck!"

The rest fired almost at the same time, sending the giant scorpion scuttling away from the bruising pain of the bullet impacts. Other then the cracks on its carapace, the heavily armored scorpion appeared fine and very angry that its prey got away from it and the stinging pokes from the other prey creatures.

It reared on its hind legs and jumped, scaring the shit out of Hitsu as it landed right next to him, "FAAAARK!"

Altied dropped his M2 and reached to his back, pulling out his pump-action shotgun in one smooth motion, and fired an explosive round, hitting the rear of the scorpion's tails, as it tried to stab Hitsu with its stingers.

The force of the explosion sent the scorpion tumbled over to the walls of the cavern and the loud explosion shocked Hitsu, sending him rolling away holding his head and cursing. "Are you trying to kill me or that thing?"

"That must be a champion monster!" Thorn yelled as three magic circles formed in front of his raised staff, "It is not dead yet!" And he cast a lightning bolt directly at the dusty cloud, the sharp crack of lightning echoing painfully down the tunnels.

Suddenly a huge sand wave appeared from the ground towards Hitsu. Loke yelled, "Get out of the way!" And Hitsu made another dive, just as the giant scorpion burst out of the sand, sending sand flying all over the cavern.

"Goddamnit!" Hitsu coughed out more sand and rolled to a crouch position, firing his M2 at the giant scorpion. "EAT LEAD!"

Altied seeing his explosive rounds not doing much effect on the monster started to pump the remaining explosive shells out and reloaded with 12. gauge solid slugs. He raised his shotgun rapid fired, sending a 35 grams impact discarding sabot lead slug flying at 400 meters per second directly to the side thorax of the giant scorpion.

The force and impact of the sabot slug punched through the hard carapace of the scorpion, sending pieces of shattered exoskeleton shell and lead flying away, and a spray of light blood ichor out. The giant scorpion hissed in pain and anger, spinning around in its many legs, searching for the source of its pain.

It's many eyes locked onto Altied who pumped his shotgun, ejecting the spent shell and charged, its twin tails rearing back to strike down at the prey that dared to hurt it. It ignored the scorching heat from bolt lightning, intent on hunting this prey that stood in front of it.

"Aim for its leg joints!" Pike yelled and Young, Loke, and Hitsu fired continuously at the fast moving legs, and succeeded in blow away a couple of its leg, causing the scorpion to crashed down as it got unbalanced.

Altied aimed his shotgun directly at the gaping mouth of the giant scorpion and fired, the sabot slug drilling out of its mouth through the back of its main braincase, killing it instantly. It laid prone just meters away from Altied, its surviving legs, pincers, and stingers involuntary twitching in its death throes.

"Fucking fantastic people!" Pike praised as he reloaded his M2, "Damn, this is one for the books!" He sized up the still twitching scorpion.

"It must be some kind of guardian for that chest," Thorn said, "Most likely there is more than one sand scorpion here, and this defeated the rest, thus it grew to this size and becoming the champion here."

"How large do they normally grow up to?" Hitsu asked as he tried to shake the sand off his uniform and gear. "I heard they normally appear down the beaches along the east."

"Normally only four or five feet large, never as big as this before," Thorn poked it with its staff, making sure it had stop moved. "Look at that!"

Everyone bend down to look at what Thorn pointed out, "Wow! That is some huge mana stone!" Young gasped as he shone his flashlight at the head-sized clear yellow-green stone under the chin of the scorpion.

"Damn, we gonna need the golems to carry this baby out," Pike puffed, "Oh, what's in the chest?"

Everyone turned their attention to the chest at the end of the cavern and found a cluster of crystal-like bottles with a thick reddish liquid and some with a dark blue liquid. A couple of age stained scrolled tied with blue ribbons laid on the side of the chest.

"All that shit for just some drinks?" Pike sighed, disappointment on his face. He was hoping for some magical artifact.

"Ohhh, those are healing and restoration potions!" Thorn said as he picked up one each of the colored potions, checking them over. "It can bring back someone from the brink of death with this red healing potion, while this blue potion restores magical powers."

"As for these scrolls," Thorn gently unrolled the scrolls and studied them under the light of the soldiers' lamps. "Looks like some spells, I need to study them more but these are at least level 5 spells."

"Wow!" Hitsu grinned, "That didn't turn out to be so bad after all." Even Pike nodded in agreement after hearing what the potions could do.

"Alright, check your gear," Pike ordered, "I am going to see if I can raise Team Two over the comms."

After a short while, Pike cursed, "Damn, these tunnels, can't get a signal through. Alright, we are heading back to grab the golems and bring this trophy back."

"Want not, waste not!"

107 - Clear!

Morrock, Capital of the Empire of Bluewood, Imperial Palace

The precious crystal goblet worth dozens of gold royals shattered into hundreds of crystal shards and the dark red wine stained the dragon wood paneling of the study walls, the liquid dripping down onto the thick rich carpets.

Emperor Varacen stood over his dark wood desk, glaring the kneeling messenger who brought the news of Duke Sturm's army defeat at the hands of the rebels. The news took over three five-day weeks to arrive at the Capital, despite the speed of courier dragons and relay stations. Varacen stared at the trembling soldier with a yellow slash tied diagonally across his chest from his right shoulder, marking him a member of the messenger corps and sighed, "Go," waving the thankful messenger away.

"Kill him," Varacen spoke to no one in particular as the messenger left his study, the thick dark wood doors closed by his personnel eunuch. He sighed again as he flopped down onto his chair, looking at the map on his table. "And bring me Sturm, alive preferably."

His eunuch brought over another crystal goblet and a bottle of garnet wine, the colorful garnets clinking against each other as the eunuch filled the crystal goblet halfway, the wine glittered in a rich blood red shine in the goblet.

A muttered scream drifted into the study despite the closed thick wooden doors and Varacen nodded, sipping the wine and rolling a piece of garnet in his mouth before spitting it out. "Ahh, 30 year old garnet wine from the alps." His mood restored and he spoke to thin air again, "And the witch?"

A mysterious voice appeared out of nowhere, "Dead it appears with her guards."

Varacen raised his eyebrows, "Two Imperial Lifeguards?"

"Yes, Your Majesty," The voice appeared out of thin air. "By all eyewitness accounts, once the Lifeguards were killed, she rebelled, and appeared to have been killed in the resulting melee that followed."

"Pity," Varacen took another sip of the wine. "Oh well, we still have her brothers to play with." He looked at the map again, "This brunch of rebels at the south is wasting a lot of my resources, I have to finish my fight with the Twin Alliance. or this rebel group will forever be a thorn. They must not grow strong."

"Send the Rock down to take over all of Sturm's forces," Varacen said, after debating in silence for a while. "Tell him to use all resources at his disposal to crush the rebels before they grow stronger, I don't really care how he does it, as long as the rebels are destroyed."

"Yes, your Majesty."

-----

Sea Cliff Mines, Dungeon Level 1

Both teams were gathered at the first room of the dungeon, having a quick cold meal and some field maintance of their weapons. More than three hours had passed since they had entered the dungeon and successfully mapped and explored almost the whole level.

Master Sergeant Pike finished his report back with base and hopped up on a rock outcrop and clapped his hands, gathering everyone's attention. "Alright, we are almost done with this level. Just a little more to go." He pointed to the tunnel where an image of an ant was drawn. Each tunnel openings had images of monsters drawn next to them, from stick drawings of a twin tailed scorpion to slimes and ants. "That tunnel most likely has the way down to the next level."

Apparently, the first level of the Dungeon consisted mainly of Honey Slimes, Spider Ants and Sand Scorpions. The two golems were busily wandering in and out of the tunnels as Number One transported the dead carcasses of the ants and scorpions out of the tunnels, while Number Two ferried them out to the exit.

All the tunnels so far led to a cavern or room while some passages looped back to each other or ended in dead ends. So far the four tunnels that they explored each had a room or cavern and unfortunately for Team One. only they encountered a Champion monster, the rest were just a group of mobs or the harmless slimes. But other than the chest from by Team One, they found no other chests in the other rooms, leading them to speculate that only rooms with chests most likely have a strong monster inside.

"Everyone ready?" Pike asked as the team members policed up their trash. "Alright let's go. Team One will be the vanguard, Magister Thorn and the ladies in the middle. Team Two will be the rear guard."

Once everyone was in formation, Pike nodded and Loke set off, leading the party down as the forward scout. Kristine, waved her sensor wave, sending sonar beeps every ten seconds, and the mapping program in her tablet automatically updating a 3D rendering of the Dungeon. Their lights lit up the tunnels and a swarm of angry chirping ants charged out into the hail of thunder and fire.

-----

Sea Cliff Mining Station Operations Center

A bank of monitors temporarily set up on one side of the room displayed the choppy and lagging video stream from the dungeon exploration teams. Captain Blake stood watching the irritatingly lagging and jerky images, wishing that they have real-time telemetry instead as the jerky images were giving him a headache.

"Ford," Blake spoke over the open air real-time conferencing call with Commander Ford back at the Bridge in UNS Singapore, "We will need people with experience in dissecting monsters. Get all the butchers, tanners, anyone who knows how to process monster parts here as soon as possible."

"Got it, Sir, I will check with the Princess about who to call," Ford nodded, "Looks like a great haul we got eh?"

"Oh yeah, they did great," Blake replied, trying not to grimace as he watched the lagging video captured from their helmet cams. "I seriously do not know how the monsters will respawn after a few days inside that dungeon. I hope what Thorn said is true."

"It's magic. Sir," Ford grinned, "Well, if it works, we can send regular hunting trips in the dungeon to harvest for what we need."

"Yea, but this amount of materials from the monsters will not support a large population," Blake said, "At most a small village or town, but any bit helps in the long run. Especially the mana stones from the monsters if we want to maintain our firearms tech."

Ford nodded again, "I will get with the Princess regarding getting those with knowledge of working with monster parts now." He gave a salute and signed off from the conference call.

Blake went back to watching the lagging videos, and gave up after a while and went to look at the haul coming out of the dungeon instead.

-----

Sea Cliff Mines, Dungeon Level 1

"Watch your head!" Pike yelled as he stood at the rear of Squad One and Two from his team engaging the ants. "They are crawling from the ceilings!"

"Argh, eat lead!" Hitsu yelled, firing his M2 up to the ceiling, sending rock chips and ant parts flying down, before his weapon locked back. "I'm out!"

"Switch!" Pike yelled and Tyrier from Team Two stepped into Hitsu's spot, while Hitsu backed off to reload. Tyrier calmly aimed his M2 and fired single shots, each hitting a different target.

The ants seemingly knew that they were coming and had gathered in force, throwing themselves into the fray, giving their lives for more of their brethren to close into the intruders. Yet it proved futile as the M2 Magespitters made short work of the suicidal ants.

Both Thorn and Irisval helped by launching magical attacks over the heads of the crouching shooters. Thorn sent bolts of chain lightning, which jumped from one ant to another, electrifying them, while Irvisal turned the terrain into soft mud, slowing the ants down greatly and launching rock spikes which stunned the ants, the spikes not strong enough to penetrate the ants' carapace.

Just now, the heavy thumps of footfall appeared behind the party, and Number One golem appeared. Irisval quickly ordered it to attack the ants, and Pike ordered the men to give way for the golem to advance.

The runes in Number One lit up, following Irisval's order, and inside the core of the golem, a magical artificial lifeform powered by Dragonite similar to the hooman's Artificial Intelligence followed the many instructions drawn within its body, connected by the magical connections engraved in its body. Move forward, protect the people, and kill the enemy, its simple brain told it.

Magical muscles of rock and stone, twisted and stretched as Number One strolled forward, passing by the soldiers on its side and raised it left arm with the repeating crossbow. Its right arm pumped the firing handle up and down, throwing heavy bolts down range, each bolt impaling an ant or smashing them into pieces.

The ants were too tightly clustered together in the tunnel that the rather inaccurate repeating crossbow was still able to kill one or more ants with each bolt. When it's repeating crossbow ran out of bolts, it swung its arms mightly, wallowing directly into the mass of ants, crushing and breaking the ants with each swing of its arms. The ants tried to bite and bind it with their spider silk only to succeed in chipping some of its rock armor and the silk could not bind it tightly enough, allowing Number One to break free easily.

The rest supported Number One melee's attacks by firing at the sides of the golem, preventing the ants from surrounding Number One. Finally, the pressure dropped and the ants retreated, leaving behind hundreds of dead, twitching ants.

"Check your ammo!" Pike ordered as everyone took a breather from the fight which lasted only twenty minutes but felt like hours. "Anyone need resupply or injured?"

"Good work, Number One!" Irisval praised Number One, patting it on its arm, which Number One appeared to respond by giving a slight nod.

"We need to give it some melee weapons, or a minigun," James said from the side. "A chain sword will be awesome! Hell, a bloody flamer too!" He excitedly said looking up at Number One, "He will wreak havoc in such close quarters!"

Number One seemed to give a look at James before turning back to Irisval who commanded it to transport the ant carcasses back. "Thank you for your help!" The golem started to pile the shattered body parts of the ants into the basket it was carrying.

"All ready?" Pike asked after everyone refilled their emptied magazines and ensured they have sufficient ammunition. "Let's go, the Queen Ant should be up ahead."

The passageway widened as they followed the echoing sounds made by the frantic ants as they neared their hive. From a width that four men could walk side by side to twice the width as they came upon a huge opening dimly lit by glow moss.

Shadows of ants scurrying around the opening could be seen cast by the light beams from the exploration teams. Angry hisses and chittering came from the ants as they formed a wall, blocking the way into the large room.

"Hit them with explosive rounds!" Pike ordered, which Altied and Hitsu followed the order, switching to their shotguns and firing an explosive shot each directly at the cluster of ants. The force of the explosions and the shrapnel, torn up the ants, sending bits of ants parts flying all over the area. "Clear!"

"Go go go!' Pike ordered next, and they stormed into the opening in a double file formation, and spreading out to cover all points when they cleared the opening. The girls and Magister Thorn hung back and waited for them to give the all-clear before entering cautiously into the room.

Kristine stared up at the mammoth sized Queen Spider Ant, which bloated body appeared to be perched on some sort of mound made out of soil and rock like a throne, its fat ovipositor dangling over the mound, supported by strands of silk attached to the ceiling of the room. Hundreds of crutches of milky white eggs clusters covered all over the walls and ground, while dozens of wriggling maggots like creatures could be seen spawn all over the area.

"Ok, I should have protested more on coming here..."

108 - Boss Fight

A blade of wind smashed against the rock barrier raised by the Irisval where most of the exploration team had taken cover behind, sending rock fragments and dust raining down on the pinned elves and humans. Pike leaned out and popped a few shots at the ants that tried to flank them and dodged back to cover as another wind blade smashed into the barrier again.

"Thorn!" Pike yelled, "Any ideas on how to defeat it!" The rest of the team had scattered when the Spider Ant Queen suddenly threw blades of wind at them, with Loke taking a glancing hit to his chest, where his armor plate buckled under the force of the wind blades.

"I'm not sure! She appears to have a wind barrier up!" Thorn's voice came over the entrance of the room, "It should be a wind element creature! Use fire based attacks!"

The Queen kept at its throne of dirt, sweeping its scythe-like arms, throwing wind blades at the intruders. Irisval managed to throw up a rock barrier, providing cover from the deadly blades of wind while Hitsu, dragged Loke back under cover of the barrier and Young quickly tended to his injuries.

The wind blade had sliced past the thick anti spalling cover and into the graphene armor plating and inner trauma plating, before weakening but still had enough force to slice open Loke's upper chest and shoulder to the bone. The shockwave following the wind blade slammed enough force that dented the armor plates and broken his collarbone while ripping open the surgical-like cut.

Blood gushed out as Young and Kristine ripped off his armored vest, "Minor Heal!" Young cast a healing spell, placing his hands over the gaping wound. The wound closed slightly, but the degree of damage was too much, and blood continued to flow freely. Kristine slapped a couple of self-sealing bandages over the wounds and the medical nanites started to work on the wound, repairing as much damaged tissue as possible. "He's going into shock!"

Kristine dug out a tranq shot from her own medical supplies from her own first aid kit and jabbed the shot into the meaty portion of Loke's thigh while Young cast another healing spell to try to stabilize Loke. Kristine next grabbed Young's medical bag, pulling out an automated external defibrillator device, placing the electrode pads on to Loke's chest, startlingly white looking, against the amount of blood staining his body. "Come on!"

"James, take your team and suppress the Queen from the left on my command!" Pike yelled over the sound of gunfire and monster cries. "The rest of you guys take care of the minions!"

"NOW!" Pike yelled. And James' team sheltering behind a rock formation swung out from cover and fired at the Queen, causing it to scream in anger and pain as dozens of 6.5 mm rounds hammered her exoskeleton. A few stray rounds punctured the Queen's soft ovipositor, causing jets of slimy fluid to burst out.

The Queen reared its head and screamed the high pitch frequency of the scream momentarily stunning the explorers, and the clusters of eggs cases started to wriggle.

"What the fuck?" Pike covered his ears, wincing in pain, luckily everyone was wearing earplugs for protection against gunfire and the high pitch scream did not badly damage their ears. "Now what?" Pike cursed as he noticed the clusters of eggs around them started shaking and wriggling.

The Queen jerked itself and shooked her rear end, ripping the gutted ovipositor off and started to climb down her throne. Her heavily depleted worker and soldier ants gathered around her and prepared to charge the humans and elves again.

"Hit them with explosive shots!" James cried as he recovered from the sonic attack. He raised his M2 and fired at the Queen, the lead rounds leaving marks on its thorax carapace. Explosives erupted among the gathered ants and yet the ants continued to rush forward.

"Chain Lightning!" A bolt of lightning streaked out from the opening of the cavern, jumping from one ant to another, roasting them perfectly as Thorn cast his spell from outside the cavern. "I am not strong with fire based spells!"

A charge of lightning leaped onto the Queen which she dismissingly gave a swept of her forelimbs, shattering the lighting charge into a shower sparks. The Queen raised her forelimbs and swept down, sending two wind blades directly at Thorn, who gaped and disappeared in the explosion of rock dust and fragments, the sides of the opening shattering as the wind blades smashed with a huge force, leaving two cuts in the walls.

"Thorn!" Pike roared, "Goddammit, as usual, there is always some fuck up in Intel!" He dropped his M2 on its sling and pulled out his M7A1 from his back and ducked out of the badly degraded rock barrier, leaning forward into the recoil as he fired his M7A1 at the Queen.

The 6.5 mm armor-piercing tungsten steel core rounds punched through wind barrier around the Queen, the magical barrier slowing the power of the rounds down by half. But still the armored piercing tips of the bullets slammed onto the hard exoskeleton of the Queen's chest, dumping all its remaining kinetic energy into the internal organs of the Queen, shocking the heart and sending the Queen spasming and vomiting out bile from its massive jaws.

"Damn, I should have shot that bitch up with my M7 earlier," James grumbled as he pulled himself up, switching over to his M7A1 as well and joining Pike in taking down the Queen.

The Queen stumbled backward as the hard hitting advanced weapons broke both its forelimbs which she used to block the barrage of bullets, and spasmed as a couple of three round burst blew her segmented neck apart, tearing her head off and a small pulsing fountain of ichor shot out from the Queen's severed neck. Her remainings legs kicked and spasmed as her heart continued to pump hemolymph, still not knowing that the brain has died.

A cheer went up from the teams as the Queen stopped her movements, laying on her side with her body curled up like a ball next to the mound of rock and dirt.

"Erm, are they supposed to do that?" Tyrier asked, his weapon pointing at the moving eggs. "Are they hatching?"

"Uh oh," James gave a curse as the egg casings nearby broke, and a slimy whitish ant crawled out. "Arghhh!" James used his machete and hacked the newly hatched ant in half. "Damn, it is not over yet guys and gals!"

"Incoming!" Tyrier yelled, as more and more of the eggs hatched new ants out. "Destroy the eggs! Don't let them hatch out!"

Irisval grabbed a handful of rock fragments from the floor and whispered a spell, "Rock Spike!" Throwing the stones and fragments through a magic circle in front of her, turning the stones and rocks into dagger sharp spikes. Her spikes smashed the clusters of eggs nearby, killing the ants before they hatch.

Kristine and Young seeing Loke stabilized from his wounds helped engage the surviving ants and the newly hatchlings, with Kristine picking up Loke's dropped M2, her hands sticky with Loke's blood, firing at the monsters with precision.

Altied, Hitsu, and Don fired their shotguns loaded with explosive shots, shredding huge clusters of eggs and hatchlings in the process. "Come on! Have some!"

A lightning bolt streaked out again from the rear, rupturing more eggs clusters, and Thorn appeared from the doorway, his robes and hair caked with dust and a trail of blood over his forehead. "I am getting too old for this," He grumbled as another magic circle appeared before him. "Chain Lightning!"

Clean up of the cavern took them roughly half an hour. A platoon of Marines had joined in on the cleanup when Blake at the Operation Center deemed them to be in big trouble and dispatched the Marines in.

"Talk about being late for the rescue," James shook his head, watching the Marine medics strapping Loke onto a stretcher and transporting him out gently. "Damn, I am tired!" He stood next to Kristine and gave her a hug, "How are you doing? Any injuries?"

"Stop that," Kristine pushed James away, "People are watching!" Irisval looked scandalized at the open display of affection and blushed, looking away hurriedly as Kristine gave her a wink. "Yes, I am ok, all this blood is from Loke." She raised her hands, the blood covered up to her upper arms and her vest and uniform.

"Glad you are ok," James ignored her protests and hugged her again, kissing her on the forehead. "Who cares if everyone watches." He grinned back at the Marines catcalling on the side.

Pike walked up to Thorn who sat on a platform of rock, a Marine medic, cleaning up his wound on his head. "How is he?" Pike asked the elf medic.

"Just some minor concussion and torn skin, nothing serious, just head wounds tend to bleed a lot, Top," The medic slapped a piece of a band aid over the wound and nodded to Thorn, "Sir, all done."

Thorn sighed, "I am too old for this kind of action," and he gave a grin, "But it was fun while it lasted."

"Damn it, old man," Pike said, "Please take care of yourself, the Princess and the Captain will have my hide if anything happens to you!"

"Haha, I am alright," Thorn grinned, dusting his robes as he stood up. "Well good job on killing the Queen!" He watched the newly arrived Marines clearing the dead ants and pointed to the dirt mound. "The entrance down to the next level will be there."

"Is it gonna be this hard each time?" Pike asked, watching Loke on the stretcher disappearing into the tunnel out of the room.

"Hmmm, my theory is that due to many many years, there have not been any creatures had killed the Queen, and thus it grew stronger and stronger over time," Thorn guessed, "And we are the first to enter the dungeon for maybe hundreds of years?"

"Wait, so if and when the dungeon 'respawns' the Queen will be easier to kill the next time?" Pike asked with a raised eyebrow. "So meaning all the Boss monsters and Champions from the next level onwards are way harder than usual?"

Thorn nodded, "If my theory is correct then yes. The monsters will have many many years to grow their strength and we will be the first to encounter them. But there should be a good catch to this, the stronger the monster, the better the materials it provides." Thorn gestured the Queen, "I suspect that it should have a very high quality mana stone in its body."

"Great, just great," Pike shook his head and sighed, "Damn, I hoped this would be a walk in the park with our modernized weapons, I can't imagine how adventurers fought with cold steel against these monsters and lived to tell the tales."

"That's why mages are highly respected and in demand," Thorn gave a wink to Pike, "Magic makes it easier to clear a dungeon."

Pike shook his head again, and waved for Thorn to take a rest, while he went to gather up some volunteers from the Marines, "Alright, you pukes, I need volunteers!" He randomly pointed at the loitering group of Marines. "Yes, you, you and you. YES, YOU! There is no one behind you!"

"Carry your entrenching tools and start digging that mound up!" Pike led the group of volunteers over to the Queen's dirt throne.

The elves worked rapidly, clearing the mound and soon a large pair of doors appeared among the dirt, and the elves worked faster, excited at finding the door.

"Hey guys," James called everyone involved with the exploration over. "We found these buried or dropped here and there in the room."

Placed on the floor at James' feet were a large pile of treasure, from pieces of gold and silver nuggets to gemstones of all kinds. "We also find a lot of mana stones," He shone his lamp to another larger pile to the side, "In fact, there are a few dozen piles of these mana stones all over the place, I am guessing these came from either monster the ants hunted or they themselves that died naturally over time."

Thorn went over to the pile of mana stones and picked one up, the thumb sized greenish crystal glittered prettily against the lights cast from the lamps. He dropped the stone back to the pile and rubbing his hands and grinned at the ragged looking bunch.

"Now isn't this the best part of exploring a dungeon? Loot!"

109 - Rest and Recuperation

The Mining Station was still lit up despite the late hour, drifts of music and laughter could be heard from far away, and the green skin scout sniffed his the air, his mouth watering, as he caught the smell of meat roasting from the brightly lit town that appeared suddenly over the winter. His band head will be pleased with his news when he returned with it, and he slipped off into the darkness with his tummy rumbling.

-----

The celebration party reached its zenith just past midnight, the miners, workers, and off-duty Marines drank and feasted on locally fermented alcohol and fresh ant meat. Captain Blake sat next to Princess Sherene, listening to Thorn's version of his experiences in the dungeon. He dropped the finished piece of ant leg on the side, which looked like a piece of snow crab leg, and somewhat tasting like snow crab.

Sherene happily dug out the fleshy meat and dropped the shell next to a small pile of empty leg shells. The ant legs were boiled in seawater and served with soya sauce, courtesy of Chef Keito's cooking. "This is delicious!" She wiped her mouth with a napkin and settled back on her seat happily.

"Yes," Blake agreed and asked, "Didn't your people have ant meat before?"

Sherene shook her head, "No, this type of monster cuisine is kind of hard to find among the nobles or royalty." She grinned happily and gave a small blurp, "This is my first time trying. It tastes very good!"

"Hahaha," Blake laughed at her satisfied expression, "Well, this is also the first time I had ant meat too, but it turns out pretty good." He remembered Chef Keito during the tasting, and him insisting ant meat as tasty as crab, while the volunteers looked on skeptically before some brave soul tasted it and agreed with Chef Keito. "Well, it is good that it will bring some food variety to the city."

Sherene nodded, "City hall had just finished moving the large magic ice box from the Iron Castle out nearer to the city, it is so useful! Food can be preserved for longer and there is almost no wastage!"

Blake took a while to understand what she meant by magic ice box, "You meant the refrigeration unit?"

"Yes, yes," Sherene nodded, her hair braided up and tied up with a large blue ribbon. "I have arranged for all those with knowledge or skills in skinning or butchery to help dismantle the monsters. With the new re-fee-gation set up next to the market, we can process all the meat and materials easier and less wastage."

"But there are more and more reports of goblin sightings now," Sherene added, "The farmers, loggers, foragers, and hunters are getting worried."

"Equip the farmers and workers in the forest with crossbows and bows for now," Blake turned to look at Sherene, "We only have so much Magelocks, and they are going to the next batch of Marines. I will push Major Frank to come out a training program for a Militia force."

Sherene nodded, her good mood had vanished as she thought of the coming troubles and problems that faced her and her people.

"Cheer up," Blake patted her hand, "We just won a victory against the Empire recently and also cleared the Dungeon's first level, and the number of resources and materials we have gotten will help us a lot in the coming days."

"Look at them," Blake pointed down to the courtyard where tables and chairs were arranged and a large bonfire burning in the center and people dancing to music around it. "Yesterday they fought with their lives on the line, today they celebrate that they are alive."

"They play hard and enjoy as much as they can, as there is no telling what will happen tomorrow. So why worry so much now?" Blake advised Sherene, seeing her downcast face. "We make plans to ensure nothing goes wrong, but life doesn't always follow our plans, that's the way we should enjoy the moment when we can."

Sherene smiled, "Thank you, your people had really done a lot of us, and yet we still are demanding more from you."

"Well, well, to be frank, we also need your people, we can't be strong just on our own," Blake patted her hand again, "Don't worry, we will do something about keeping your people and mine safe." Blake offered her another plate of ant legs, " More?"

-----

"Well, we got four days off for R and R, so what are your plans?" James asked as he held Kristine, both of them swaying to the music.

The flickering flames cast a warm orange glow on Kristine's face as they danced slowly to the music, "I don't know."

"Do you want to come with me to the beach resort?" James asked, "You know for some suntanning and water sports."

"There is a beach resort here?" Kristine asked, her eyes lit up by the flames. "And you pulling my leg, Sergeant?"

"Oh no," James grinned, "It's for the armed services only, but with plans to open to the public later on."

"How come there is a resort here?" Kristine rested her head on James's chest.

"Well, Captain Blake thought it will be good for the crew and armed forces to take some time off from all the hustle and bustle," James hugged her, "It's actually more like a chalet, we need to bring our own food and stuff. What do you say?"

"I am not sure," Kristine pushed away from James embrace, "Are we together or this is just a fling for you?"

"Hey, look here," James said gently to Kristine, holding her chin, "I am serious about us being together, the Captain and XO had already stated that the rules of fraternization among the crew and military no longer applies here."

"And seriously, I don't think we will have a chance to return to Earth in our lifetime, maybe our kids' generation but definitely not ours," James stated honesty, "Besides this is actually quite a beautiful world. No over population, politics. pollution all that, only the monsters trying to eat you and an Empire that keeps trying to kill you."

"Wait a minute, when did I say we will have kids?" Kristine glared at James smiling face. "I have not agreed to anything yet."

"Come on!" James laughed, lifting Kristine up and giving her a spin, making her laugh too. "Let's go to the resort, there will be barbecue!"

"Alright, only if there are ant meat!" Kristine laughed.

-----

East of the Uncharted Forest, the Great Ocean Plains

War leader Urka of the Band of the Hand emerged out of the forest foliage and stood before a grassland that stretched as far as the eye could see. He took a deep breath, taking in the fresh scent of grass and not the coy rotting scent of the forest's undergrowth. The sun shone down, warming him up as he kneeled down and gave a simple prayer to the Spirits. "We are home."

His defeated warriors cheered up visibly as they saw the endless land of the Great Ocean Plains. They had marched hard for four five-day weeks through the cursed Uncharted Forest, fending off monsters and goblins attacks before reaching the edge of the forest.

"Come! We will return home soon!" Urka yelled at his warriors who gave a cheer. "Another two, five days and we will reach the Band." Following that, Urka climbed on to his mount, a large grizzle wind wolf and urged it forward and his warriors followed along.

Urka's wearily warriors managed to make to within sight of the Band after traveling for nine days, the journey was considered peaceful, only having two encounters with monsters, which they managed to defeat at the cost of a few unfortunate warriors.

Finally, they reached the wooden palisade of the Band and stood, waiting for the sentries to open the gates. The patrols and lookouts had already spotted them when they were two days out from the camp, and wolf riders rode up and down, dispatching messages and supplies.

As they entered the gates, the whole Oerkin band had turned out to welcome them back, some with cries of joy, while others with silent tears and words of condolences. The Great Chief dressed in a pure silver wind wolf pelt and wearing a headdress made out of the skull of a red griffin and decorated with sesame red griffin feathers, stood before the Great Hall and watched passively as Urka went down on one knee before him. "Great Chief, we have returned."

The wrinkled face of Great Chief remained solemn and just stared at Urka. The noise from the gathered Oerkin slowly quieten down as they turned to watch what was going on with Urka and the Great Chief. Finally, after a period of silence, the Great Chief spoke, "You returned with only half the warriors you began with, and where are the elders and shamans?"

Urka looked down on the ground, unable to answer. "Your actions had caused the clan greatly!" The Great Chief continued, "You are stripped of your position as War leader and shall be confined in the pit to reflect on your actions!" The Great Chief waved for the guards to take Urka away. "Go, reflect on what you have done, I have important guests to entertain."

Urka stood up speechless and allowed the guards to strip his armor and weapons away, leaving him bare-chested and the guards led him away pass the muttering and gossiping crowd, past the dwellings and to a pit several meters deep. Just as he was shoved down the pit unceremoniously, he saw something strange. Two strange looking grey metal objects were parked side by side behind the Great Hall and that was the last thing Urka saw as he was dropped into the pit.

-----

Band of the Hand, Great Hall

"Ahh, Sorry for, ah, delay," The Great Chief said in halting Common and gave a yellow toothed smile at the guests sitting around the table, set on the floor. "Come, drink and feast!" He gestured to the food and drinks on the table.

"Thank you for your hospitality," Former Marine armory sergeant Raman smiled back, giving a toast to the Oerkin. "The food and drink are pretty good." The rest of the human party joined in the toast.

"Ahh, guests you are!" The Great Chief explained hurriedly. "Only the best for the guests!" He had seen what strange and powerful magic these strange hoomans have.

"So, what we can do for you?" Raman playing asked, knowing well what the old rat wanted as he leaned back and lazied on the soft wolf hide covered floor.

"You know we Oerkin has no metal skills," The Chief said, "We like to have you all as our metal workers!"

"Workers?" Raman raised a lazy eyebrow, "I am sorry, but we are not anyone's workers here." The rest snickered as they continued to drink the wine.

"Ahh, not workers?" The Chief frowned, "Then what do you want?"

"Simple," Raman sat up, "I want slaves, young and healthy, and warriors and land."

"Slaves? No problem, but warriors?" The Chief frowned, "Why warriors and land?"

"I want to have my own army and workers," Raman explained, "You provide me with slaves and warriors, in exchange, you get metal weapons and armor. And if you are a really good boy, I may gift you with some Magelocks." Raman and the rest laughed as he finished his demands.

The Chief looked at them in thought, wondering if he meant the thunder sticks. "Slaves easy! Land? Just pick where you want. But warriors? They have to be willing to follow you."

Raman gave a shrug, "As long you provide me with what we need, you get what you want. If not, we take our services somewhere else." Raman stood up and jerked his head to the rest. "let's go boys!"

"Wait, wait!" The Chief raised his hand up, gesturing them to stop. "Warriors, yes I know who to give you!"

"Well, if that is the case," Raman gave a triumphant grin, rubbing his hands together, "Let's talk business then!"

110 - Operation Dagger

The cold wind howled loudly as the massive waves flapped up and down. Specialist Sergeant Tyrier felt slightly sick, the up and down motion of the dragon they were strapped on making him slightly green. The cold air helped to suppress his urge to vomit, he and Claymore One were all dressed in simple homespun clothes, thick jackets, and goggles to protect against the high altitude flight.

Blue Thunder stretched his wings and leisurely flapped his wings a couple of times, and rode the air currents as they glided in the night, navigating from the dim light of the twin crescent moons. They had traveled for two days, staying close to the mountain ridge, only flying during the night and resting in the day.

Blue Thunder felt free for the first time, he did not have a crew or a master to order him to do anything, only laws and rules to follow. The hooman Blake had said that if he agreed to work for them, he will be paid and given proper housing and care, but should he negate on the agreement, all that was offered will be removed.

For the first time, Blue Thunder had something he owned. The first pay he got, he bought himself a whole roasted Peco Peco, and thoroughly enjoyed it. He heard that if he saved up enough credit chips, he could get someone to build a house for him! Back in the Empire, it was unheard of that a Dragon could own property! Not to mention he really wanted a tee-vee set so he could watch all those moo-bees and dra-maas and of course music!

Blue Thunder had signed up with the so-called Air Force, serving as a heavy lifter and was expected to work alone at times, using his own initiative, yet another concept unheard of in the Empire. He did miss his Captain and crew greatly, after all, they had grown up together, but life and death is a way of life in the Empire, and he was happy he wasn't put down, like so many of the other dragons he saw at the coven that had lost their Captains.

He started humming to a tune to the song "Thunder" by Imagine Dragons, which to him the naming was quite appropriate. "Hey Blue, could you stop that singing?" Tyrier poked Blue Thunder's side as the dragon started on the chorus, making his whole rumbled and trembled, making Tyrier motion sickness worst.

"Hahaha, sorry," Blue rumbled, "Look, I can see the town of Falledge." The dark shapes of the trees looming behind them and in the distance, pinprick spots of lights by the fires and lamps from the town could be seen in the dimly lit terrain. "I am going to find a spot to set down around the mountain edge."

The men of Claymore One all looked up alert and started scanning the horizon for the town. Everyone was rigged on to the flanks and dorsal top of the dragon with carabiners. A simple lightweight scaffolding-like structure was rigged onto Blue Thunder's back, with benches and even hammocks for the men to walk, sit or even sleep.

The design allowed the men to walk up and down, and even cross over to the other side of the dragon's flank. The strips of wood, double up as benches or gangways for the men and the whole design does not interfere with the dragon's movement or even when landing. They only have to ensure that the hammocks and any loose items are secured properly in the bins connected to the frame.

"Ahh, I see a cave opening!" Blue Thunder smacked his lips as gave warning to the men. "Standby for landing!"

Everyone started checking their gear and carabiners were properly secured, "One Ready!"
"Two Ready!"
"Three Ready!"
"Four Ready!"
"Five Ready!"
"Six Ready! All clear! Good to go!"

"Dropping in three... two... one," Blue Thunder dipped his left wing and dropped into a slow spiral dive, bleeding off airspeed as he circled down and gauged the distance and the cave location. Just before slamming onto the side of the mountain cliff, he flapped his wings rapidly, hovering just below an opening large enough for him to enter and used his powerful legs and front limbs to grip the rock wall, and like a Terran lizard, climbed into the cave while folding his wings to his side.

"Urgh, I think next time we should take the Valkyrie instead," Young moaned as he unhooked his carabiner and dropped down the side of Blue Thunder, who looked mighty smug.

"Well, that was a good landing," Blue Thunder huffed, looking pleased. "As Commander Tommy said, any landing that you can walk away from is a good one!" He quoted and suddenly, tensed up. "Something is here with us!"

"Positions, people!" Tyrier immediately ordered, drawing out his Glock from his holster and spreading to the side of the dark cave. "No lights till my order!' Their main weapons were still secured in the weapon bins on the back of Blue Thunder.

"Hmmm, smells like a griffin," Blue Thunder growled as his hackles rose, ears back, tail down and his posture lowered. And a snarl replied Blue Thunder from the depths of the cave.

"Ready... lights on my mark!" Tyrier ordered as everyone had taken up positions on the side of Blue Thunder, under what cover they could find in the large cave tunnel. "Three... two... one, LIGHTS!"

At Tyrier's command, everyone looked away, only keeping one eye open, even Blue Thunder, they had rehearsed these tactics a few times before. The under rail mounted 200 lumens white light from seven pairs of Glocks, lit up the interior of the cave as bright as day. A cry of pain and surprise screamed out as the creature with a head of an eagle and body of a lion with featured wings was blinded by the sudden glare of lights.

Blue Thunder took the opportunity that the griffin was blinded and pronounced on it, his jaws going for the neck while his forelimbs latched on the monster, his claws digging in deep, causing blood to flow. With a sharp jerk and a bone snapping crack, Blue Thunder snapped the neck of the griffin and dropped the limp carcass on the cave floor.

"Dinner is served!" Blue Thunder licked his chomps and claws. He did a little dance over the carcass of the griffin and sent rock dust and fragments raining down from the cave ceiling.

"STOP!" Tyrier yelled, "You big oaf! You want to bring down the whole cave?"

"Sorry," Blue Thunder stopped his dance and settled down carefully. "I was just excited."

"Yes, yes, we know!" Altied shook his head as he reached up to the side of Blue Thunder to unload supplies. "Come on, stay still, I need to grab the lamps and if you want me to cook for you, you better behave!"

Blue Thunder hurried laid down flat on the ground, allow the men of Claymore One to unload the supplies stored on his back. "Luckily you didn't destroy any of the supplies when you fought that griffin." Young said as he hoisted down some bedrolls.

"It was just a youngling," Blue Thunder boasted, "I can kill hundreds of them easy."

"Yeah sure," Tyrier placed the lamps out at several locations, lighting the whole cave up. "Found anything else behind?" He called out to Hitsu, Doth, and Tavel who went to check the rear of the cave for any more surprises.

"Oh yes!" Hitsu yelled back after a while, "Found some treasure!"

Everyone stopped their work and went to see what treasure was found, even Blue Thunder was curious. "Look, the griffin's hoard."

A huge bird-like nest woven out of tree branches sat at the rear of the cave, and glitters of gold could be seen laced among the wooden branches. Tyrier used his light from his pistol and dug out a piece of gold nugget from the nest and whistled. "Damn, this is pure gold."

"Yup, nothing but gold here," Tavel called out from the nest he was standing on, "Seems like griffins love gold."

Blue Thunder snorted, "Amateurs! A proper hoard should not only consist of gold! You need jewels, coins and all kinds of treasure!"

"Blue, you don't even have a hoard," Young pointed out, while the rest laughed.

"Mark my words! I will have one... someday!" Blue Thunder tilted his head high up and gave a harumph.

"Sure you will," Tyrier smiled, tossing the gold nugget to Blue Thunder who deftly snatched it up with his large clawed hands. "Keep it up killing the griffins, and I heard that Major Frank is going to offer a quarter share of any treasure found during a military operation. So, part of these is ours!"

"Holy shit!" Doth cried out, "Seriously?"

"Yup, when we retire, we will be set up for life!" Tyrier grinned. "So make sure you guys pick up every piece of gold here and record it down."

"We are going to be rich!" Blue Thunder grinned and started to do a little jig again, causing everyone to curse and swear at him.

After the excitement had died down, the men cut up the griffin and roasted the choice portions, which Blue Thunder ate most of it, and everyone settled down to sleep as the sun came up.

They woke up again, close to late afternoon and started their preparations to infiltrate the Empire. "Alright, Blue, you drop us near the edge of the forest, and beat it back to base ok?" Blue Thunder nodded.

"This town we going into is called Falledge, it was part of our Kingdom of Goldrose and since the fall of the Kingdom, the Empire had taken over it. We have no idea how many Empire troops will be stationed there, but it should be a lot, as Duke Sturm should be using it as a springboard to attack the Pass a few weeks back." Tyrier looked around the gathered men and dragon.

"We will split up into groups of two and disperse into the population," Tyrier pointed to Hitsu and said, "You will be with me since Loke is not with us on this mission." which Hitsu nodded.

"High Command has given us one month's time to gather as much information as possible," Tyrier continued. "Stockpiles, military strength, routes, latest maps, marching orders even the feelings of the local population about the Empire."

"I want all information to be recorded down in code, and don't get caught," Tyrier glared at everyone. "We gather back at the edge of Falledge again after one month, if you do not make the rendezvous, it will mean that you have been either captured or killed."

"If chances of being captured are very high, make sure all information and weapons are disposed of properly, the Empire might not understand the hooman's technology, but just to be safe," Tyrier stated. "There will also be a very low chance of rescue should you be captured, so make sure you don't get caught!"

"Alright, gear up, it's about time to move out." Tyrier clapped his hands, signaling the end of the meeting and headed to the cave entrance. He stood at the edge of the opening, looking down the sheer drop of the cliff and pulled down a walkie-talkie.

"Claymore Actual to Thunderchief, do you copy over?" He sent out a message, they had early mounted a transmitting relay device out on the cliff walls. They had along the way, installed another relay device at their previous resting site, allowing radio communications over long distances.

"-underchief, what's your situation report, over."

"Claymore One has arrived within sight of Falledge, will begin Operation Dagger in one hour time, over."

"Thunderchief, copy that, stay safe and God bless."

"Claymore Actual, Roger and Tango Yankee, out." (*Tango Yankee means Thank You)

The men had changed, wearing simple homespun clothes and trousers with simple leather sandals. Each carried an unadorned short sword and dagger, with a concealed holster for their silenced Glocks. A sling leather case holds either a shotgun or an M2 Magespitter inside, while a pooch carried some explosives and grenades. A small slung bag carried other basic necessities for each man and perfectly foraged traveling documents, taken from the thousands of prisoners were carried in a simple scroll case.

Blue Thunder silently glided to a stop at the edge of a farmer's field, and Claymore One hopped off from the dragon. Blue Thunder gave a nod and quickly took off, flapping his wings mightly and disappeared into the night skies.

"Alright people, eyes front! We are in enemy territory now!"

111 - Talent

Shadowy figures silently moved crept along a long irrigation trench next to a field of native grains. The man tall stalks of yellow-green crops swayed gently in the early morning wind and the six figures appeared next to a row of wooden fences.

"Sun's up in an hour or so. We are going to wait for the gates to open, then we are going into the city in groups," Tyrier said the team, "keep hidden till then."

Soon, the sky lightened up, the clouds turning red and the thin fog slowly dispersing and people started arriving in small groups to the town gates. The three stories tall wall festooned with arrow slits surrounded the whole town of roughly 20,000 inhabitants together with a moat. "Let's go," Tyrier waved everyone up and walked out from the grain field towards the small queue forming at the gates.

Tyrier's boots squelched as the morning dew and water from staying hidden in the irrigation trench had seeped into his boots. He ignored the cold and wet feeling, joining behind a couple of chatting gatherers with a large pile of firewood tied to their backs.

Hitsu formed up beside him, his hand gripping the pommel of his sword. "Relax," Tyrier whispered, glancing behind them to see the rest joining the queue behind them. Tyrier stepped up right behind the two wood gatherers and gave a polite cough, making the two gatherers to turn and look at him with curiosity.

"Greetings good sirs," Tyrier gave a disarming grin to the two old aged men dressed in coarse wool country clothes. "I have been on the road for some time, so I was wondering if you could share any recent news of the town?"

Both the gatherers looked at each other and hesitated, but their faces quickly turned to smiles as Tyrier flipped a silver coin to them. "Well, kind sir, what do you want to know?"

"What's the latest news and happenings around here and the town," Tyrier asked, "I been away for weeks with my friend here, so we are lacking news of the area."

"Oh, well, the Duke lost some kind of major battle down south with the rebels," One of the older gatherer whispers, "But don't go talk about it in the town, if the guards hear you, they will take you away, or worst!" He made a throat slitting motion.

Both Tyrier and Hitsu nodded, "What other news?"

"Well, spring is here, so the goblins are out in force now," The older gatherer said, "Other beasts are also roaming around too." He scratched his head as he thought, "Well, rumor has it that the Duke has gone missing."

"I see, anything else?" Tyrier asked.

"Well, the army has left, thank the heavens," The other gatherer spoke up, "It is more peaceful now that they have left." He looked closely at the two, frowned and whispered, "Are you two deserters from the army?"

"Heavens no!" Hitsu cried out, "What makes you think so?"

"Well, you have the feelings of a warrior," The gatherer rubbed his head in embarrassment. "Well, the guards are checking and arresting any army deserters."

"I see," Tyrier grinned, placing his hand firmly on to Hitsu's shoulder. "We used to be part of the Goldrose Army, but now," He gave a shrug and continued, "We are working as adventurers and problem solvers."

"Ahh, I see! My greatest apologies!" The two gatherers quickly gave a bow to them, which they hurriedly stopped the two.

"It is aright, it's all in the past," Tyrier said, "You don't have to bow to us anymore."

"We just want to thank you for your brave efforts against the Empire," The old man whispered, looking over his shoulder to the walls. "Be careful of the guards, they might mistake you all for deserters!'

"It will be fine, we have traveling papers," Tyrier grinned, touched by the sincerely from the two gatherers. "We will be fine. Can you recommend any inn for us to stay?"

"Hmm, you can try the Prancing Pony down by left of the main street after you pass the market stalls, you can't miss it, it has a sign of a prancing pony," The old man rubbed his chin said, "Tell the owner, that Old Raggins recommended you. He will give you a fair price."

"Thank you, good sirs!" Tyriers dipped his head in thanks and pointed to the front, "Look, the gate is opening."

A thick wooden drawbridge was slowly being lowered by two sets of iron chains set on each end of the drawbridge. It came to a stop with a crash and the gates of Falledge swung open, and a metal portcullis was lifted up slowly and several guards could be seen behind it.

The queuing crowd started to stir, some getting up from where they sat waiting, others started shouldering their bundles and goods while cart drivers woke their dragons up from their nap. A voice shouted from across the bridge, informing the queue that they can advance.

The drawbridge barely creaked as Tyrier and his men shuffled down the line towards the gate. The guards checked the identity papers of each person entering the town and soon the two gatherers turn were over and Tyrier and Hitsu stood before the guards who waved for their papers impatiently.

Tyrier and Hitsu handed over their scroll cases containing their travel papers and discretely observed the gatehouse, finding dozens of murder holes on the ceiling and a stout looking metal reinforced door at the side, most likely leading to the control room with the windlass which lowered or raised the bridge.

"Purpose?" The guard with a red cloth slash across his half plate asked snobbishly as he glanced at their traveling papers.

"Work," Tyrier said truthfully. "We are adventurers and problem solvers. He gave a slight bow to the guard.

"Oh," The guard raised his eyebrows, "You look more like soldiers than adventurers..."

"Kind sir, we just want to find some work to support our bellies," Tyrier gave his best smile, and clasped the guard's hand, handing him a small pouch of coins.

"Hmmm," The guard turned to the side and deftly checked the contents of the pouch, where a few gold nuggets could be seen and seemingly satisfied, nodded and returned the papers into the scroll cases, handing it over to Tyrier and grinned, "Welcome to Falledge. Word of warning, don't get into any trouble, or we will throw you in the dungeons! Next!" The guard turned attention to the next in line, waving for them come forward.

Tyrier looked at Hitsu who gave a shrug and they entered into the town.

-----

UNS Singapore, Conference Room

"Attention on deck!" A Marine bellowed from the opened from as Captain Blake entered the conference were all the heads of departments rosed and saluted.

"At ease, people," Blake waved everyone to their seats and nodded to his second in command, Commander Ford. "Let's start."

Ford continued standing and patiently waited for everyone to settle down in their seats, "Alright, a quick report on our current situation." He activated the main display screen and a series of graphs and charts appeared.

"As of Start of the Year, first quarter, almost nine months we arrived here, we have finally some nice green lines to show on our charts," Ford grinned, "Despite that, we are still in the red for several items on the list."

"Food, population, education, transportation, production, mining, and military sector have shown positive growth over the last quarter, while ammunition, medicine, technology, and magic research has declined or stagnated." Ford tapped on the screen to highlight each point.

"We need to focus more on those lacking, especially ammunition and technology," Blake spoke next. "So I am gonna divide everyone up into different sectors to work on."

"There will be five key sectors, Military, Production, Transportation, Magic, Science, and Technology, and finally Civil." Blake listed out five points. "Major Frank will head the Military sector, which will cover, all forms of external security and threats."

"Chief Gale will be in charge of Production, which will cover all forms of factories, mining, and construction."

"Quartermaster Chen will head the Transportation sector, which will deal with our transportation network and including supplying goods and resources to each area."

"For Magic, Science, and Technology, I want Magister Thorn, Dr, Sharon, and Chief Matt to handle it all, including medicine and research."

"Finally for Civil, Princess Sherene will take the lead with Ops officer Letts in support. Education, housing, agriculture, fishery, healthcare, public works, and police will all fall under Civil," Blake finished outlining his plan. "I want all of you to list out and recruit who you think is a talent to your sectors that you will be running. Questions?"

"How about the budget?" Quartermaster Chen asked, "We need something to pay for workers and salary."

"Accounts department will be working with everyone on this," Ford explained, "They will work out a budget to be assigned to each sector and also other special requests."

"How about manpower? Who can we draw from?" Chief Gale asked, "We can headhunt anyone we like?"

"If you find a talent from the locals, recruit as per normal procedures, if they are part of the crew or Marines, apply directly to HR for approval," Blake clarified. "Any other questions? No? Ok, next."

Lieutenant Tavor stood up, "The next agenda will be for 'Your ears only', rated top secret," He warned everyone in the meeting. "Failure to comply and leaking of top secret information will be met with severe consequences."

Everyone including the elves present nodded seriously, all their faces grim. "Now, two days ago, we launched Operation Dagger, and top secret information gathering mission within enemy territory, which in this case is the Empire."

"The Hundred and First, Claymore One had inserted successfully in the border town of Falledge, formerly part of the Kingdom of Goldrose." Tavor informed those that were in the dark. "The timeline for Operation Dagger will be one month, for Claymore One to infiltrate and blend into the population within the Empire, subjected to be extended if required."

"Operation Dagger primarily objectives involved information gathering, scouting of enemy dispositions, supply depots and stockpiles, weapons manufactories, troop strength, morale and marching routes," Tavor highlighted the main objectives. "Secondary mission is to discover the families of those who decided to join us and the possibility of recruitment of local supporters."

"So basically, it's a spying mission?" Dr. Sharon pointed out.

"Yes, in the simple sense," Tavor nodded, "We also want to know if is it feasible to project our forces into occupying Falledge."

"You mean, an invasion into the Empire?" Sherene's delicate eyebrows rose all the way up. "You want to take Falledge?"

"Hmm," Blake interjected, "Well, if it is possible to take and hold it, yes. I would rather the enemy fight on their own land than on ours, this way we can limit the destruction on our own infrastructure and also we have more room to fallback or maneuver should we need to." He admitted frankly.

"But what about the civilians?" Sherene half rosed from her seat, her fists clenched tightly as she glared angrily at Blake. "Their homes and livelihood?"

Blake stared back at Sherene calmly, "It is war, but of course we will try to prevent as many civilian casualties and evacuate them to safety beforehand."

"But, who if they do not want to leave?" Sherene shot back, "Are you just going to let them die?"

Ford gave a cough and interrupted, "Please, Princess, we will do everything to ensure the safety of non-combatants and besides, it is one of the options we are looking at, we are still looking at the feasibility of the operation. If the information given to us states that the town is not suitable for a long defensive battle, then, of course, we will not commit to it."

Sherene gave a jerk and sat down, muttering, "I am sorry for the unsightly outburst, please continue."

Lieutenant Tavor nodded and continued the brief as if there were no interruptions, "By identifying key supply depots, stockpiles, roads and bridges, and staging areas of enemy forces, we can predict when the enemy will make a move against us again."

"Once identified, Valkyries will commerce long-range bombing of those key locations, stopping the enemy before they can even think of coming within a 1000 kilometers of us."

112 - Guns, Mushrooms and Explosions, Oh My!

Master Sergeant Pike cursed as he dumped the glossy magazine he was reading on to his desk. "Goddammit!" He took a deep breath and calmed himself down, before picking up the gun catalog magazine back up and flipping through its pages.

"Top, you ok?" Mills leaned back from his chair, tilting back and looking into Pike's office.

"Peachy as hell," Pike growled back, and Mills quietly returned to his original position. "Damn that Indian fucker!" He compared the technical drawings of the M2 Magespitter with his own unfinished design and flipped through the gun catalog. He worked as an armorer many years ago when he was still a noobie third sergeant and his knowledge of creating firearms from scratch was amateurish at best despite his hobbies in antiqued late 20th century firearms.

He knows how to fine tune a rifle, mod a shotgun or even scratch build simple hobby bolt actions and pistols, but designing and making a military grade heavy machine gun, was totally out of his depth. On his work desk were several technical drawings of designs, from mortars to cannons to an engine.

"Should I go for a hand crank design or a recoil assist system?" Pike muttered to himself, "Damn, those eggheads better research out how to make smokeless powder, the bloody black powder is just too dirty for recoil assisted guns.

The M2 Magespitter will require cleaning and maintenance after roughly firing 600 rounds, or the weapon will jam, as the fouling will choke up the wind runes, preventing them from activating. The M1 Magelock is slightly better, able to fire close to a thousand rounds before needing to be properly cleaned. In fact more the half the time the Marines spent during the defense of the Pass was just to clean their weapons.

Now he needed to come out with a machine gun design for using black powder cartridges and another design for using smokeless powder. He mentally cursed again, damning Raman's soul to the deepest hell for deleting all the weapons data in the armory and sighed, diving back to his work on making a machine gun.

-----

UNS Singapore, Biohazard and Containment Laboratory

Spaceman Senior Apple was whistling to the music playing in the background and dressed in a yellow biohazard protection suit. Her work involved testing and analyzing all unknown organic material if it is capable of consumption or the chemical makeup. Samples were constantly passed to her from surveying teams and just recently, a new batch of samples arrived and they were directly from exploring Dungeon.

Apple got tasked to check the meat of the giant ants if they were safe to be consumed and it turned out to be pack full of proteins and minerals. She even managed to try it at the cafeteria the next day and the kitchen staff labeled it in the menu as Ant Meat Pasta.

When she tried it, she found the ant meat sweat like crab meat, and the pasta was actually made out of potato flour, stir fried with chopped tomatoes and herbs. It tasted better than the usual slime noodles.

She took a sample case, labeled with #UIF-112 on the top of the container, UIF for Un-Identifed Flora, and removed the vacuum sealing. A large football sized greenish brown mushroom with white spots on the crown sat in a storage case.

"Hmmm, what do we have here?" She hummed along to the music playing in the background and used a digital camera and snapped a few photos and then gently scraped off some silvers of the mushroom with a scraper, placing them onto a petri dish and inserted the dish into an analyzer. Next, she used a scalpel and cut out a small portion of the mushroom and placed it on to another petri dish and placed it under an imaging device.

She turned on the device and a microscopic view of the mushroom popped up on the display. She then cut more pieces of the shroom and ran a tox screen followed by a nutrient test, just as she was about to run the next series of tests, the analyzer beeped urgently, with red warning lights flashing.

She quickly dropped what she was doing at the moment and checked the analyzer reports, and her eyes grew wider and wider as she read the incredible results.

"Oh my god," She quickly picked up all the pieces of mushroom she cut, and gently placed them back into the container and resealed it. She hit the intercom linking to the medical lab down the hall and said, "I got a Code Black here. Requesting immediate removal of Code Black item to a safe room now!"

She grabbed a shock and blast resistance case from the room's emergency stores and packed the storage case #UIF-112 carefully into the foam lined box and placed it into the two way bin, letting it get decontaminated inside the bin before the medical and science team members came.

"What is it?" Dr. Sharon asked using the intercom from outside the Biohazard and Containment Lab, as she and her colleagues waited for the decontamination countdown timer to finish.

"The chemical analyzer picked up large traces of nitroglycerin inside the sample," Apple spoke through the intercom. "The computer immediately drops a high explosive alert, and following protocol, I stopped all work on it and resealed it back and encased it in a shock and blast resistance container.

"Nitroglycerin?" Dr. Sharon asked in a surprised voice, "Are you sure?"

Apple punched a few keys on the computer and brought up a display. She connected the camera and enlarged the image of the mushroom, followed by pulling out the analyzer report putting it side by side with the image.

"42% Nitroglycerin, 33% crude fiber and ash, 9% liquids, 5% iron, 4% phosphorus, 3% potassium, 1% sulfates and the rest will require more in-depth testing," Dr. Sharon read the report. "Oh my, where is this from?"

"The dungeon, they sent us a sample a few days back," Alex replied, "The system is saying nitroglycerin is highly unstable, so that's why I am calling a Code Black."

"Got it," Dr. Sharon nodded, and turned around and ordered her people, "Ok, transport it carefully, it is highly explosive, put it in a secured cooler."

"Alright, we will be handling this carefully," Dr. Sharon said next, "Apple, I want you to continue analyzing the Nitroshroom, but use small samples to be safe."

"Nitro-shroom?" Apple repeated back, "I guess that is an appropriate name..."

"Hmmm, I got to report this up higher," Dr. Sharon grinned, "I think the Marines and the Captain will be very happy to hear this news."

-----

Outskirts of Base Colony, Chemical Research Center

At roughly the same time, just several kilometers away, at a secured location away from the City, a research center for the sole purpose of researching smokeless powder was constructed. It was purposely built far away from the city center to prevent accidents from happening should the lab explode due to the nature of the research they were working on.

A loud explosion ripped through the lab, sending the few researchers tumbling back in shock, shards of glass and plastics flew everywhere, some causing cuts on the researchers despite the protective coats due to the force of the explosion.

Spaceman Luther turn chemist researcher screamed in shock and pain, half his left hand blown off by the explosion, blood pooling underneath his hand as he kneeled on the lab floor crying. His colleagues rushed to his aid, carrying a first aid kit, wrapping a bandage over his torn up left hand. "Are you alright? Luther?"

Luther laughed and cried at the same time, cradling his hand and said, "I did it! I made gun cotton!" before his eyes rolled up and went into shock.

"Fuck! Get him to the hospital quick! He has gone into shock!" His colleagues jab him with a tranq shot and carried him out of the lab and towards the motor pool.

-----

UNS Singapore, Captain's office

"Captain!" Commander Ford knocked on the opened door and entered without waiting for a reply, "We got some very good news and... bad, I guess."

"What's the bad news?" Blake stopped his work and leaned back on his chair looking up at Ford.

"Well, I won't really say it is bad, just one of our amateur chemist got his hand blown off and we have a live explosive onboard the ship in our labs." Ford said, "I am not sure of the details, Dr. Sharon said one of the samples brought in from the cave is highly explosive."

Blake eyebrows rosed, "Ok, nothing happened to both the labs?"

"For the chemist lab, just some broke equipment, and two others with minor injuries," Ford reported, "And Dr. Sharon isolated the explosive sample to a secured location for testing explosives."

Blake nodded, "And the good news?"

"Well, the chemist who got his hand blown off, found out how to make guncotton," Ford grinned, "that was what his colleagues said he said before he fainted."

"Is that how he got his hand blown off?" Blake asked, and seeing Ford nod, "Okay, I want the lab to have the strictest procedure in handling dangerous material and explosives. Get Pike to go knock some heads. We are lucky, no one is dead or blows up the city."

Ford nodded again, "Got it and one more thing, the explosive sample down the labs here, is actually some kind of shroom that has a high concentration of nitroglycerin!"

"Wait! Guncotton and nitroglycerin are key ingredients for making smokeless powder yes?" Blake shot up from his seat, excited.

"Yes, Sir," Ford grinned, "Once we can properly extract and manufacture both ingredients, it will just be a matter of time before we successful create a smokeless powder formula."

"Alright, make ensure safety is a priority on all the labs and research centers, have Pike or guys with explosive handling knowledge to drill in the importance of safety to those working in the labs and research centers," Blake ordered and grinned, "Finally, things are looking slightly better than before!"

Ford agreed, "Yes, it seems this month is the most peaceful month we have since landing here."

"Well, that won't last for long," Blake sighed, "Take a look, Intel just sent this over." He turned on the office display for Ford, showing a map with several red and yellow dots. There were also a large number of green dots scattered all over. "Red for monster attacks, while yellow for sightings of monsters."

"The green dots represent confirmed sightings of goblin activity," Blake explained.

"Damn, that is a lot of goblin activity!" Ford did a quick count of the green dots.

"No need to count, there is a total of 89 reports and it is climbing daily," Blake said, "Not only goblins, but we also have reports of giant snakes, salamanders or a land dragon variant, wind wolves, giant boars, and some other creatures still not identified by the people working out in the forest and farms."

"In a way, we get plenty of meat and animal products when the Marines kill them," Blake continued, "But we only so many troops to spread around, and the next batch to graduate is still two months out."

"Lucky, we managed to get a source of mana stones, even if it in a limited amount," Blake added, "If not, it will be back to arrows and swords for the new recruits."

"Well, we also can't keep relying on the Marines to constantly farm the dungeon," Ford pointed out, "We will probably need to form a full-time team of hunters and gatherers to work in the dungeon."

"Yeah and I am very interested with those potions they found in the dungeon," Blake rubbed his chin, "If we can mass produce them, our medical worries will lessen a lot, at the rate of injuries people are getting lately."

"That's all the excitement for today," Ford said, "I better go look for Pike."

Blake nodded and turned to the report Ford just sent him, and grinned, "That's from Sharon?"

"Heh, nitroshrooms..."

113 - Falledge

The creaking of the wooden floor woke Tyrier up, as someone's heavy footsteps could be heard moving up the staircase. He dug under the wyvern feather pillow and pulled out his silenced Glock and flattened himself against the wall next to the door and waited. Not long, someone knocked on his room door, "It's me"

Tyrier lifted the wooden latch up and the door swung open and Hitsu entered and quickly closed the door behind him. "Wooo, it's hot outside." Hitsu removed his leather armor and sword belt, placing them on the room's table before pouring himself a drink.

"What did you find?" Tyrier peered out of the window and while placing his pistol on safe. The sky was a beautiful purplish red as evening slowly descended over the town.

"The whole town stinks, and I meant it literally," Hitsu finished the cup of water. "I bribed some of the town rats and cutthroats, but they tried to ambush me on my way back."

"You dealt with it?" Tyrier sat down on his bed.

"Yup, but we just lost some contacts from them," Hitsu fanned himself with his large brim hat. "But I did pick up some chatter at the local Adventurers Guild here. Seems that the Empire is offering a reward on the capture of the ex-Duke of Fallowfall."

"Oh, that is interesting," Tyrier got up and picked up his outer garments and started to get dressed. "Anything else?"

"Well, there are more jobs on the board for medical herbs than usual," Hitsu recalled, "Also, there are a few Empire contracts offering mercenary work for up to three months."

"What is the job scope?" Tyrier finished dressing up, looking like some well to do merchant.

"Mostly convoy escorting work, but the job's at the city of Woschester," Hitsu said, "I checked with the girl at the counter and she said it will take roughly three five-days by foot or two five-days by a land dragon."

"Anyone willing to sign up earns a deposit of 10 silvers and gets a gold crown at Woschester," Hitsu continued, "What the cargo is, the girl doesn't have any idea, but she suspects is probably military supplies. She said that the Imperials are building some kind of outpost south of here."

Tyrier nodded, "Got it, get some food and rest, I am heading down to the gentlemen's club to gather information."

"Got it, Boss!" Hitsu grinned as he leaned back on the chair and stretched, "Watch your back, the streets ain't so safe, especially at night! Damn, you get to have all the fun!"

"Rank has its privileges!" Tyrier gave a wink and left the room, making sure Hitsu latched and locked the door before heading down. He wore a finely tailored grey coat over a white spider silk shirt with high collars that were all the rage in Imperial fashion with a pair of black breeches and knee length boots. In his left hand, he held a sword cane topped with a piece of blue mana stone and his Glock was stored in a concealed shoulder holster while he held a top hat in his right hand.

He gave a greeting bow to the inn motherly matron who smiled back at him, and he left the inn, stepping out to the stone-paved streets of Falledge. The street lamps using glow moss gave out enough light to walk in the streets during the night, but Tyrier decided to call a carriage instead. As what Hitsu had complained earlier, the smell of the town was pretty bad. He gave a whistle to a coach parked at the side of the road and the driver quickly drove it over to him.

He climbed up on to enclosed coach and driver closed the door, "To the Clubs and Royals," He instructed the driver who nodded and climbed to the driver seat and snapped the reins of the dragon pulling the coach. The dragon gave an annoyed snort and leaned forward, its two powerful hind legs pushing off the pavement, pulling the coach forward with a slight jerk.

"Damn," Tyrier muttered, "I must be getting soft." He adjusted himself as the coach shook and rattle through the journey, making him think of the City of the hoomans. "Clean, no smell, smooth roads and bright." He watched the passing scenery of the Falledge through the small open window. Falledge might be called a town, but it grew almost twice its size since the war.

Many adventurers come to Falledge due to it bordering the Uncharted forest and it was also a staging area for the Empire forces, which they also brought along their families and slaves. It soon grew from a modest population of less than 10 thousand to over 20 thousand.

Soon the coach pulled to a stop in front of a large row of stone and brick buildings and Tyrier paid the driver. He straightened his coat and carefully stepped over a pile of dragon poo, and walked up towards the three-story tall brick building fenced in with an ornate gate. Two footmen dressed in a red uniform stood before the gates and gave Tyrier an eye over, before bowing and greeting him, opening the gate for him to enter.

Tyrier gave a nod and strolled carefreely into the walkway of the building. "Clubs and Royals Gentlemen's Club" was written in bold on a bronze plaque that was attached to a pillar on the side of the main door.

As he approached the door, a doorman greeted him politely and opened the door for him, welcoming him to the club. A warm glow greeted him as he entered the building, and the servant offered to take his coat for him, which he declined and the servant directed him towards the main hall. The hallway was richly decorated with paintings of war, and several monster trophies lined one side of the hallway. He walked past the trophies and paintings with just a simple glance before entering a large hall.

Inside the hall, dozens of reclining chairs were spaced out in groups of two or four, which small round tables set next to the chairs. Puffs of smoke erupted from several occupied chairs as the people smoked pipes and drank liquor. He scanned around the room before his eyes landed on a group chatting away, but he focused on the fat male in the group who was gorging away on a grilled wyvern leg.

"Hello my friend," Tyrier strolled straight to the fatty, who paused at eating the leg, and his greasy mouth broke into a wide smile as he recognized who it was.

"Tyrier Lodess!" The fatty put down the leg and wiped his hands and mouth while exclaiming in surprise and happiness, "As I live and breathe! How are you and what brings you here?"

"Etoro Arther," Tyrier grinned, giving the big man a hug, " I am fine, it has been years since we last met. How are you doing"

"Oh, its only been 1 year, two months and... four days since we last met each other," Etoro grinned. "I am doing quite well, as you can see!" He gestured his belly and laughed.

As usual, Tyrier was amazed by the mind of his fat friend, who seemed to have a memory unmatched by any other. "Yes, you are fatter than the last time I met you." Etoro had a round cheerful face with a double chin, beady eyes and a bald head, his tailored shirt was large enough to make a tent for two to sleep in.

Etoro laughed and slapped Tyrier's back and pulling him to join his friends, "This is Tyrier Lodess, he's a good friend of mine for many years, we used to work together in the army before it got disbanded."

"These are my partners in crime here," Etoro winked, and introduced the other three, "The skinny one is Lyo Yonder, next to him is Qoum Bishop, and that is Cesta Blackwind."

"The four of us form the North Star Trading company, a simple and modest trade company here," Etoro proudly declared. "Wait, how did you find me?"

"Well, I was just in town, and was looking around, and found out about you from the merchant district," Tyrier explained, he didn't really expect to find someone he knew before, and Etoro used to be his unit's quartermaster. "I found out that you like to hand out here, so here I am."

Etoro gestured to Tyrier to sit down, a new chair brought over by one of the servants, "Drink? Food?"

"I get a mulled wine," Tyrier told the servant on the side who nodded and went to fetch his order. "So how is business?"

"Not bad, not bad," Etoro said, "What are you doing now?"

"Oh, I working as an adventurer and problem solver now," Tyrier said, "You got a job for me?"

"Hmmm," Etoro glanced at his partners who looked back passively. "Maybe, but let's not talk about work here! Come, drink up!" Etoro picked up his glass of wine as the servant returned with a glass of mulled wine for Tyrier.

The night was spent with Etoro and Tyrier reminiscing about the past, exchanging funny stories during their time working together and before long, they bid farewell to each other. "Come and find me at my company tomorrow," Etoro winked and give his address to Tyrier who assured him he will and they left.

Returning to the inn, Hitsu opened the door and let Tyrier in, "How was it?"

"I am meeting him tomorrow to talk business at his office," Tyrier said as he stripped off his coat and boots. "Damn, I am tired."

"I will take the first watch," Hitsu said, while Tyrier nodded, and laid down on his bed to sleep.

The next morning, both of them had the inn deliver some water up for washing and refreshed themselves before having breakfast downstairs at the dining room. After a simple breakfast of bread, soup, and sausages, they headed separately to their own mission. Hitsu headed for the Adventurers Guild while Tyrier headed towards the address given by his friend Etoro.

Tyrier soon stood before a store with a large bustling warehouse in the merchant district where he went up to the storefront and spoke to the clerk inside. "Hi, I am here to meet with Mr. Arther, I have an appointment with him this morning."

"Please wait a moment... Sir?" The clerk looked at him in askance.

"Tyrier," He replied and went to take a look around the goods offered by the store, while the clerk headed upstairs to inform someone.

The double shelves were stacked with many different items, ranging from common household items like cutlery and plates to traveling supplies like crystal lamps and camping gear. There was even a section that offered to buy mana stones and monster materials.

"Sir Tyrier?" The clerk appeared at Tyrier's elbow, "The Master will see you now."

"Master?" Tyrier gave a small smile and followed the clerk upstairs and into a door where a large desk and chair strong enough to support Etoro's weight. The room was decorated with paintings of sailing ships and monsters, while a sofa and tea table occupied a place on the side.

"Good morning!" Etoro cheerfully greeted Tyrier and the clerk bowed respectfully and closed the door behind him, leaving Etoro and Tyrier alone. "Take a sit," He waved Tyrier to the sofa and joined him in the opposite side. "Tea?"

"Thank you," Tyrier said, as he settled down on the sofa and accepted a cup of tea from Etoro.

"So, what is your true purpose here?" Etoro asked while taking a sip of the hot tea. "You didn't just coincidentally appear here, did you?"

"Seriously, I didn't expect you to find you here," Tyrier gave a shrug, "But since I found you, and I do need your help on somethings."

"Like?" Etoro asked, "if it is within my means I will help you."

"I need information," Tyrier said. "And it must be discrete."

"What kind?" Etoro asked again, "I am not an information broker."

"Well, I am sure you will pick up something when you do trading with other people," Tyrier said, "Or you know someone who does."

"Well, that depends on the information you need," Etoro sipped his tea, "So what is it?"

"I want information on all Empire troop movements around this area."

114 - A Business Deal

"What?" Etoro sputtered out the tea he was drinking. "Are you crazy? You want me to be a... spy? Goldrose is gone, all the royal family is killed, even the last princess has gone into hiding..."

Etoro stopped his ranting and stared intently at Tyrier, "Wait, the rebels down at the south..."

"Shhh..." Tyrier placed a finger at his lips and smiled. "I just only want information, I am not a rebel or... loyalist here."

"Ahh..." Etoro comically covered his mouth his both his fat hands and quickly sat down again, ignoring the tea stain on his velvet silk shirt. "Sorry, I thought you were part of the rebels."

"Well, it doesn't matter if I am or not," Tyrier leaned front, "I just need information about the Imperials."

"But if we get caught..." Etoro whispered, "It is not safe!"

"I am not telling you to specifically spy on them," Tyrier changed his tactic, "I just want to know what you heard when you are out there doing trading. Stuff like rumors or sightings, as long as it is related to the Empire troops, I would like to know."

"But why?" Etoro countered, staring at Tyrier intently, "I doubt you are doing this just for fun!"

"Alright, but don't tell anyone else," Tyrier whispered, "I will have to kill you if I tell you."

Etoro ruby face whiten when he heard that and he backed against his chair to put as much distance against the killing aura Tyrier was giving off. "Alright, I won't ask no more!"

"Good, cause, seriously I would hate to kill you," Tyrier released the killing aura he gave off. "Now, I am willing to pay in solid gold for any information regarding the movements of the Empire." He shook out a pooch full of gold royals onto the table courtesy of the former Duke Sturm's war chest, captured when his army retreated.

"I see, what I can find out," Etoro mopped his sweating head with a silk hanky, "This is a dangerous game you are playing."

"As long as you keep it to yourself," Tyrier promised, "You will get to live long enough to enjoy life."

"Damn, what a way to treat an old friend," Etoro grumbled, "Alright, I do what I can, but no promises! When all this is over, you owe me an explanation."

"You got it, old friend," Tyrier grinned and finished his cup of tea. "So you got any work for a problem solver?"

"What? You still got the cheeky to ask for work after threatening my life?" Etoro face turned red, "Argh, I wonder why am I friends with you!"

"Hahaha, relax, that was just business and this is just me looking for work," Tyrier smiled, "Besides, there are always risks in brokering information."

Etoro shook his head, "Alright I do have a job here, just that my partners are divided on trusting you with it, but since you dropped a hot coal on my lap, I think it should be fine for you to handle it."

Etoro leaned forward and said in a low voice, "We got a client, who let's say is interested in bringing slaves out of the Empire."

"Slaves?" Tyrier raised his eyebrows, "You dealing with slavers now?"

"No, not slavers," Etoro looked uncomfortable, "Our client wants to save the slaves," He whispered, "They want to bring the slaves out of the Empire but the Empire does not allow slaves to be taken out of their territory, so we need to smuggle them out."

"That's interesting," Tyrier rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "What do you need?"

"I will need to someone to escort them through the Uncharted Forest and out from the mountains to the sea." Etoro picked up a map from one of his shelves in the room and carefully rolled it out on the table top, "There will be a ship to pick them up."

"Are you sure your client isn't just taking slaves here and selling them away at other places?" Tyrier asked.

"Yes, I am sure," Etoro nodded firmly, "One of my partners, Blackwind, you saw him last night. He used to be a slave we freed, and now he is one of my guides through the Uncharted Forest."

Tyrier gave a whistle, and leaned back on the sofa, "How long does the journey take?"

"Give or take, a month," Etoro replied.

"One month through the Uncharted Forest and Untamed Lands, and another month back?" Tyrier raised his eyebrows, "Through Goblin and Oerkin territory and heavens know what other monsters?"

"How many guards and slaves?" Tyrier narrowed his eyes and asked harshly.

Etoro gave a weak smile and muttered something, which made Tyrier ask again. "How many guards?"

"Hehe, roughly twenty?" Etoro muttered. "About a hundred slaves?"

"Twenty men escorting a hundred slaves?" Tyrier asked, "You must be mad!"

"We have done it before!" Etoro insisted, "Well, there were some casualties."

"Of course there will be casualties!" Tyrier said, "In fact it's suicidal!"

"But that's the only fastest and safest way!" Etoro stubbornly said. "Look, help me escort the freed slaves out, and I do all I can to provide the information you need."

"Let me think about it first," Tyrier said, "Are you sure there is no other ways to do this?"

"Yes, there is a hidden cove south-east of the coast," Etoro explained, "It is deep enough for the ship to dock and hide. We can't go southwards due to the war between the Empire and the rebels, and the only way to avoid Imperial patrols is to head south-east directly to the coast."

"Got it. I will get back to you again," Tyrier stood up, "How long on your side to gather all the information I need?"

"Give me a couple of days?" Etoro responded, also standing up. "Well, I look forward to you good news."

Tyrier nodded and left Etoro's office, and soon stepped out to the early afternoon sun. He turned and looked up to the 2nd floor, seeing Etoro watching him from the window and gave him a wave before leaving.

Maybe we could change the freed slaves route? Tyrier smiled to himself at the thought, but he needed to check in with High Command first.

-----

Falledge, Adventurer's Guild

Hitsu pushed open the doors into the high ceiling building and entered a buzz of noise and clamor. He pushed his way past a couple of leather armored adventurers who were laughing over something and stood before a large notice board where dozens of parchment were pinned on the board, each listing a job or request.

A child came up to him, "Sir, sir! Do you need help on reading the jobs? I can read and write for you! All for a silver!" The boy dressed in simple homespun stood at his elbow, pulling his sleeve for attention.

"Tell you what," Hitsu grinned, "How about telling me about the latest news that is going on in this town?"

"Latest news?" The boy looked at him and smiled back, "You found the right person! I know all about what is happening in this town!"

"I give you a silver for every five news items I find worthwhile," Hitsu offered, "But if you try to give me any fake news, the deal is off."

"One silver for two news!" The boy bargained.

Hitsu grinned, "One silver for four."

"THREE!" The boy counter offered.

"Deal," HItsu ruffled the kid's hair, making him grumble. "So what's your name?"

"Bill, but everyone here calls me Billy," Billy smiled, "So what do you want to know?"

"Well, I am interested in knowing what's going on with the Empire now," Hitsu said, bringing the kid to a quiet corner out of the hustle and bustle of the guild. "Stuff like major events occurring within the Empire. Like... war."

"Why do you want to know all that?" Billy curiously asked.

"Well, my boss is a merchant," Hitsu lied easily, "Having information like war, famine and other things can help make or lose lots of money."

"Makes sense," Billy nodded sagely, "Well, for one, seems like Duke Sturm lost the war with the rebels and is on the run."

"Well, everyone knows that in this town," Hitsu replied quickly, "You need to do better than that."

"But no one knows where he has gone!" Billy retorted back, "But I heard a rumor." He leaned forward and tried to act all secretive and failing due his age and size. Hitsu had to keep his laughter down and school his face as serious as possible as he bent down to listen. "I managed to overhear some men that came to buy some supplies that they are heading back to Fallowfall and something about a keep."

Hitsu leaned back unimpressed with the information, "They could be anyone just on their way back to Fallowfall!"

"Yes, but they were wearing heavy armor underneath their cloaks! I have been around adventurers to know the difference between leather armor and plate mail!" Billy furiously replied, "And this." He looked around their surroundings before digging something out from his belt and placing it in front of Hitsu.

A rectangularly shaped palm-sized bronze token laid on the table and Hitsu picked it up, turning it over and seeing a motif of a diving dragon. "See, I know the diving dragon is the coat of arms for the Duke, I am very sure those are his men!" Billy proudly folded his arms.

"Can I have this?" Hitsu asked, "I offer you a silver for this, and you know it is dangerous to carry it around."

"Alright, so does that count as one?" Billy asked as he held up the silver coin with a motif of a dragon, commonly known as a silver dragon and pocketed it.

The kingdoms and nations here had been using the same coinage from their ancestral lands, the difference only being the printed surface depending on the nation or kingdom but all gold coins have a printed crown on one side, while silver coins have a dragon and copper coins have a printed shield. Even the weight and size are kept the same, making the coinage easy for trade among the nations and kingdoms in the new world.

Hitsu nodded, "Anything else?"

"I heard rumors that a new Imperial commander is taking over Duke Sturm, and should be arriving soon," Billy frowned in thought as he tried to recall any interesting bits of news. "His name is quite, cold sounding... think he is called... the... er the Stone?"

"The Rock?" Hitsu asked, as his eyes narrowed.

"Yes yes, the Rock!" Billy grinned. "That was what some of the adventurers were discussing the other day!"

"Do you know when he will arrive?" Hitsu asked hastily.

"I think they were saying he should be here within the month," Billy shrugged.

"Can you try to find out more about when he will arrive?" Hitsu asked, "Of course be careful when doing that, I don't want you to get into any trouble." He dug out another piece of silver dragon and passed to Billy. "Thanks for the information, I will come down here again tomorrow. You will be here?"

"Of course! I am here every day!" Billy grinned, rubbing the two silver dragons in his pocket happily.

Hitsu gave a proper look over at the kid, seeing him properly for the first time, as he was too focused on his surroundings, and said in surprise, "You are a girl?"

"What? -no.. no!" Billy face blushed, "I am a boy!" She said fiercely. He was dressed in an oversized shirt patched many times over the years. How did he know I am a girl? She thought.

"Well, no matter to me, but you be careful out there!' Hitsu said, giving her another ruffle of her shortly cropped curly ginger hair. "I see you here tomorrow!"

Billy nodded and went back to the notice board, offering to read and write for people as Hitsu quickly headed out of the guild. "Damn the Rock!" He muttered under his breath as he exited the guild, "I need to find Tyrier quick!"

He headed towards the merchant district in a hurried pace, totally missing two pairs of eyes watching and following him from the shadows.

115 - Officer Cadet School

Camp Alpha, Officer Cadet School

Joseph Tokin, at forty-three of age, formerly Lord General of the Kingdom of Goldrose, sat in a classroom with several other of his previous army command, taking a class in Advanced Infantry Tactics, learning about different types of infantry warfare, currently mentored by Major Frank.

He and the others were all wearing the standard blue-grey multi-scale camouflage uniform all the military was wearing. Everyone including him has a white bar on their shoulders, indicating they were Officer cadets. His class went through basic military training before being fast-tracked to Officer Cadet School and went through several courses on leadership, tactics, and management.

He heard that after the course is over, they will be split up to different branches of the military, air, land, and sea. The hoomans didn't treat any of his fellow cadets including him with any special treatment, regardless if they were nobles or commanders of a thousand men before. Even his title as Lord General, he wasn't given any preference, in fact, he was expected to "muck" around with everyone.

Luckily despite his age, he was still able to keep up with the younger ones, and of course, a strategic use of a restoration spell here and there helped a lot. But shooting with an M1 Magelock played hell with his right shoulder, and he just barely managed to scrape by the passing score for a rifleman. "Alright, this is all for the day," Major Frank ended his lecture on infantry warfare and continued, "Read up on Sun Tze's Art of War, this will be your homework!"

"Attention on deck!" The cadet nearest to the door stood up and shouted, and everyone stood up and saluted Major Frank, who returned the salutes and left the classroom.

Arven and Rathia gathered next to Joesph's desk and started grumbling, "Damn, I was hoping on catching on some sleep tonight, guess it will be spent on reading instead!"

Arven Silverhand used to be a 50 man leader in the Army of Goldrose, and he was recommended to be in the Officer Cadet School after he passed out from Basic training and due to his leadership skills he displayed in the Second Battle of Sawtooth Mountain Pass. He became friends with Rathia and Joesph during the first week of orientation and stuck close to them ever since.

Rathia Redstone, on the other hand, was Joesph's close friend and second in command of the remaining survivors of the Army. They been through a lot over the years and were lucky to be in the same Officer Cadet class. "Well, it's a very interesting read, in fact, I am amazed by the contents," Joesph said.

"The book is said to be over 1,800 years old," Joesph added, "I doubt that we in the Goldrose, the Empire or even the whole New and Old World would allow anyone to have access to this material!"

Both Arven and Rathia nodded, "The hoomans also made it mandatory for all to take classes on writing and reading, I wonder how their home city looks like." Arven commented.

"Alright let's go get dinner," Rathia said, "I am hungry, I heard tonight they have some ant meat!"

Arven and Joesph laughed at Rathia gluttony and they packed their stuff up and left the classroom and headed towards the cookhouse. Along the way they saw the latest batch of Marine recruits dressed in fatigues, jogging towards the cookhouse instep. The interesting thing was that there were Oerkins mixed in among the elves.

"If it was us before, we wouldn't have thought that Oerkins could be made part of our kingdom," Joesph said as he watched the platoon came to a halt before the cookhouse, and the men were dismissed in an orderly manner into the cookhouse, forming lines before the food section. "Now we are all part of a brotherhood."

The trio entered the cookhouse and headed to an area marked for officers, they hanged their multi-scale camouflage jockey caps at the hangers provided. The food offered was in a style called which the hoomans called it a Buffet, food set on trays were laid out over the table, heated with a small flame underneath. They could choose what they want to eat and how much they want by serving themselves.

They filled up their plates and found a seat and started to dig in, the food was foreign but good compared to what they normally eat in the Army previous, with fried or baked potatoes with gravy, boiled carr-atoes, either wyvern meat or some other monster meat, and a side of salad greens. The menu was different every day but repeats every week.

As they were eating, Major Frank entered the cookhouse and joined them at their table, his plate piled with steaming gravy, potatoes, and meat. "How are you guys doing?"

The trio nearly shot up from their seats to salute Frank, who grinned, saying "No ranks in the mess."

Joseph grinned, their time as trainees and recruits had ingrained into them a sense of wanting to greet any officer by saluting or standing at attention. "Sir, we are doing fine."

Frank continued smiling digging into his food, "Good, you guys will graduate soon, God knows how desperately I need more officers!"

"Sir, why are we not sent to the Pass when the Empire attacked?" Rathia asked. It was a sore point between him and Arven who had at least fought in the first week of the battle, before getting pulled out to Officer Cadet School.

"Simple, you guys are not ready yet," Frank bluntly said. "Until you are fully trained to lead in combat, then yes, you guys will be assigned to take over companies."

"But we have many years of experience in soldiering!" Rathia pushed.

"Arven, enough! I am sure the hoomans have their reasons for everything," Joseph stepped in, cutting Rathia off.

"It's ok, we do teach you all to think for yourselves," Frank smiled, "First of all, what you all know about combat involves cold steel tactics and magic." He explained patiently, "What you know then of modern warfare tactics is just what you have seen."

'That's why we are drilling and teaching you all how to fight with modern weapons against an enemy with cold steel weapons and also the possibility of the enemy having firearms of their own." Frank continued, his small talk had gathered the attention of all the Officer Cadets who were having dinner.

"Until you have graduated, you are still Cadets," Frank said, "Until then, you will not be risked at live combat situations till you all have being deemed ready to lead men, despite most of you were already leaders in your own right."

"Sir, so you mean that we are not ready for this war yet?" Someone asked.

"Yes, look at all the tactics and weapons the Marines are equipped," Frank said, "As officers, you need to know how each weapon works and make split-second decisions. War is no longer taking hours and hours, you don't have messengers running here and there to relay messages nor do you rely on signal flags. We have to set the highest standard for you guys, so as to set the 'bar' for the next batch of Officer Cadets. You guys will be teaching or leading by example for future generations to come."

"Even then, we are still learning new ways of warfare," Frank admitted, "Like incorporating magic into the ranks, as it could change overall battlefield tactics and results."

The cadets nodded and returned to their seats while they digested both food and thoughts of the speech given by Major Frank.

-----

Camp Alpha, Training Area C, Shoot House

"Go go go!" The recruit acting sergeant yelled, as his section stacked up against the wooden structure's door. The leading door breacher, fired his breaching shotgun off the hinges and the lock, while his number two, an Oerkin who kicked the door down and lobbed a blue training flashbang, which the men counted down from three to one and yelled, "Exploded!" before entering the building.

Mills stood on the top of a raised platform, overseeing the exercise. The shoot house was built like a maze, without a roof, allowing observers to watch what is happening inside. Other than Mills, other sections of the training platoon stood on the platform too, watching the action going on. Cracks of thunder echoed out of the house as the Marine recruit section stormed into the house, clearing the rooms and corridors one by one.

Dozens of dirt golems charged towards the recruits they entered rooms, the golems were conjured up as target practice by Irisval who was also at Camp Alpha learning on how to be a combat engineer.

The golems made out of soil and dirt, exploded to bits when hit by the 6.5mm rounds, but some unlucky recruits which did not check their corners had the golems punching them, the soft dirt only knocking them down and not dealing any serious damage.

Soon the whole recruit section who breached the building was surrounded by the golems and carried out, Mills shook his head at the section's performance and blew a whistle, before sending a mental command onto the bronze plate which controlled the golems, telling them to stand down.

"That was pathetic!" Mills greeted the panting men and orcs on the entrance of shoot house. "My grandma can do better than you!"

"Recruit Slow!" Mills barked, "I told you to take three steps in and crouch!" He pointed at the orc squatting on the grass. "Do you know what is three?" Mills held up three fingers, "One, two, THREE!"

"Erm, gotcha, Corporal!" The orc named Slow replied, rubbing his head. "Three steps and knee down."

"Than why in the hell did you not?" Mills cursed, "You are freaking huge! You not crouching, effectively blocks the whole section behind you! By doing so, no one other than you can open fire!"

"That is how you guys got swarmed!" Mills explained, "Now we will be doing the run again! I expect to see you take THREE FUCKING STEPS and crouch down! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME RECRUIT SLOW?"

"Erm, yes, Corporal!" Recruit Slow nodded, his helmeted head bobbing up and down.

"Alright, show me what you got, or I swear to the gods, you guys will keep redoing this run till I am satisfied!" Mills growled at the recruits before turning to the rest on the viewing gallery, "You guys up there better pay attention too and don't screw up!"

The section quickly gathered up and checked their weapons and gear before heading to the starting point. Mills returned back to his vantage point and looked at his watch, and blew the whistle, signaling the start of the exercise again while mentally commanding the golems to be on guard.

Pike carried up the platform and stood beside Mills, "How are they doing with the training so far?"

"They are pretty tough, Top" Mills sighed, "But the Orcs are either mathematically challenged or just naturally dumb. Other than that, they can shoot pretty well and really adapt to modern tactics pretty well and heavy weaponry."

Pike nodded, "Well, that's the gist of training. We keep drilling them till it is ingrained in their muscle memory." Pike said. "Since the dungeon run, we need a Standard Operating Procedure or SOP on clearing dungeons."

"Heard it was pretty exciting thou," Mills grinned, "Actually I would wanna be posted to the Airforce! I want me a dragon!"

"In your dreams, Marine," Pike shook his head, "We need more boots on the ground than in the air now."

"Well, sooner or later, we will need some Marine close in air support," Mills continued to argue, "What's better than a 40-ton dragon that breathes fire?"

"Train your men, Marine," Pike rolled his eyes, "Get the new batch of recruited trained and ready than we see."

"You got it, Top!" Mills rubbed his hands in glee before returning his attention to the action below, "WHAT THE FUCK RECRUIT SLOW?"

"THREE FUCKING STEPS! NOT ONE NOT TWO BUT THREE FUCKING STEPS!"

116 - First Aerial Prototype

Falledge, Merchant District

Hitsu stood next to a statue of wind wolf, waiting for Tyrier to appear at the plaza next to the main street that led into the Merchant District, tapping his feet impatiently as he waited. The plaza was filled with people and races of all kinds. from the large greenish Oerkins to the stout and short dwarves, there were even a few mixed breeds in the crowd.

Finally, after like an eternity, Hitsu spotted Tyrier in his top hat, coat, and cane, strolling out of the Merchant District. As he was able to approach Tyrier, Hitsu spotted some movement at the corner of his eye, and when he turned to look, a couple of shadowy figures ducked out of sight into an alley.

"Damn, was I followed?" Hitsu muttered to himself, "I was careless!"

Tyrier spotted Hitsu at the statue of the wolf and strolled up to him, "What's up?"

"I got some important news and also I seemed to have picked up some rats," Hitsu wagged his eyebrows to the direction of the alley were his followers had ducked into.

"Empire or?" Tyrier asked, his eye narrowed and he gripped his cane tightly.

"I think its local thieves," Hitsu gave a shrug, "I think offed a couple of them the other day."

"Well, it seems its still too early for lunch yet," Tyrier glanced up at the sky and grinned, "I could do with some exercise."

"Then let's do it," Hitsu grinned too, jerking his head towards the alley.

As the two of them entered the alleyway, the smell of sewage grew stronger and sounds of the bustling crowd disappeared. "Come on out, I know you are there," Hitsu spoke out, his hand on his scabbard.

Two figures detached themselves from the shadows and stood before Hitsu and Tyrier while another two more figures appeared behind them, blocking off their exit route. "Well, well well," A third figure appeared in front of them and said, "Fancy that, walking right into my lap."

The person who spoke was a slim looking elf with shifty eyes and a sharp angular face. He wore a jacket with long tail coats and trousers with knee-length boots and held an ornately carved staff. On his head, a similar top hat to what Tyrier was wearing, rested in a fashionable angle.

"Capias Kane," Hitsu spat, "So, what do you want?"

"Oh well, a few of my boys went missing the other day," Kane looked at his nails and buffed them against his coat. "I was wondering if you knew anything at all."

"Those?" Hitsu raised an eyebrow, "They tried to double cross me, accepted my money and attempted to rob me later."

"I see, but it is bad for my reputation if I allow anyone to off my boys," Kane said, his eyes narrowing. "This is the price you have to pay. Take them, boys!"

His four henchmen stood forward, drawing short swords and wicked looking knives, surrounding the two Claymore One members. Tyrier gave a shrug and turned to the rear, facing the two at the back while Hitsu deals with the two in front.

The two henchmen rushed forward, stabbing towards Hitsu, who eyed the speed of the attack with contempt. He easy sidesteps the first stab and punches out with his leather glove protected right fist, catching the henchman in the jaw, shocking his brain and knocking him out with a single punch.

The other henchman hacked his sword at Hitsu who after giving a punch he gave the first henchman, did a round horse kick using his body momentum, the back of his left heel hitting the face of the henchman, breaking his jaw and sending a couple of teeth flying out.

Tyrier blocked the thrust of one of the enemies at the rear, and countered with a backhanded whip of his cane, drawing a mark across the man's face and sending him scrambling back crying with pain. He then smacked the second henchman with his cane on his sword arm, breaking bones, and stab hard with the cane's tip in the abdomen, causing the henchman to vomit bile out.

Kane stood ashen-faced as he watched four of his men get taken out easily. "Whoa, easy there!" He quickly backed off into the alley, "I was just joking around!"

"Uphold your end of the deal," Hitsu said, "Or end up worst, don't worry, we know where to find you." And the two of them left behind the moans and groans of pain in the alley.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base

The nine cylinder air cooled radial engine roared as it pushed the bi-wing prototype out of the hanger and onto the stretch of newly built runway. Spectators lined the sides of the runway with both medical and fire services on standby as they watched the first test flight of the YF-1 Cobra, YF meaning prototype fighter.

Flight Lieutenant Peter sat at the rear of the tandem cockpit as the pilot with a navigator/gunner in front of him, crewed by test pilot Third Sergeant Legos Stilva from the newly formed Airforce. Both of them wore modern parachutes just in case of any failure, they were to ditch the plane and eject out.

Despite many disapprovals from High Command and Commander Tommy, Peter forced his way to be the test pilot of the Cobra, ignoring the risks it may bring to him and the rest of the crew, using the argument that, other than he as Tommy was the commander of the Airforce, no one else has actual piloting experience who could fly the plane and provide feedback and comments on the plane's performance.

Peter pushed the controls and the plane responded eagerly to his commands, rolling to the middle of the runway. The two seater fighter bomber prototype designated YF-1 Cobra, retained several features and looks from the original Aircon DH 2 despite many changes made to the design. The bi wings were spaced slightly further away from each other to reduce aerodynamic interference between the two planes and flaps were installed.

The engine used was a 9 cylinder radial engine pushing an output of 220 horsepower and the design of the aircraft hull and wings was streamlined, the cockpit was enclosed and in tandem rather than open, making the aircraft look more sleek and deadly like a dart.

"Cobra One to Eagle Nest, do you copy?" Peter radioed the control tower that was built in parallel to the runway. "Cobra One is all green, ready to take off."

"Eagle Nest to Cobra One, you are cleared for taking off, God speed over!" The control tower responded. "You better not crash my plane!"

Peter grinned as he recognized the voice belonging to Tommy, "Roger that, Eagle Nest, save some champagne for me when we get back! Cobra One launching!"

He pushed the throttle up slowly to 50%, building up Revolutions Per Minute or RPM while engaging the brakes and setting his flaps on takeoff mode. The howl of the engine rose and he checked the red and white flag at the side of the runway for the direction and strength of the crosswind. He released the brakes and pushed the throttle up to 75%, getting more speed for taking off, and slowly pushed it to the max, and the plane leaped forward, reaching speeds of 100 km per hour and the tail started to lift off the ground.

Peter pulled the control stick up gently, and the plane wheels left the grounds, and he reduced the throttle slightly, to prevent the engine from overheating. His altitude meter showed him climbing slowly from 40 meters... 70 meters and finally at 150 meters, he pulled the stick back and looped the plane towards the airfield, both he and his co-pilot whooping in joy.

"Cobra One to Eagle Nest, we have lifted off, so far so good," Peter radioed back, as he tilted the plane in a gentle curve. "She's flying fine!"

"Eagle Nest, roger that, proceed with the test flight, over"

"Cobra One, Wilco, out." Peter finished his report and engaged the internal comms, "Hey, Legos, how are you doing up there?"

"Great! The view is very nice," Came back the reply.

"Alright, we are going for the testing objectives," Peter said back, "You ready?"

"Got it, head south-southeast," Legos read from his map chart that was secured to his left thigh, "at our current speed, we will be over the objective in 10 minutes."

"Wilco," Peter replied as he piloted the plane towards the testing grounds.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base, Air Traffic Control

Captain Blake stood in a spacious tower with clear glass surrounding all sides of the wall, overlooking a long airstrip and dozens of tiny hills, each housing a concrete hangar, covered with soil and grass, providing both protection and camouflage from the air.

He watched one of the display screens installed from the dwindling stocks of displays onboard UNS Singapore, showing the biplane performing several twists and turns, the live video captured by a hovering UAV.

"So far so good," Commander Tommy said next to Blake. "A few more trials and we can go into mass production."

Blake nodded, "We need to start production as soon as possible, and also have pilots trained and ready within a month's time."

Tommy raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Why the rush?"

"Well, a few days ago, we received intel that a new Imperial Commander is on his way over, most likely to take over command of the Empire forces here," Blake replied in a low voice, not wanting the Air Traffic controllers to hear anything.

"If the Intel is correct, we will be facing another large-scale attack from a more experienced general," Blake continued, "I would like to be more prepared this time, especially now we are fine-tuning our smokeless gunpowder."

Tommy nodded, "I will do what I can to teach the pilot cadets as much as I could."

"Luckily most of the aircraft is made out wood, glue, modern and magical bonding techniques," Blake said, "The native glue made from the ever blue trees' sap works like aircraft dope, making the hull and wings airtight and weatherproof when dried and set."

"Seriously, I don't even understand how half of all these works," Blake admitted, "Ford just says its magic just to explain it all."

Tommy laughed, "Well Sir, frankly, I also don't know how everything works either! My techs just tell me everything is being held up by duct tape and magic."

"Seriously, I will require a lot from you and your pilots," Blake said, "If we can establish air superiority early, this war is half won."

"Intel is studying both supply and invasion routes to the surroundings of Sawtooth Pass, and also the nearby towns, villages, and cities." Blake continued, "Once Intel has pinpointed all important locations, your boys will fly in and bomb the shit out of them."

"I heard there is a new ordnance research division up?" Tommy asked.

"Yes, I placed my missile and main gun weapon techs with Top advising under one roof," Blake replied. "They came out with the fuel-air mix for the 70 mm rockets."

"I have them working on a 100 kg general purpose unguided bomb and a 250 kg version," Blake grinned, "It will be used on both soft and hard targets."

"Nice!" Tommy grinned, "Can't wait to test them!"

"Other than bombs, the Ordnance Research Divison is also working on a 20 mm gun design," Blake said, "It should be more than enough against a heavyweight dragon."

"Sirs!" One of the flight controllers yelled, causing both Blake and Tommy to stop their conversation and look at what the problem is.

The whole team of flight controllers stood gawking and pointed to the display, as the image showed the tiny plane dropping out of control from the sky and a couple of parachutes popped up seconds later, while the plane pummelled into the ground turning into scrap.

"Ah damn," Blake cursed, "Back to the drawing board again."

117 - Gunpowder

"Ahh... fuck..." Flight Lieutenant Peter gripped the parachute controls as he floated down, his chute deploying automatically. A second white chute was drifting down following the wind, meant that Flight Sergeant Legos had also safety ejected from the dead plane. "Tommy is gonna tear me a new one for ruining his plane..."

He had tried a tricky maneuver, going vertically up and dropping all power, letting the plane free fall down before bringing the throttle up. He nearly succeeds, the plane slowly responding to his controls, but it pushed the engine beyond its limits and started to overheat, red warning lights lit up and the engine died, sending the plane into a flat spin.

Immediately he yelled for Legos to eject, and pulled the release for the canopy where explosive bolts blew the canopy away and he waited till Legos to eject out before he pulled his own ejection bar.

As he floated down, a couple of jeeps with red and blue lights flashed and raced towards their landing locations, while another jeep and a red half track headed to the crashed plane were thick smoke was brewing out, most likely the red fire truck was going to put out the fire.

The ground soon reared up towards Peter and remembering his training, he flared the parachute and kept his knees bent and landed, his momentum making him running a few paces before he came to a stop.

Almost a hundred meters away, Legos also landed, but with more grace than him who gave a thumbs up to indicate he was alright, after which he started to collect the parachute.

One of the jeeps screeched to a halt next to Peter while the other jeep headed to where Legos had landed. "Any injuries?" One of the elves asked, his armband had a red cross.

"I'm unhurt, just my ego is injured," Peter gave a sigh as he rolled up his parachute. "Gonna be a hell of a report to write when I get back."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Pass, Marine Support Base, CO office

Peter and Legos stood at attention, having a day to recover from their mishap, in front of Commander Tommy's desk. Captain Blake sat at one of the chairs, facing the two pilots, watching them sweat.

"So from your report, you tried to pull a stunt, going 90 degrees vertical and flat dropping down into a dive, but was unable to recover cause the engine stalled?" Tommy asked sternly.

"Yes, Sir!" Peter responded. "As per instructions on the test run, I managed to find a way on how the engine will overheat and stall, Sir!"

Blake gave a bark of laughter. "Damn this kid is good."

Tommy's face turned red, "Goddamn it Peter, you knew that this is a prototype and maneuvers like that, especially on a pusher configuration, the engine will stall!"

"Now you just cost us weeks and months of research and material losses!" Tommy scolded, "You are lucky the Captain did want to write you up on charges of recklessness and destruction of government property!"

"Calm down, Tommy," Blake said, "Good thing is both pilots are fine, we can always build another plane, it is also the purpose of the trial flights to find issues and problems before mass production."

"Dismissed!" Tommy said, waving the two out of his office, who both gave a salute and retreated rapidly out.

"Well, at least we know pushing the engine too hard will cause it to overheat and stall," Blake said. "Guess we need a coolant for the engine."

Tommy nodded, "That's an issue with pusher engine configurations, it doesn't get cooled as much as a pull configuration engines as the propellers cool the engines."

"I think the next gen aircraft design will be a traditional engine mounted forward," Blake sighed, "New monoplane designs for faster speeds in the future once we have enough materials to construct them, but we really lacking the skill sets and knowledge on building a proper aerodynamic frame."

"Luckily we have a couple more airframes on standby, except we are not using carbon fiber for the struts and supports, but with wood," Tommy said. "We don't have that must stock of carbon fiber, nor do we have the capability to produce more."

Tommy mentally calculated and said, "My guys will be able to assemble up the remaining two airframes in a day. As for the crashed bird, maybe the engine and cockpit could still be salvaged, but the airframe, wings, and tail are totaled."

"We can rebuild it, but it will take a week or so," Tommy added, "At least, a basic flight can be achieved with the prototypes. I could get the recruits to start doing practice takeoffs and landings first."

The current cadre of trainee pilots was drawn from volunteers from both elves and humans. Some of the crew members had experience in flying hover cars and ultralights as hobbies when on Earth. They applied to be part of the Airforce when they heard that pilot positions were opened. Now, after everyone passed the basic entry requirements, which out of 200 over applications, less than 60 passed. They went through a daily rigorous training both physically and mentality, as they require a fit and strong body to resist against G-forces, and also the ability to handle stress while making split-second decisions while under fire.

"Once the other two prototype frames are fitted with the engines, I will start the men on the basics, once they are ready, they will be doing actual flying," Tommy said, "So far all they were doing is just simulated flying and lessons on tactics and formations."

Blake nodded, "Do it but do it with safety in mind. I don't wanna lose both men and machines to careless mistakes."

"You got it, Boss!" Tommy replied.

-----

1 km East of Base Colony, Ordnance Research Divison Facility

The temperature in the processing room was kept at a cool elven Degree Celsius, and a pressing machine sat next to a hopper of chopped greenish yellow shrooms. A conveyor belt system carried the cut shrooms over to the presser, which gently applied enough pressure to squeeze out a thick, colorless, oily substance, which was then passed through a strainer and filter and collected into a container which was cooled to a constant five Degree Celsius. The collected nitroglyence was then stored in a freezer, only to be taken out when required.

The nitroshrooms were harvested from the first level of the dungeon carefully, and its spores collected. A program had begun to cultivate the shrooms outside of the dungeon had started and the results are unknown yet if it will be successful or not.

In another site, pulp made from fibrous grass harvested from the plains were soaked in a mixture of nitric and sulphuric solution, after which was washed and dried. The process is then repeated a few times before gun cotton or nitrocellulose is created.

The highly flammable compound was also stored in a temperature and shock resistance environment. Both compounds were then gelatinised with a ratio of 65% nitrocellouse and 30% nitroglyense with 5% resin jelly from the sap of the native ever blue trees, forming into spaghetti like sticks.

The experimental smokeless powder was three times more powerful than the current black powder formula used and has a flatter trajectory. The current rifle cartridge cases could be shortened, reducing weight and allowing more compact weapons, smaller caliber and more ammunition to be carried.

The ordinance team was ecstatic over the development of the new propellant, especially Luther who almost lost half his hand from an accidental explosion when he discovered guncotton. But despite the discovery of the formula of smokeless powder, they still did not have any success in coming out with a primer for use, so the military still has to use fire runes on mana stones as primers and fuses.

News of the success of creating a smokeless propellant had Master Sergeant Pike heading to the Ordnance Research Facility in a rush. He cradled a large and heavy object, wrapped in oilskins and forced his way through security and into the facility.

The ordnance design team was called to gather at one of the conference rooms and when they arrived, they found a clearly over excited Pike pacing impatiently at the head of the table waiting for them and a large package rested on the table top.

"All here?" Pike asked as the team piled in. "I heard you guys had succeed in making a smokeless propellant, yes?"

The team nodded as one, and Pike's face broke into a rare smile, surprising the whole team. He went to the package on the table and started to unwrap the oilskins, revealing a weapon that clearly looks like a machine gun.

A single long barrel with a perforated shroud covering the barrel with a folded back bipod was attached to a boxy body that ended with a pistol grip and solid wooden stock. Pike pushed the release clasp on the top side of the machine gun and lifted up the top cover and displaying the belt fed system. A simple iron sight was just a notched 'V' sight mounted to a post on the rear and a single leaf blade at the front of the barrel.

Pike next unrolled a metallic linked ammunition belt from a bag and placed it next to the machine gun. "A new design I came out with recently. I had the fabricators worked on it first, that's why I have this here."

"It's chambered for our current 6.5 mm rounds, and I ran a couple of hundred of rounds through it already," Pike proudly show off his new weapon. "But with black powder, it clogs up the internal mechanism after less than a dozen rounds."

He points to the ammunition belt and said, "That's a non-disintegrating metallic link ammo belt of 50 rounds. Since I heard you guys managed to come out with a new propellant, I need a new 6.5 mm cartridge capable of allowing this weapon to find over a thousand rounds without jamming."

The team started a rowdy discussion among themselves as they compared ballistic data. "Top, your machine gun might have to be remodeled." One of the Ordnance guys said.

"The current black powder 6.5 mm cartridge case is 75mm long holding a charge of 90 grains or 5.9 grams of black powder." The tech explained, "The charge is just enough to propel the bullet at over 650 m/s."

"But our new propellant is almost three times more powerful and effective than the black powder formula we are using now," the tech said. "We need to cut down the cartridge length, or risk overpressure which can blow up the cartridges inside the chamber and damaging the bolt and receiver and it will also increase wear and tear of internal parts of any weapon greatly."

"Give us some time to play around with propellant loads," Luther with the damaged hand said. "Once we got the science nailed down, we can design a new cartridge out based on the ballistic data."

Pike nodded, "I leave this here, I still got a 20 mm autocannon to design out, so I need you guys to help on that too."

The team nodded eagerly, crowding around the machine gun and checking it out while discussing what is the best way for the ammo to be.

"Oh ya, since you guys have new explosives to work with, I expect a new mortar bomb to be replacing our current black powder ones?" Pike added just before he left the room, making everyone groan. "And tracers too before I forget, thanks!"

"New ammunition design and mortar bombs for Top and the Captain wants improved rockets, a 100 kg bomb, and a 250 kg bomb, Luther grinned, holding up his wounded hand and rubbing it tenderly which he is supposed to have an appointment with the Doc to fix his hand.

"Life is getting more exciting here!"

118 - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)

The sky turned dark and gloomy as smoking trails of fire streaked across the sky, exploding into small mushroom clouds as they impacted the surface. Mills gripped his M1 Magelock and looked up in horror at the hundreds and thousands of burning spores crash landed down from space.

He yelled to his men to make ready, while he readied his rifle, but to his surprise, there wasn't anyone replying to him. He turned around to check on his men, only to find several Swarm warrior drones feasting on the torn bits of elves and humans parts. Mills screamed, firing his Magelock from his hip, the heavy round barely scratching the thick carapace of the lead Swarm warrior drone.

His actions caused all the Swarm warriors to turn their eyeless heads towards him and their saw-toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth gaping open and screaming an alien cry, before lunging towards him with their many limbs.

A thunderous roar of rage erupted overhead, and a heavyweight dragon flapped its massive wings rapidly, holding it huge muscled body hoving over Mills, its shadow blotting out the dim sunlight in the sky, and in its great front limbs, it held on to a massive Gatling gun which Mills subconsciously recognized it as a 30 mm General Electric GAU-8/S Super Avenger, an ancient design over a hundred years old, except for changes on its ammunition and material upgrades, it was still in service with the United Nations of Man's military due to its overwhelming firepower.

The ammunition feed was looped over the dragon's chest like an old 2D picture action war movie, the ammunition feed ending at the huge ammo drum slung over the back of the dragon's chest. The dragon which Mills recognized as Blue Thunder strangely wearing a dark blue beret, reared its head back and blasted a ball of fire into the cluster of Swarm warriors in front of Mills, turning them into charcoal. Mills cheered, "Go fuck them up!"

Blue Thunder probably hearing Mills's suggestion, beat his wings even faster and tilted his body upright while the GAU-8/S in his arms was aimed at a huge dark horde of approaching Swarm warriors and he pulled the trigger with his clawed finger.

An eardrum bursting ripping fire exploded out from the muzzle of the seven barrelled gatling gun, spewing a mix of 30 mm armor-piercing incendiary and high explosive incendiary rounds at a rate of 3,900 rounds per minute torn into the mass of aliens, turning them into bloody chunks of meat and ichor. The powerful recoil forced Blue Thunder backward, as he furiously flapped his wings to keep steady. The spent cartridges were recycled back via the double feed system and into the ammo drum.

"Holy fuck!" Mills cried out in joy as he watched the mass of Swarm warriors get cut down by the laser-like gunfire. "I am touching my self, tonight!"

He sat down next to the sandbag barrier and watched the light show when suddenly a shadow loomed over him, "Ah fuck," He looked up and saw a funnel-like mouth full of teeth stretching over his face. "FUCK YOU!"

Mills yelled and felt something smack him hard on his back, he jerked up and found himself lying face up, having fallen off his bed and staring at the spinning fan on the ceiling and Bartley looking down sleepily from the top bunk at him and asking, "New trend?"

"Fuck me, that felt real!" Mills groaned as he pulled his legs off his bed and sat on the floor, rubbing a bruise forming on his back. "I had a damn realistic dream there."

"Nightmare?" Bartley rolled back onto his bed and asked.

"Yea, sort of, dreamt about the Swarm but it had dragons with fucking Gatling guns!" Mills grinned as he recalled the nice parts of his dream.

"You been watching too much anime and movies," Bartley's voice drifted down from the top bunk, "It's late, get some more sleep. Night."

"Damn, I need to drop a suggestion to the Airforce for having dragons with fucking gatling guns!"

-----

Seacliff Mines, Dungeon Level 1

Sergeant James sat on a stone outcrop and carefully stripped his M2 Magespitter into their individual parts. He started cleaning the barrel and the bolt of his weapon, while others in his platoon did the same.

The 1st Battalion, Alpha Company, Platoon 2 was involved with clearing the dungeon for the week. They have found out that, allowing the dungeon monsters to recuperate for a week or more, allowed a more optimal amount of resources to be harvested.

If they went in right after the monsters respawned, the quality and quantity will be lacking compared to a week later, the monsters' quality and quantity will double. Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn's theory is that the newly respawned creatures are at level 0, like in a video game, they have not gained any XP. Allowing the dungeon ecosystem to run its course over a week or more, the monsters will gain XP and level up, thus increase their quality.

That was why when they first explored the dungeon, a supposed cake walk, turned out to be way much harder due to the monsters inside had decades to increase their levels. If the Spider Ants and Sand Scorpion did not have a max growth cap, the exploration would have been even deadlier for them.

Alpha Company, 2nd Platoon had easily mopped up the Spider Ants and its Queen, and even the Sand Scorpions, but they did not find any champions rated monsters. There wasn't any new treasure as they do not respawn, and even the Spider Ant's nest looked emptier than the first time James was here.

Several Marines carefully cut away the bundles of raw silk cocoons and stacked them onto a pile for transportation out of the dungeon. The door to the next level laid against the 'throne' of the Queen, which carcass was like a third smaller than the Queen, James and his team previously defeated.

After an hour later, the men of Platoon 2 had rested and resupplied, stood before the large double doors. James nodded to one of the Section Leaders who gestured his section to form up next to the door. Other Section leaders also arranged their men behind cover and aimed their weapons at the door as it was opened.

A flight of stairs made out of stone lead downwards into a hallway where another double door stood. A couple of support techs started unspooling a coil of cables down, ensuring that the cables are able to slip under the doors by digging a small trench, allowing the cables to lay inside.

The techs buried the cables in concrete, to prevent any monsters from chewing or destroying the power and communication lines and attached lamps and comms array onto the ceiling walls. The whole platoon stood around on guard as the techs worked and finally when they were done, James tested the comms and WIFI signal, ensuring all is properly working before getting the platoon to advance to the next step, which is entering Level 2.

The double doors swung open, and beams of light penetrated the darkness, displaying a large hall filled with pillars and doors leading elsewhere. "Set up security, ensure no hostiles in the room," James ordered and Platoon 2 spread out into the pillared hall.

There were nine massive stone pillars on each side with carvings of dragons, griffins, some giant birds and other mystical creatures expertly cut into the stone. James stood before a pillar and glanced up, it was at least three stories tall and the thickness would require three man holding hands to hug the pillar.

"Clear right!"

"Clear left!"

"All Clear! Room Secured!"

"Sarge! We got 2 doors on each side of the hall, no hostiles reported," Section 1 Leader Corporal Tells reported.

"Get Platoon 3 to set up shop here and the techs to wire up the place," James commanded, "Once Platoon 3 is here doing security, we will take a look at door number one." James pointed to the leftmost door on the left wall.

Not long, Platoon 3 appeared, carrying cases of ammunition, rations, water, medical. comms and sensor gear down. Several techs appeared and started to wire the place up for lights and sound. Sergeant Collins grinned as he joined James looking around, "Wow, this is like some Indiana Jones shit we watched the other day, yea?"

The Marines started deploying spotlights which lit up the hall and the massive pillars cast sharp shadows against the stone walls. "I feel like a grave robber or some villain like the movies who is uncovering some super ancient weapon," James replied to Collins, gesturing with his hands.

"Hahaha, tell you something," Collins patted James's armored shoulder, "I always dreamt of digging up or exploring some dark dungeon in hopes of finding a treasure or some sort."

"Well, it's good if its treasure," James muttered, "I don't wanna dig up some crazed mad god or demon."

"That will be bad right?" Collins's mood turned serious, "Damn. You wet blanket."

"Heh," James grinned at his friend's serious face, "Well, let's pray we don't."

"Be careful out there," Collins warned, "I got your back here, any shit, just call and we will be there to pull your ass out of the fire."

"Sure," James nodded, "Don't be late!" He walked towards his men, called for them to gather up.

"Alright, Platoon 3 is here, they will be in charge of holding the fort here," James briefed his men. "We will do this as we had trained, make sure to check all corners including the ceiling. Ready?"

"ALWAYS READY! HORAAH!" The men chorused, their morale up.

"Ok, let's go, Section 1 up first, then 2 and so on," James ordered as the men arranged themselves and formed up before the first door. "Ready? Go!"

The leading point man tested the door and found no resistance, and pushed the door open gently, his weapon up and ready. Private Geen stepped into the doorway, his shotgun aimed left and right, the lights showing a corridor that ended in a right turn.

The whole place is covered with stone tiles, and roots dangled from the stone ceiling through the cracks. A cold and damp feel washed over Geen as he stepped on the moss-covered stone tiles. Unlike the dungeon level above, there wasn't any glow moss in this place. Geen's section 1 followed several steps behind him as they advanced deeper.

Geen quickstepped around the corner and came face to face with a giant brown scaled lizard which reared up in surprise at the blinding lights. The lizard had come to investigate the sudden light sources and just as it was about to round the corner, something blaring blinded it.

Geen yelled in surprised as the startled lizard spit out its tongue wildly in panic, the lizard's extendable tongue impacted against the wall behind Geen which cracked audibly and Geen squeezed the trigger of his shotgun in reflex.

Seven lead balls slammed directly at the lizard's exposed chest, the force tearing the soft underbelly skin, and lizard blood and bits exploded out, showering the walls with blood and gore. Geen yelled in pain this time as some fluid from the lizard splashed onto him, the fluid started smoking and eating into his armor and skin.

He yelped as he tried to pat away the smoking acid on his armor. He dropped his smoking shotgun, the barrel starting to deform as some droplets had landed on the barrel, melting the metal. His section mates rushed over, and helped him out of his smoking armor and using water to try to wash the acidic substance away while other provide security cover.

"What the fuck is that?" James came up next to the dead lizard the size of a horse. It had two thin crests of bone on the top of its head and what looks like a frill or grills on the side of its head. It had two short arms with claws and powerful looking hind legs and tail. The acidic substance leaking from the torn chest area was smoking and eating slowing into the rock surface and giving off a pungent sour smell.

"That looks like some freaking dinosaur..."

119 - Level 2

The lizard bent its hind legs, muscles tightening as it prepared to launch itself out of cover at the prey approaching it. Its skin tone mimicking the surrounding rock walls, blending it almost perfectly against the background. It dipped its head ever slowly, eyes staring hungrily at the prey standing meters away.

A sudden loud crack and the lizard stiffened, a part of its head blown cleanly away and toppled backward with hardly a sound on to its side as it died convulsing.

"Damn, those lizards are hard to spot!" Private Tinoth of Alpha Company, Platoon 1, Section 2 muttered. He turned off the infra sensor and used his still warm M1 rifle muzzle to push his all-purpose vision goggles up,

He went up to the twitching body to ensure the creature is dead but waving an all clear to the rest of his section waiting behind. "Scratched one lizard." He reported to his Section Leader.

"Any traps or hidden stuff?" His Section Leader asked, joining him next to the dead lizard, where the section appointed 'butcher' was doing the grisly work of removing the mana stone.

"Only this here, nothing else," Tinoth replied. He used to be a forest ranger in Goldrose, working as a scout or trail breaker for adventurers or merchant caravans. He later joined the Army of Goldrose as a scout when the Empire invaded and managing to survive till now.

So far they have managed to clear two of the four doors, encountering mostly giant dino lizards and more slimes. Nitroshrooms and green moss also grew in abundance all over the tunnels. They also found a new monster, which was actually a huge greyish white fluffy ball of fur. It had a rabbit like face, and had long fur growing all over in a ball shape. It seemed to feed mostly on small insects and moss and was quite docile, allowing the men to pat and cuddle. The men took to calling them as fluff balls or cotton balls.

There was only one other casualty when an unlucky Marine got ambushed by a camouflaged lizard, getting poisoned but was saved by his mates in time. James called the lizards as dino lizards, as they looked similar to a Terran dinosaur, except it could change its color to blend in with its surroundings and its tongue could stretch out till over three meters in length. It also has a corrosive spit attack, using acid stored in a sac in its chest area. The Marines learned not to shoot in that area as the acid substance will burst out and spray all over the area. They mostly utilized the environment, hiding in every nook and crannies, laying hidden till prey comes close enough from them to leap out to attack.

The terrain was similar to the level one, mostly rock walls and open caverns but instead of ants, the dino lizards dominated the level instead. Magister Thorn overseeing the operation in the safety of the Ops room commented on the lizards saying that it is a type he has not seen nor read before, while Dr. Sharon was interested in its ability to create a highly concentrated bio-acid and clamoring for the Marines to bring her an intact specimen, if possible alive, which James kinda ignored her, sending her a dead specimen instead.

The platoon encountered a fire beetle nest in the 3rd door, where a Champion was found. The Champion fire beetle had a shiny red black armored carapace and a curved horn like a Hercules beetle and it was huge, almost the same size as a jeep. The smaller weaker fire beetles chittered in anger as the elves entered their nest cavern, and set upon them with arcane balls of fire.

The section entering the nest scrambled for cover and called for backup, which the rest of the platoon responded. They fired their Magelocks in return to the fireballs cast by the beetles from behind cover, while the beetles stood in open ground. Each lesser fire beetle was the size of a large dog, fat and roundish like a ladybird beetle except their shell is in dark crimson red instead of bright cheerily red. The lesser fire beetles were easily taken out by over 20 rifles and shotguns as they charged and stood in the open, while the Champion beetle was ignored. After the lesser fire beetles were cleared, James ordered the platoon to fall back out of the nest and using the narrow tunnel to funnel the Champion into their lines of fire.

The Champion taking the bait of the retreating Marines, charged angrily after them, entering the tunnel where the rest of the Platoon had formed up in firing lines. "FIRE!" James yelled when the retreating men were under cover and out of the firing line. The Champion beetle could only head in one direction due to the narrow tunnel and the men couldn't miss at all.

Five claymores planted beforehand also detonated as one as the Champion closed in, spewing their load of steel ball bearings directly into the charging Champion beetle. When the dust cloud settled, the once magnificent looking beetle which its glossy shell, looked pitted and worse for wear, its horn had even broken off. The combined firepower had stopped the Champion in its tracks and it died without even casting a simple spell or attack.

The Marines raided the nest next, finding eggs and larvae of fire beetles and a small mound of discarded beetle shells, which could be used to make armor or other products. A treasure chest was also found, and several more bottles of healing potions and magic potions were recovered. The men also found a small pile of gold, silver and mana stones scattered all over the nest, making the men grumble as they had to comb and collect the treasures one by one all over the nest.

Tinoth grumbled as he bent down for the twentieth time, picking up a piece of glittering gold and dropped it together with other valuables he collected into his upheld helmet. "Heavens," he moaned, "I didn't think I would rue the day I complain about collecting gold from the floor..." He stretched his aching back.

The nearby men laughed, as they also stopped and stretched their backs, as they had been collecting the valuables from the floor one by one for the past half hour. James watched the men who faced death earlier, laughing and joking as they went about their duties and smiled proudly, knowing that these men will stand facing death laughing.

Collecting the Champion beetle carcass was the worst, as a foul smelling liquid was discharged from its body, and due to its weight, the men had to make use of two Support Golems to lift it out of the dungeon. And from the Champion, it yielded a humongous fire mana stone, which made Magister Thorn watching behind the cameras mounted on the men, whooped with joy.

Once the clean up was done, the platoon returned back to the staging point to resupply and rest, while Platoon 3 did a second sweep through the areas that were cleared and also to transport all the dead creatures for processing and research.

Collins rolled the clear crystal vial with a dark red liquid sloshing inside on his gloved palms, before holding it up against the glare of the spotlights and observing the red liquid. "Strange, how something like this could heal and regenerate body cells."

James finished the dried jerky and swallowed a mouthful of cool spring water from his canteen before saying, "Yeah, but isn't our nanomachines the same?"

Collins raised an eyebrow at James chewing away at the jerky in his mouth and said, "Serious? This shit here is made using magic, while nanomachines made out of science and technology."

James gave a shrug as he swallowed the jerky in his mouth, "Well, I reckon that the elves just went down another path, while we humans went down the science path. Who knows maybe in a thousand years, the elves might have some magical construct allowing them to travel in space?"

"True," Collins nodded before returning the healing potion into a matt black foam covered shock resistance case with the rest of the potions, closing and locking the case. "Still it is amazing they can do these stuff we only see or read in movies and books."

"Yea, I always wanted a dragon," James grinned, "Hell, if we had some close in air support dragons, I think we could easily fight off the Empire early on."

"Well, If wishes were horses, beggars would ride," Collins grinned back, slapping James's back. "We do have dragons now, and I heard the Airforce had some prototypes planes up and running already. Not only that, High Command wants to project our forces outwards once the 2nd batch of recruits had completed basic."

"Hell yeah," James dusted his hands and kept his canteen. "It's about time we show those Blue Boys whose the boss here. Can't have them thinking we are their bitches, able to come and go as they please."

"Horaah! Well, its time," Collins checked his watch and said to James, who nodded and started to strap on his armor with Collins's help. "I had Platoon 3 double check all the doors again to make sure all had been cleared leaving the last room with the Boss and entrance to next level untouched for your Platoon 2 boys." The rest of the men of Platoon 2 were also getting ready, helping each other with their gear.

James nodded as he checked his gear while Collins continued his report. "We tried to scan the interior of the Boss room but there is some magical interference, making the scans wonky, we did pick up some conflicting life signs inside, but the system can't nail it down. All we can say is its a huge room, almost twice the size of this room and with contacts inside."

"Ahh, fuck," James cursed. The hall with the pillars where Platoon 2 and 3 had set up shop, was roughly 28 meters in length and 11 meters wide.

"As for what is behind the doors," Collins shrugged, "We can only guess what it could be."

"More dino lizards?" James guessed, "Or a super dino lizard or maybe a giant fluff ball?" He gestured towards a few cages holding the Fluff balls waiting to be transported up to Dr. Sharon's labs.

"Well, maybe," Collins replied seriously, "We found no other way into the room so it is not like the 1st level of this dungeon where the Ant's nest is open. Seriously we have no idea to what is inside, so, be careful."

James gave an assuring smile to Collins, "Got it! Well, if its some super lizard or heavily armored beetle, we do have a new trick up our sleeves."

Collins looked over at some of the Platoon 2 men lugging along a large tube on their backs. "Let's hope it works like it did during live fire exercises."

"We tested it and practiced with it extensively for this," James gestured his surroundings, "It will be a waste not to be able to use it in the end. Disappointing in fact."

"Then why didn't you use it in the tunnel for that?" Collins pointed to the dead Champion beetle secured on to a pallet.

"Too crowded, and despite it being a recoilless system, the backblast can still kill or wound you know?" James worked the bolt on his M2 rifle, making sure it was empty before slapping in a fresh magazine and pulled the charging handle back, chambering a round, before putting it on safe. "I wanted to see what the claymores can do to armor in an enclosed area."

"You still can joke around at this time? Haven't you thought of what if the claymores couldn't stop it?" Collins frowned, "Hey, don't forget about your girl. You need to make it home in one piece, alright?"

"Got it, dad," James grinned, "Well I did have a fallback plan for that."

"James, come on be more serious," Collins lectured, "We don't know what is behind those doors, you are to take all precautions, understand?"

"Yeah, got to go, bosses to kill and dungeons to clear."

120 - The Fog

The men formed up silently next to the double doors leading into the final room of the dungeon, where they expected the Boss of Level 2 to be inside. Private Tinoth tested the door handle, giving it a gentle pull, opening up a tiny crack. He turned and nodded to his Section Leader who returned his nodded and Tinoth pulled out a flexible fiber camera scope. He crouched next to the crack and gently inserted the flexible camera into the door crack and using a handheld device and observed the interior of the room.

As the scans earlier taken from Platoon 3 had shown, the room stretched over 50 meters deep and 20 meters wide. The night vision of the camera got only pierce into roughly 20 meters before everything was too dark and unclear to scope more. Tinoth twisted the camera left and right, taking in the whole room, while James watched the video on his tablet.

"Looks clear," Tinoth whispered. He checked his motion and heartbeat tracker issued only to point men, and couldn't find any movement nor heartbeats, only static showing up on the screen. "Damn, too much interference, either magical or natural here." He whispered to his Section Leader.

James keyed his mike and ordered the whole Platoon, "Go deliberate, slow and steady."

Tinoth kept his gear and unslung his weapon, taking in a deep breath as he gathered his nerves. "Go!" His Section Leader slapped his shoulder, indicating him to move in.

Tinoth pulled the door open and stepped in towards the right, while his section mate behind him rushed in and covered the left with the Section Leader coming up 3rd covering the middle. Tinoth receiving another slap on his shoulder pushed in towards the corner of the room, his flashlight illuminating pillars and man tall blocks of stone scattered all over the area.

The rest of the Platoon entered section by section, and very quickly all four sections of seven men each had entered, covering the entire area. "Move in," James ordered and the men moved up, checking everywhere of the room.

The lights from their weapons stab out for a few meters before drowning in the darkness. It appeared that the darkness in the pillared room was absorbing all light. Corporal Tells from Section I whispered next to James, "Sarge, I don't like this much."

As they advanced deeper and deeper, chunks of rocks some larger than a half track laid haphazardly all around the area, next to pillars with carvings similar to the ones in the first room.
the temperature appeared to drop, and a fog appeared before them, making most of the men curse.

"Halt," James ordered and he looked at the fog, "Point men, what do you see?"

The point men equipped with infra goggles tried to peer through the fog but couldn't find anything. "Nothing, Sarge, no heat signatures nor movement on the sensors." Came back the replies.

"Pop flares, light up the place!" James commanded. The point men dug into their pouches removing flare guns salvaged from the spaceship's life boats and fired into the fog. Four blazing balls of reddish glare erupted out and flew into the fog, before hitting the ceiling and bouncing to the ground.

Also immediately a howl burst out from inside the fog and the men tensed and ready up their weapons. "Back! All sections fall back!" James yelled. "I want distance from the fog now!"

"I got movement!" Tinoth yelled, as his M314 Motion Tracker beeped rapidly, the sensor returns coming from within the fog as he backed away from it.

Suddenly, dozens of fluff balls bounced out from the fog, and the Marines snapped their rifles up ready to fire when around roar broke out from within the fog. "Back!" The Section Leaders yelled to their men, as they moved away from the fog and whatever is inside.

The glow of the red flares cast shadows of something moving within the fog towards them. By this time, they retreated back to the fall end of the room where the exit was and took cover among the rock debris and stone pillars.

"That doesn't sound very good," CorporalTells muttered, "Sarge, permission to ready the bazookas?" Just as he finished saying that, suddenly, reptilian shapes darted out from the fog and the men opened fire at the hissing creatures.

"Contact!" The men yelled and fired at the leaping lizards. Some of the men screamed as the lizards spat globs of corrosive acid that ate into their armor, melting away skin and flesh. Others cry out in surprise as some lizards whipped their long fleshy tongues that glued to their bodies, pulling with an overwhelming force to the owner's tooth-filled gaping mouths.

"There's too many of them!"
"They are everywhere!"
"Help! Someone!"

Screams and cries rang out among the Marines as the flood of dino lizards slammed into them. James cursed, wishing they had a machine gun or two. "Grenades!" He yelled, "Use them!"

"Several yells of "Fire in the hole," followed after his instruction, as the nearby Marines took to his order, pulling out a pin attached to the head of a cast iron oval-shaped metal ball, triggering a heat rune, that slowly heats up to over 300 degrees, which will ignite the black powder packed inside the grenade. Unlike modern-day grenades, these do not have a safety lever and required the operator to throw the grenade once the heat rune was activated, as the heat rune will hit ignition temperature of the black powder within 3 to 5 seconds.

The grenades flew over the heads of the besieged Marines, landing among the herd of dino lizards and detonated one after another, spewing out lethal shards of shrapnel, tearing and stunning the creatures within the blast radius of three meters each.

Due to the sudden grenade barrage, the pressure against the Marines dropped as the lizards cringed in surprised and confused from the explosions, allowing the Marines to rapidly take advantage of the situation and turning it around.

The Marines fired their M1s and shotguns into the cluster of dino lizards, the heavy lead bullets blowing away scales and lizard flesh, drenching the rock ground with dark red lizard blood. Just as it happened suddenly, the lizards retreated back into the fog in terror from the onslaught by the Marines.

Corporal Tells spat out a glob of blood from his mouth from a cut in his mouth as he took a hit in the jaw by a whipping dino lizard's tail. He gave his machete sword an expert flick, flicking off the blood as he returned his sword into his scabbard attached to a tactical rig on his left thigh. He then transferred his emptied revolver to his right hand and started reloading it, while keeping an eye out for his dropped M1 Magelock dropped somewhere in the melee.

"Check your ammunition! Medics to the wounded! The rest keep watch and be at the ready!" James voice could be heard over the cries of pain and curses.

James moved among the men, seeing the carnage wrecked by the dino lizards. Several were out killed by the acid spits, only a pile of smoking and bubbling skeletal remains, with intact arms and legs remaining behind. Even the weapons, armor and gear were melted through, the lucky ones managing to remove their armor before the acid ate through them, but still suffering burns on their arms or legs.

The medics were busy using water and healing magic to neutralize the acidic burns and James ordered everyone to pass their water over to the medics to use to wash the acid off the victims. Other than the vicious acid attacks, the rest of the men mostly suffered cuts and bruises from the claws and bites which given a healing spell, managed to stop all the blood and mild poison inflicted from the lizards.

"Sarge, we got five deaths, all from the corrosive attacks, another four in critical condition from the burns and two more due to having serious injuries from the getting mauled. Another fourteen with varying degrees of wounds but still combat effective," Corporal Tells reported. "The men are doing fine despite the loses and injuries," Tells jerked his head towards the fog in the distance, "And it seems like they are massing again."

"Plant claymores, I want a two-tiered defense line," James ordered, "Evacuate the wounded now."

Tells nodded and head off to relay James orders, barking out instructions to the Platoon. James keyed his commands to the Platoon leaders channel, "Apache Two to Apache Three, over."

"Apache Three, send."

"Apache Two, request immediate medevac, and support over."

"Apache Three, Roger, E T A five mikes, out."

James ended his comms and looked around, seeing the men, deploying claymores and the Section leaders directing lanes of fire. The badly wounded were strapped on to foldable stretchers by the medics and were being relayed to the exit.

"HERE THEY COME!" Someone yelled, followed by barks of gunfire. The dino lizards burst out of the fog again, but this time, the Marines were ready and not distracted. They fired at the charging lizards with accurate fire as the lizards entered their lanes of fire, sending them toppling down and forcing the rest of the lizards to hop over or swerve to the sides to avoid their fallen herd.

The defensive line to the fog was roughly 30 meters away and with the speed of the charging lizards, they can close the short distance in less than 5 seconds. The claymores deployed earlier were rigged to a trip wire by the Marines, detonated as the leading dino lizards tripped the wires. The shotgun blast like explosions swatted the charging lizards away like a giant hand, leaving behind bits of gore and blood.

The Marines cheered and laughed at the gorely screen, and redoubled their efforts at shooting at remaining stunned lizards. As the Marines cheered on, a sudden roar blocked out their cheers, and a massive shape broke out of the fog.

"Oh fark," Tinoth cursed, as he looked up at the towering behemoth appearing out of the fog. He emptied his shotgun at the monster and died when it tail whipped the pillar he was taking cover from. killing two others of his section mates.

James cursed, "A fucking T Rex? You got to be kidding me!" The behemoth that appeared from the fog looked similar to a Terran extinct dinosaur, the Tyrannosaurs Rex. It has silverish scales with quartz-like crystal jutting out from parts of its body and tail. The neck is longer compared to a T Rex and it has thicker and longer forelimbs.

"Use the bazookas!" James yelled as he fired his M2 uselessly at the behemoth. Keying his communicator, he screamed into it, "Dungeon Ops, come in! This is Apache Two! Are you seeing this shit? Over!"

"Oh yes, what an amazing specimen!" Magister Thorn's voice replied excitedly.

"Fuck that!" James cursed, "What is that? How do we take it out?"

"Hmmm," came back the reply which made James grit his teeth in frustration.

"Goddamn it, Dungeon Ops, people are dying here!" James cursed in his comms.

"Apache Two, this is Dungeon Ops, wait one over," Another voice cut in and the comms went silent.

"Fuck!" James cursed, just as the reinforcements from Platoon 3 arrived. His own heavy weapons team in his platoon ready a tube on their shoulders, their buddies slapping their shoulders yelling, "Ready!" into their ears as they plugged in the fire runes to the rear of the tubes.

Lance Corporal Abert Tinner placed the simple wire cross sights on the center of mass of the behemoth as they were taught. Previously he worked as a miller, grinding grains into flour in the mill he worked in the outskirts of the Capital. When the Empire attacked, he got caught up in the battle and was conscripted to help man the ballista on the city walls.

He was credited with two lightweight dragon kills and four troll kills with the ballista he was crewing. The commander on the wall was so impressed with his skills that he got awarded an Army position and was given command of four ballistas on the wall. Now he kneed among the stone debris and blood-soaked ground, aiming a metal tube at a monster, over 20 times his height. "Ready!" His assistance gunner yelled in his ear, slapping hard on his shoulder armor.

He squeezed the trigger and a loud WHOOSH burst out from the tube, and a dark dart streaming fire and smoke slammed into the monster.

"One round away!"

121 - Bazooka

Seacliff Mines, Dungeon Operations Command

"Goddamn it, Dungeon Ops, people are dying here!"

"Apache Two, this is Dungeon Ops, wait one over," The radio operator replied as she turned and looked at Magister Thorn standing there watching the video streams on the display coming from the Marines inside the dungeon. "Sir, what do we do?"

Dr. Sharon poked Thorn on his side, "Thorn? Are you ok?" she asked him after seeing him standing frozen before the displays and not replying to the operator's questions.

"Ahh, I am trying to recall what that creature is," Thorn sighed, "My memory is not as good as before."

"Thorn, you need to hurry up," Dr. Sharon stared at him seriously, "Not trying to pressure you, but people are dying."

"Yes yes yes, I know," Thorn rubbed his temples and suddenly snapped his fingers, "It must be a silver dragon!" He pointed to the silver scales of the creature and explained, "Those silver scales are the trademark of a silver dragon, but they do not grow up to that size! And those crystal formations on its body, I suspect it might be an evolved or mutated species!"

"Great, how do we defeat it?" Dr. Sharon patiently asked. "We got a name now."

"Hmm, silver dragons are carnivorous creatures," Thorn closed his eyes as he recalled what he had read about them, "They belong to the metal-earth element class, weakness to lightning attacks... They are weak to air element spells and strong against fire and earth."

Dr. Sharon nodded and stood over the radio operator, "Put me through to Sergeant James, now!"

-----

Seacliff Mines, Dungeon level 2, Boss room

"It's either an evolved or mutated form of a silver dragon, weak to lightning based attacks or air elemental magic," Dr. Sharon voice came in through the comms. "Strong against fire and earth magic, over!"

"Apache Two, copies that!" James responded just as he saw a burst of fire from one of the bazooka teams firing.

The fire rune concussion primed, black powder rocket-propelled with a fin-stabilized 70 mm rocket was almost the exact same rockets used by the Valkyrie gunship rocket pods, except the difference was the infantry version uses a shape-charged warhead instead of a thermobaric warhead and has a shorter rocket body.

The rocket exited the RPG -1 'Bazooka' tube with a muzzle velocity of 79 meters per second and impacted with a thunderclap directly at the chest of the T Rex like dragon. A small black cloud formed over the explosion and the behemoth roared in pain and anger. As the smoke cleared, under the lights of the Marines, the chest scale where the rocket had impacted, had cracks and blood leaking out.

"HIT IT WITH ALL BAZOOKAS!" James yelled over the gunfire. The rest of the heavy weapons teams, a total of four, one team each in each section, fired as they got into position. "Protect the rocket teams!" James ordered as he noticed the smaller dino lizards appearing to edge towards the rocket teams.

The silver behemoth roared again as another couple of rockets slammed into its side. He fell onto all fours with a ground-shaking crash and followed up with a tailwhip at the nearest Marine, who cried out and dodged just in time. The tail whip smashing the stone blocks to pieces, sending rock fragments flying like bullets to the shattered Marines.

James ducked as a fist sized rock chunk smacked against the pillar he was behind. "Platoon 3 guys, flank left and distract that piece of shit!" He yelled his order to the new arrivals who ran to cover.

"Everyone, don't stay in the same spot! Keep the smaller lizards off the rocket teams! Keep moving and keep your head down!" James commanded as he ducked out of cover, running towards one of the rocket teams.

Another rocket burst out, and impacted against the shoulder of the dragon, blowing off a
chunk of crystal off. The dragon growled in anger, whipping around impossibly fast for its size and reared up its head. It opened its jaws and seemed to suck in the air, its chest expands outwards, and light motes of visible magical energy started to gather before its open mouth.

"Shit," James screamed, "GET THE FUCK OUT OF ITS WAY!" And the men all scrambled away, just as all the crystals on its body started to glow brightly, turning it almost like a light show. A beam of super concentrated energy burst out, the beam gorging a trench out from the ground in the direction it fired and dumping all its energy into the walls, leaving behind a glowing molten furrow and tunnel almost five meters deep along the ground and wall.

"Everyone alright?" James yelled as the dust slowly settled down. The power of the dragon had scared away all the smaller lizards, only leaving behind the foolish humans and elves in the room. The dragon panted and appeared to shrink slightly and the glow of the crystals diminished. It glared with glowing green eyes filled with madness and anger at the puny two legs before it.

All of the Marines managed to dodge the beam attack, only those closest to the beam, suffered from a suntan, their exposed skin turning bright red from the heat of the beam attack. Lance Corporal Abert of Platoon 2, Section 4's heavy weapons team had dropped his bazooka when he dodged the attack of the dragon.

His buddy, Private Minosta, panted and rolled over on his back as they the two of them took cover behind a section of a destroyed pillar. "This is crazy! How in the 13 hells are we gonna to kill that thing?"

"See where I dropped the Bazooka?" Abert asked as he peeked over the cover, seeing the dragon slamming its front limbs at some cover, where a couple of Marines ran out from the smoke and debris. As the dragon was busy destroying the cover, another rocket streaked out from the side and exploding on its back.

"There," Minosta pointed, "You dropped the damn rocket launcher there." He pointed to the matt grey tube laying among some debris in the open.

"Cover me," Abert said, "I am going to run over and grab it."

"Damn, you are crazy," Minosta worked his M1 Magelock action, and braced his rifle over the cover and aimed at the angry dragon. "GO!"

Abert took off in a sprint, keeping his body as low as possible, hoping that the dragon won't notice him. He skidded to a stop next to the fallen bazooka and grabbed the carrying handle, and turned up to see the dragon looking at his direction. "Ahh, fark!"

His buddy, Minosta fired at the dragon, yelling "Over here, you damn piece of shit!" He managed to draw the dragon to his attention and cried out in fear as the dragon kicked a large chunk of stone at him, which slammed into the space where Minosta was under cover.

Abert cursed and dashed towards Minosta, as the dust settled down, "Mino! You okay buddy?"

A cough and a dust covered Marine appeared out from underneath the cover, "Damn it, I have enough of this craziness!" Minosta was part of his crew when they were back defending the city walls, out of the twenty men, only Minosta was alive.

"Come on!" Abert grinned in relief at his friend, offering him a hand up. Both of them looked towards the dragon, seeing it battered, its silver scales looking slightly dull, and leaking fluids. It gave a roar and the crystals on its body started glowing again.

-----

James yelled over the voice comms, "Apache Two to Three, request all bazooka loads immediately, over!"

"Three, Roger! Standby five mikes!"

"Two Copies! Out!"

James glanced out of his cover to see the dragon starting to glow again. "Ah fuck this, is this some kind of T Rex Godzilla?"

"INCOMING!"

-----

"Load me!" Abert yelled as he went down on a kneeling stance, propping the bazooka against the top of the cover. MInosta pulled out a rocket reload from his backpack and carefully inserted it into the rear of the bazooka, before inserting a fire rune to the trigger.

"Ready! I got one more round left!" Minosta said, slapping Abert's shoulder and dodging to the side, covering his ears and opening his mouth.

Abert waited as the behemoth drew in energy from its surroundings, charging up its beam attack again. The crystals on its body grew brighter and brighter. "Fire! For heaven's sake!" Minosta yelled at the side.

"Not yet..." Abert muttered, "Wait for it, wait for it..."

The light motes grew in intensity around the mouth of the dragon, and a rocket slammed at its head, causing the dragon to flinch. The attack got disrupted and weird whitish glow on its body dimmed and it angrily turned to face the direction of where the attack came from.

It started gathering energy again, and the rocket team scuttled away, but the dragon seemed intended on them, it tilted its massive head, tracking the two Marines running from cover to cover. It would have been comical if not for the deadliness of the attack as, where the two rocketers ran to, it followed them, forcing whoever is in the same cover to run away too.

"Fark," Abert cursed, "Come on, we need a better angle!" He gestured Minosta to follow him, making him groan.

Another rocket exploded on the dragon's back, breaking more of the crystal shards but it ignored it, focusing at the running rocketers. The glow of energy grew brighter and brighter as it charged its attack again, Abert and Minosta came to a halt next to a fallen pillar and Abert hoisted the bazooka on his shoulder, aiming at the dragon.

The dragon reared its mouth open, as the energy gathered reached its limit, it threw its head forward, to roar out the mass of energy when Abert's rocket detonated next to its snort. The high-explosive anti-tank rocket warhead detonated by having the black powder charge inside collapse a metal liner inside the warhead to form a high-velocity super plasma jet of liquid metal which splashed against the ball of supercharged magical energy formed in the mouth of the dragon.

The reaction between the two energies caused the magical field to collapse, and the energies ran amok, resulting in a massive explosion which blew the upper jaw and half the skull of the silver dragon away.

The energy shockwave broke out and the ground cracked, those Marines closes to the explosion suffered from ruptured eardrums, collapsed lungs and other internal injuries. Those furthermost away were knocked off their feet and dazed by the shockwave.

The body of the dragon stood swaying lifeless, before toppling over, causing another earth shaking crash. Cries for medic and pain were heard after the shellshock effects of the shockwave dissipated. James stood, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head to clear it of the ringing sound, leaned against a destroyed pillar and looked dumbly at the destruction the dragon wrought.

The remaining Platoon 3 support sections arrived and quickly helped out with the medical assistance. "James? SERGEANT JAMES!" Someone yelled next to James who jumped and turned to see who was it and saw it was Collins.

"Are you alright man?" Collins stood before James, checking him for injuries. "You ok?"

James nodded dumbly, pointing to his ears, "I think they are broken."

Collins unbuckled James's helmet and removed his helmet, finding his ears leaking blood. "Goddamn, what happened here?" Collins looked around at the men of Platoon 2 and some of his Platoon 3 support who were all down on the ground and waved for a medic to come over to treat his friend, "Medic! Over here!"

Collins left James to the medic and comms Dungeon Ops for a trauma team to be on standby for mass causalities and calling for more support to be sent in.

James smiled dreamily as a tranq shot was jabbed into his arm and the meds worked its wonders, a trail of blood slowly dripping out of his nose and mouth as he was laid on to a stretcher.

"Fucking dragons..."

122 - The Return of the Goblins

"Heal!" Glows of radiant lights lit up the interior of the emergency trauma tentage. Medical personnel worked fervently on the wounded as they were brought out from the dungeon in an almost endless stream. Marines carrying stretchers were directed to different tents for different degrees of injuries, with the medics scribbling medical lingo on the foreheads of the wounded.

Dr. Sharon had immediately mobilized all her medical staff from the City to the scene when she saw the disastrous action inside the dungeon, knowing that her standby team of medical staff was not enough to handle all the casualties.

The miners and workers all also stopped their work and help transport the wounded to the medical area set up for treatment, while Dr. Sharon organized the rescue and medical teams. Platoon 2's remaining men fighting the silver mutated dragon had suffered one form of injury or another and most of it severe, while the two sections from Platoon 3 who reinforced the fight against the dragon also suffered heavy casualties.

Platoon 4 of Alpha Company were deployed to help medevac the wounded out of the dungeon while Platoon 1 stayed topside as security for the mining complex. Magister Thorn could be seen running around the medical tents, casting major healing spells on the more critically wounded to stabilize their conditions.

Five half-tracks with two of them painted with a red cross on their sides and the rest in darb navy grey rolled into the mining complex almost an hour later, carrying both medical staff and supplies to help with the wounded and all these activities were watched by hundreds of goblins armed with makeshift spears and bows in the distant forest edge.

-----

UNS Singapore, Captain's Office

"Blake," Commander Ford barged into the Captain's Office with barely a knock.

"What's the problem?" Blake looked up from his computer, knowing that Ford rarely called him by his name unless something serious had happened.

"The Marine's Alpha Company has taken some serious casualties in the dungeon just minutes ago," Ford reported, "And that's not all."

"How bad?" Blake asked back, "Medical support?"

"Platoon 2 and half of Platoon 3 is effectively rendered non-combat capable," Ford replied, "That's almost 40% of the Alpha Company's fighting strength. Dr. Sharon was on site, she had used her authority to mobilized all available medical support over to the mines."

"And you need to see this," Ford gestured Blake to follow him.

"What is it?" Blake followed Ford out of his office and they headed towards the Bridge.

"Just two hours before Alpha Company's incident, recon flight by Dragon One Two picked up movement within the Goblin City," Ford explained as they entered the Bridge. "We launched an Owleye UAV to observe and this just came in."

"Bring the UAV feeds on display 2," Ford told one of the bridge crew who nodded and started tapping some keys.

An overview image of a large volcanic island appeared, "This was imagery from 20 minutes ago," Ford said and he pointed to a crescent shaped cove where dozens of dots could be seen. "Zoom in there."

The image zoomed in displaying a large cluster of ships beating out of the messy harbor, heading towards the exit of the cove. Ford changed the settings of the video to real time, and the image jumped to another view, showing a large flotilla of goblin ships heading towards shore. "The computer analysis estimates they will hit the shore south west of us in nine hours."

"Any reason or intel on where the goblins are acting up?" Blake asked as he mental tried to count the number of ships.

"Intel suspects that this is the annual migration fleet from the records of the elves," Ford said. "The goblins dig in for winter and during spring, they launch fleets to the mainland to keep their population down in Goblin City. Guesses are this is a way for Goblin City to not get overpopulated."

"Damn, what're our forces current deployment?" Blake asked.

"Alpha Company is based at Seacliff Mining Complex, Bravo Company at Sawtooth Pass, Charlie is conducting search and destroy operations along the farms and logging camps north and northeast of the city," Ford read off a list, "And last of all Delta Company is at Camp Alpha, undergoing training with the First National Guard milita and having their rest and recuperation."

"What's the landing zone of those goblin ships?" Blake asked as he rubbed his shaved chin in thought.

"Here," Ford highlighted a location on the tactical map, "The entire goblin fleet will land roughly over a stretch of 10 kilometers along the coast."

"Intel says there are 273 ships of varying sizes, most common of all is the galley-sail configurations, numbering 191 in total," Ford said, showing an image of a long rakish design with a low freeboard with two sails, a catapult at each end of the ship and rowers sitting in rows on each side. "Intel is designating their estimated tonnage as a frigate type and call sign as 'Dagger' class. They also estimate a crew of roughly 180 to 250 manning the ship with cruising speeds of 6 knots per hour using both wind and rowing, and burst speeds up to 10 knots. It also mounts two to three primitive catapults."

"The second most common type of ship observed is this," Ford changed the image to another top view of a larger vessel. It had three sails and a higher freeboard, at least eight catapults could be seen on the top deck and what appeared to be a ram at the bow of the ship as it cleared the waves. "It looks similar to an old Earth sloop of war, except the bow is straight with a ram underneath, it might have a single broadside of ballistas under the deck and Intel thinks it carries roughly 150 to 200 goblins. Intel classed it as a 'Sword' class destroyer. The goblin fleet has roughly 50 of these."

"There is also another less common design seen here," Ford switch the image to another, showing a image of a large twin-hulled galley. It looked like two galleys were clobbered together, with two sets of sails on each hull, and rowers on the side. "This looks like their supply or troop transport. Intel guesses that it could hold roughly 400-600 bodies onboard and its call sign is 'Scabbard' a transport class, which the fleet has 11 of those.

"Finally the rest of the ships are mix of designs, most likely prizes captured from merchants fleets," Ford highlighted the rest of the seagoing ships. "The total number of goblins are estimated on the numbers of 40,000 to 50,000."

Blake sat down on the command chair and played with the images in the display before saying, "Put me through to Commander Tommy." He told the comms operator.

"What's the readiness of the Airforce?" Blake asked when the call got through to Tommy.

"Our single heavyweight and one medium weight dragon are standing by at the airbase," Tommy said, "The other medium weight is being recalled back to base."

"The Cobras?" Blake asked.

"We only have four of those running, the other two are under servicing, Sir!" Tommy replied, "The pilots are not ready for combat operations nor do they have proper armaments! We can launch the Valkyries instead."

"You have spare rocket pods for the Valkyries, yes?" Blake pressed on, "Load the Cobras up with the rocket pods, and let the pilots learn by a trial of fire!"

"But, Sir," Tommy protested, "We only have these four machines, and the next batch of airframes will still require weeks to be completed and the men are ready yet!"

"Tommy, remember what I said before?" Blake waved away Tommy's protests, "We have enemies knocking on our back door now, we have no time to cuddle the men."

Tommy sighed and nodded, "I will call for volunteers."

Blake gave a nod and ended the comms, "Ford, maintain and UAV flight over the goblin fleet and bring the alert level up to Condition Yellow. Contact Major Frank, Delta Company is to cease all training and recall anyone who is on leave back to active servicing, they will be our main force."

"Yes, Sir!" Ford replied before going off to carry out his orders.

"Damn it, why now?" Blake spoke to himself, as he leaned back on his chair watching the approaching fleet.

-----

Goblin Sea

Goblin Master Jiak the Skull Krusher, flexed his greenish toned muscular biceps at the cowling goblins before his clawed feet. He sat on a throne made of skulls of various creatures and species. He topped over the tallest goblin by a good head, his body twice the size and muscular instead of the thin weak looking bodies of the goblin race.

A spray of seawater rained over the quarterdeck where the skull throne sat, and Jiak the Skull Krusher, a Hobgoblin, rubbed off the seawater off his bluish hair done in a mohawk style. His squarish jaw chewed constantly on a piece of tough gristle and he spat it out to the side of the prize ship he captured many moons before, naming it as the Skull Taker.

"So you meant the delay of the ships was due to the tides and wind, and not your faults?" He questioned the kneeling goblins whimpering before him in goblish.

The whimpering goblins cried out, "Yesss, my Master! We no meant for delays! It was the winds and sea!"

"If that's the case," Jiak waved his hand to his personal guards, which were hobgoblins too, armored in a thick leather with small plates of metal sewed onto the armor, picked up the terrified goblins, one in each hand. "Feed them to the sea to appease the Gods, since they blame the gods for the delay. We need to give the Gods some offerings, yes?"

Cries of terror came from the goblins held by the guards, they bit and scratched at the armored hands holding them but to no avail, they were tossed over the side of the ship like unwanted rubbish, wailing in fear as till they hit the water.

"Any more excuses about the wind and sea?" Jiak roared from his throne to his crew,"No? Good, that's what I thought." He said satisfied, "I want to reach landfall before the sun sets!"

And the crew hurriedly went above their tasks, while the goblin shamans cast more wind spells to fill the sails, pushing the ship faster.

----

Sawtooth Mountain, Marine Support Base, Temporary AirBase

Four F/A-1 Cobras taxied slowly to the runway with their rear propeller engines revving up while Blue Thunder and the other medium weight called Quick Silver waited on a large square concrete tarmac with a yellow circle and an 'H' in the circle painted in yellow. Besides them, two of the blocky Valkyries rested on similar squares.

Commander Tommy, tugged his harness straps, making sure they are properly secured and tighten and grabbed his helmet under his arm and quickly jogged towards Blue Thunder. As he neared the dragon, Chief Gale stopped Tommy before the dragon and yelled loudly to be heard over the dim of the aircraft engines. "Sir, are you sure you are going? You are the CO of the Airforce you know?"

"That's the thing," Tommy gestured towards the four Cobras standing by on the runway, loaded for bear. "I can't call for volunteers and expect to sit in a safe cozy room directing the men!"

"Does the Captain knows?" Gale asked, shaking his head at Tommy's foolhardiness.

"Nah, he doesn't," Tommy grinned and put on his helmet, "But I did say I will ask for volunteers, and I volunteered!"

Gale shook his head again, "You better watch yourself up there!" He said to Tommy before smacking Blue Thunder's hindquarters and yelling, "Blue, make you no heroics! You are to make sure our Boss comes back in one piece, alive!"

Blue nodded solemnly and promised, "I promised." He stretched flat onto the landing pad, allowing the crew to board his back where from the side, it looked like the dragon was wearing a backpack.

The crew of seven including Commander Tommy entered the hatch into the self-pressured cabin secured onto the back of Blue Thunder. The oolong cabin was previously a lifeboat from UNS Singapore converted into a Command and Control module, with sensors, comms and all the whistles and bangs for a modern-day battlefield command and control.

"I will just be doing battle management up there, what could go wrong?"

123 - Goblin Fleet

The goblin fleet sailed rapidly, faster than what the humans predicted due to the wind spells cast by the goblin shamans. They plowed through the waves, where drums beating the same rhythm throughout the whole fleet in a sustained about pace for the goblin rowers to work on.

Most of the goblins in the fleet were younglings, attracted by offers and promises of food, drink, plunder and riches, joined the Skull Krusher fleet sent out of the Mother City to raid the neighboring lands for food and resources. Leading the younglings are the Goblin Master Jiak the Skull Krusher who managed to make a name for himself by capturing a merchant's vessel and returning to the Mother City with its treasures.

In recognition of his exploits, the Elders raised him up into a Hobgoblin, reforming his body and mind, turning him stronger, faster and smarter. Now, he was made a Master, leading a force of over 200 ships and 40,000 goblins into the mainland to raid the people and their resources. Jiak took over two years to gather this number of ships and troops, backstabbing and stealing resources from other Goblin Masters in the Mother City, before having a strong enough force to have the Elders' approval for him to set sail with their blessings.

Jiak the Skull Krusher sat on his skull throne and grinned wickedly, relishing the thoughts of killing, rape and plunder soon to come.

-----

Skies over The New World, No. 1 Squadron, Dragon and No. 2 Squadron, Valkyrie and No. 3 Squadron, Cobra

Commander Tommy sat buckled on the chair that was bolted to the floor of the trailer, he looked at the UAV feed in the tactical display screen showing the goblin fleet approaching to the shore rapidly. The time estimate had changed from either of nine hours to roughly seven hours now. The time, taken by the squadron to scramble and the flight time took another two hours, meaning the goblin fleet will land within three hours or so.

He mentally calculated the distance and time to engagement and keyed the to all flight channel comms, "King Dragon to All units, enemy fleet less than 15 minutes away, look alive now!"

A series of confirmations replied him, and he keyed the comms to No. 2 Squadron where the Valkyries are grouped under. "King Dragon to Valkyrie One and Two, begin attack now, once bingo on ammo, RTB (Return to Base) for rearming and refuel, over."

"V One roger."

"Valkyrie Two copies that."

Tommy leaned over and looked out of the tiny viewport and watched the two bulky gunships increase their speed, breaking from the formation and roared towards the distance. "King Dragon to all Cobras, check your fuel and weapons, over."

Reports came in on each plane's fuel and weapon status and Tommy nodded, the Cobras will have enough fuel for almost an hour of combat before having to RTB for fuel.

"King Dragon, Blue has spotted the enemy ships!" Blue Thunder reported, he has a special throat mike strapped over his thick neck and a couple of speakers over his ears.

"Valkyrie Actual has tally on surface contacts, weapons standing by, over."

"Weapons green, go for attack!"

"Valkyrie Actual, roger that, weapons green, engaging!"

"Blue can see the Valkyries coming in high on an attack run!" The dragon sighed happily. "Oooo pretty!"

-----

Flight Lieutenant Peter piloting Valkyrie One, keyed his comms to the other Valkyrie piloted by Sergeant Legos, "V One to V Two, drop down to 100 meters sea level and reduce speed to 60% power and engage surface vessels. Weapons green, repeat weapons green."

"Roger that, One." Legos pushed his flight stick forwards, following Peter's Valkyrie lead, and reducing his throttle, and flip the master weapons switch. He marveled at the magical technology of the hoomans, enabling them to fly through the skies simply with machines.

Like every other child in the kingdom, they worship dragon riders for the ability to fly in the sky or Knights with their combat powers. For Legos, it was the freedom of flight that made him look up to dragon riders. Thus when the first call for volunteers to join the Airforce, he quickly signed up and was lucky he possessed a body that was able to handle something called G-force, which many other failed and vomited or fainted during the test.

He had flown the F/A-1 Cobra and the Valkyrie and enjoyed flying the Cobra more as he felt more freedom as the little plane responded to each of his controls, while the Valkyrie was more powerful but he felt it too enclosed and detached from the skies for him.

Ensuring the screen shows the '70 mm rocket' highlighted, he followed on Peter's flank, dropping down to 100 meters above sea level.

"V One to Two, we will attack one by one from the starboard side, observe my run and follow after I am done, over."

"Two, copies," Legos replied and followed Peter's craft as they looped to come in from the right side of the goblin fleet. He hung back, giving space for Peter to start his attack run, and provide observation before his turn. The sea was crowded with dozens and dozens of ships with black and red sails spread all below his craft, he was pretty sure the goblins were pointing at him.

"Valkyrie One, beginning attack run!"

The bulky gunship dipped down and dropped its speed even more, and the six pylons with rocket pods flared, as Peter rippled fire the rockets down the sides of the goblin ships. Balls of fire erupted as the rockets impacted the flimsy wooden ships while meters tall water splashes burst up when the rockets missed and hit the ocean.

Legos couldn't help but gave a cheer when he saw rockets blowing up the goblin ships. He had friends and family members losing loved ones to the hated goblins and he relished the thought of blowing them up. As Peter's Valkyrie went down the row of helpless ships, several more flaming balls of fire erupted and then Peter pulled up and looped around. "Wooo! Two did you see that? You're up next!"

"Roger, beginning attack!" Legos replied and angled his Valkyrie into position and drop his speed, lining up the targeting crosshairs on the next row of ships not attacked by Peter, and squeezing the trigger. The whoosh of the rockets shooked the Valkyrie slightly, making Legos grin as he felt like he held the power to destroy the world in his hands. Balls of fire burst up as his rockets hit their target, followed by white plumes of water.

He pulled up his Valkyrie after he reached the end of the fleet and looped back, just as Peter started his next attack run and the slower Cobras and dragons arrived at the scene.

-----

Goblin Sea, The Skull Taker

Jiak twitched his eyebrows in surprise as he first heard the strange roar coming from the skies, and looked up in wonder at two greyish objects flying over the fleet. The goblins all cried and pointed excitedly at the strange flying objects and one of them looped back and suddenly explosions went off among the fleet.

"Its an attack!" Jiak roared, as he stood up from his throne, "Ready the anti-dragon shooters!" He commanded his crew before turning around to a shaman beside him. "Relay my command to all the ships, tell them to form up in the anti-dragon formation now!"

The goblin shaman bowed and took out a crystal orb and started waving its hands over the orb and chanting some strange language. As the orb cast a purplish glow, the shaman relayed its Master message to every shaman holding a similar orb.

"Tell the shamans to use spells to take down those cursed flying monsters!" Jiak added as he saw the other strange flying monster turning and flying towards them.

-----

Skies over Goblin Sea

Blue Thunder disappointedly took to holding his station over the goblin fleet, flying in a large circle round and round while Tommy inside the command module directed the Cobras to attack in pairs at the goblin fleet. Quick Silver, the medium weight stayed next to Blue Thunder as an escort, both of them watching the one side battle unfolding underneath their wings.

The two pairs of fighter attackers F/A-1 Cobras split up and dived in from two different directions. The planes were loaded with two 70 mm rockets pod each holding 10 rockets at the underside of the hull next to each wing. The forward gunner/copilot was supposedly armed with dual machine guns, but the weapons were not ready yet, hence the copilots acted as spotters and navigators instead.

"King Dragon to all Cobras, conserve your ammo, two rockets per ship, over," Tommy ordered over the voice channels. "Make your shots count!"

And as the Cobras lined up for an attack, the skies suddenly in a nightmare. Bolts of lightning, fireballs, ice spikes, and even ballista bolts shot upward towards the attacking Cobras which they dodged and weaved with surprising skills.

"All Cobras, break! Break! Break!" Tommy yelled, surprised at the amount of magical anti-air fire coming from the fleet. He noticed the goblin ships had arranged themselves in a layered crescent formation and wondered what was that formation for.

The Cobras managed to wing out of the barrage of magical anti-air cover, only one of the planes taking a lightning bolt to the wings, which the magical defense barrier managed to negate the attack, only leaving behind a scorched mark on the wing.

"Valkyries are to draw fire from the Cobras!" Tommy ordered, "Cobras are to commence attack runs after the Valkyries have gone in! Let the Valkyries soak up all the AA fire!"

Chorus of acknowledgment sounded out from the pilots in the comms and the Cobras formed up again, circling back for another attack run, while the more heavily armored Valkyries dived in and strafed the ships while drawing fire.

The goblin fleet burst into what looks like fireworks, as bolts of lightning and fireballs raised up after the Valkyries, which flew too fast to be hit by most of the spells. A few lucky slammed against the armored hull of the Valkyries, and the pilots barely even felt anything, the only evidence of the spells impacts was just scorched and chipped paint.

The shamans exhausted from casting their spells, took a breather and the skies over the fleet cleared up, while the anti-dragon ballista was reloaded.

The Cobras took the opportunity in the lull of the anti-air defenses and dived in, adding their firepower into the foray, torching and blowing up more ships and goblins. Finally, with their ammunition depleted, the planes reformed up next to Blue Thunder and Quick Silver and returned to base. Despite the low accuracy of the rockets, the air strike left behind almost a quarter of the goblin fleet in flames.

"All units RTB," Tommy ordered as both No. 2 and No. 3 Squadron had formed up. "No. 1 Squadron is to stay and observe." The Valkyries in No. 2 Squadron and the Cobras in No. 3 broke formation and headed back to base for rearming and refueling.

Tommy looked at the chalkboard secured to one side of the wall, one of the command operator had written down the time estimates in columns and headings for each Squadron to return to base, ground crew servicing time and fuel time remaining. And on another column, the estimated time for the goblin fleet to hit land was also written down.

Tommy using the information, gauged that the Squadrons will be able to hit the goblin fleet one more time before they hit landfall and night comes. And when night falls, it will be harder for the rookie pilots to engage the goblin forces on the ground, so he most likely will commit the dragons for a night attack.

He wondered what the goblin admiral will do at this time, will they split their fleet or still brunch up as target practice for his pilots.

124 - The Goblin Beach Landings

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake folded his arms as he stood before the tactical display plot, watching the blue virtual icons indicating friendly units blinking on the scene.

"All units RTB," Call the command over the comms, and Blake watched the blue icons started blinking towards home. He turned his attention over to the screen displaying the smoking goblin fleet, the high resolution image taken from a remote camera mounted on the chest harness of Blue Thunder.

Commander Ford next to Blake said, "Looks like a quarter or more of the goblin fleet is decapitated from the strike."

Blake nodded, "Not bad for a bunch of newbies."

"Tommy's strike group should have enough time for a second strike before night falls," Ford added. "They should be able to whittle down the enemy a bit more for our welcoming party on the beach."

"Strange formation they are adopting," Blake pointed out at the crescent shaped fleet formation. "Luckily whoever is in charge did not scatter the fleet."

Ford frowned as he watched the goblin fleet, "It looks like some kind of encirclement formation. Look, the two tips of the crescent could cut off the escape of any ships, surrounding them."

"But for an anti air formation, it makes no sense," Blake said.

"No wait," Ford pointed to the middle of the formation, "I think it is a formation to do with dragons."

"Why do you say that?" Blake raised his eyebrows.

"Look, the way dragons attack are similar to a helicopter," Ford explained, "They hover in place and spit fireballs or spells and sweep over the target they are attacking."

"That crescent formation is used to trap the dragon in an encirclement," Ford continued, "it should allow spellcasters, archers, and ballistas to hit the dragon from all sides."

"But won't the dragons break out of the formation?" Blake pointed out.

"Most likely yes," Ford replied, "Don't forget dragons fly slower, especially accelerating from a hovering position."

"I see," Blake grinned, "Guess they did not expect to get hit by fast movers!"

Ford smiled back, "Yea, I think whoever is in charge there is probability cursing and swearing at our boys."

-----

Goblin Sea, The Skull Taker

Jiak the Skull Krusher cursed as he took in the sight of his ships burning around him, the fleet which he had painstakingly built up piece by piece. He glared up to the skies, seeing two dragons lazily circling above his fleet, most likely waiting for a chance to grab a tasty goblin snack.

"Inform all ships to push faster! We need to get to land before more of those flying creatures come back!" Jiak ordered, and his pet shaman bowed before relaying his command into the crystal ball. "What are those vile flying beasts?" He asked the shaman once he finished his orders. "Some kind of dragons?"

"Master... I have no idea," The shaman replied, "I could not detect any trace of magical power in them and they do not look like any dragons I know of."

Jiak frowned, "Tell the shamans to cast a shimmering spell over the fleet. Make sure we can't be spotted easily."

"Master, the spell will only hold for less than a span of a turn of the glass!" The shaman warned Jiak, "It will not cover the fleet all the way to land and the spell will exhaust all the powers of the shamans!"

"Tell the fleet to close up," Jiak replied after a moment's thought, "That will reduce the amount of power needed to cover the whole fleet."

"But, my master..." The shaman protested.

"Enough!" Jiak snapped, "Do it!"

"Yes, master..."

-----

Skies over Goblin Sea

The tech next to Commander Tommy suddenly gave a cry of surprise, prompting Tommy to turn his attention over from the map he was looking over. "What is it?"

"Sir! The enemy fleet..." The tech turned and gaped at Tommy, "It's gone! Only the wreckage from the air strike remains behind."

"What?" Tommy climbed out of his seat and stood over the tech, gripping the hand bars set on the ceiling of the module for balance. "Show me!"

"Sir, one minute they are there, the second they just vanished!" the tech said, showing the playback of the video of the goblin fleet.

The image showed the goblin fleet started to bunch up and a sort of shimmering over the air could be barely seen and the ships disappeared. Tommy replayed the video in slow motion and keyed his comms, "Blue, what do you see?"

Blue Thunder lazily flapped his wings, riding the warm air currents, and was half asleep when the speakers at his ears crackled to life. He snapped awake instantly, jerking the module on his back as he did, causing the people inside to curse.

"What? what?" Blue Thunder tilted his head downwards and using his forelimbs and wiped away his drool. "Huh?"

Tommy sighed, "Blue, do you see the goblin fleet?" He nearly fell off his feet when Blue suddenly jerked.

"Goblin fleet?" Blue Thunder blinked his eyes rapidly and looked down to the clear blue sea, "Aren't they below... HUH? Where did they go?" He narrowed his eyes and craned his neck left and right, trying to spot them. "Wait, did I go off course?"

"Nevermind, Blue," Tommy said over the comms, "Quick, how about you?"

"They disappeared suddenly below us," Quick Silver the medium weight replied in his deep bass voice. "They used a spell to hide themselves."

"Roger that, tango, out," Tommy cut the comms and pondered his options before instruction the tech, "Try infra?"

The tech nodded, switching the camera mode to infra, which the display showed up in a dark grey color. "Look, see here!" The tech pointed out dozens of ships like shapes highlighted in white against a grey background.

"Damn," Tommy cursed, "They used a spell to hide the ships. The Cobras has no infravision, only the Valkyries are equipped with infrared. This is gonna be a bitch to fight!"

"Sir, I don't think they will be able to keep up such a large scale spell for long," the tech said, "It should take a lot of juice to power a spell like that over a huge area."

Tommy nodded, agreeing with the tech's analysis. He looked at the digital clock on the display and thought, another three hours to sunset. The Valkyrie and Cobra squadrons should arrive within 30 minutes. "Order No 2 Squadron to engage the fleet first, which No 3 squadron to take a holding pattern 10 kilometers away. We let the Valkyries hit them first and when the spell expires, send in the Cobras. Prioritize the Scabbard Class transports first!"

"Yes, Sir!' The tech replied and hurried to relay the orders to the squadrons.

-----

West of Seacliff Mines

Dozens of half-tracks rumbled down the beach before stopping before a red flag stuck into the sand. The rear tailgate opened and troops in digital camo hopped out and formed up before the flag. Once their cargo has been dumped, the half-tracks rolled out and return to pick up another batch of soldiers.

"Alright, you maggots!" Corporal Mills yelled over the crashing of waves and pointed to a rise overlooking the sea. "Grab your entrenching tools and dig! I want proper firing foxholes here, here and here!"

"Yes, Corporal!" The recruits chorused and grabbed their entrenching tools and started to dig.

"Come on, chop chop!" Mills yelled as he strolled among the recruits digging foxholes, "Your lives will depend on the foxholes you dig! You will fight in them, take cover in them and sleep in them! Make sure you dig them nice and deep!"

"The enemy is coming!" Mills continued as he yelled encouragement to the frantically digging recruits, "This is no longer a drill! This is real action!" He pointed towards the sea and said, "Hundreds and thousands of green skinned scum are headed our way to kill us!"

He paused and yelled to the Orc recruits, "No offense there, wasn't talking about you guys. Anyway, goblins are coming and it is a good day to kill some goblins!"

"The sky is clear, we got a nice breeze here, great view of the sea," Mills stood over the rise watching his platoon of recruits, "It practically a perfect shooting range built for us here!"

"HOORAH!" The recruits yelled as they dug faster, piling sand and soil over the sides of the holes.

"You boys will hold this stretch of the beach," Mills continued, "Platoon 1 will be on your left flank and Platoon 3 on your right! We will hold this beach with everything you got!"

-----

Major Frank stood on the side of the jeep and tried to spot the enemy fleet with his binos, just as two Valkyries screamed past over his head, darting towards the horizon. He lowered his binos and looked up at the two dark shapes in the sky, and frowned.

"Airforce is saying the fleet is cloaked?" Frank asked Pike who was leaning on the side of the jeep with a pair of shades.

"Yup," Pike nodded, "But it should be temporary, we can spot them with infra or wait till the spell wears off."

Frank raised his binos again, following the Valkyries' flight path, " It's almost time, is everything ready?"

"Yes, Sir," Pike replied, "All four recruit companies have dug in and Delta Company is on standby as a reserve force. Problem is how will the goblins scatter their fleet or hit the beach in one concentrated force."

Flashes appeared over the horizon of the sea, lighting up the purplish sky. A short while later, rumbles of thunder could be heard. "Well the Valkyries have engaged them, hopefully, the Airforce can sink as many ships as possible."

"Well, I think its a good chance to test the recruits," Pike said, "Good live fire training for them, and also for our new artillery corps."

"Hows the set up of the artillery going?" Frank asked as he put down his binos.

"We got 6 batteries of 120 mm mortars on stand by, each battery has three mortars," Pike replied, "They are spread out behind the companies for support fire."

"Problem is that we do not have much ammo for sustained fire. Each gun has only roughly 60 mortar bombs, but we got plenty of starburst shells to illuminate the night sky for the troops to see." Pike said, "Production of the new smokeless gunpowder is still insufficient for our needs, so we used the new smokeless powder for the mortar bomb's propelling charge while the warhead is good old black powder."

"The mortarmen might need to relocate depending on where the goblins land," Pike added, "So I took the liberty of attaching some half-tracks and jeeps to their batteries.

Frank nodded and snapped his binos up again, "There! They came out of hiding behind their magic."

Pike took out his bino and observed the mass of black dots in the horizon, background by flames and smoke, "Damn, we need to learn that cloaking spell, it will be damn useful."

-----

Goblin Sea, Skull Taker

"Faster!" Jiak roared, "Land can be seen! Once we have landed, we will no longer be at the mercy of those flying monsters!"

"M-master!" One of his hobgoblin bodyguards called out pointing, "More flying monsters!"

"Shaman! Use all your powers and blow the fleet to shore now!" Jiak roared at the pale faced shaman beside him, "If not we all die here!"

The shaman nodded resignedly and spoke into his crystal orb, and before long, a sick greenish glow lit up all the ships in the fleet and they suddenly accelerated, hurling towards the distant shoreline. One by one the shamans in the goblin fleet collapsed from mana burn, blood flowing out from their nose and ears as they burnt up their life energy.

The leading galleys glided up the sandy beach with a loud crash and oar not properly secured slammed against their owners, breaking bones. Other ships behind being slower to steer away, rammed into the ships already beached on the shore, causing chaos and casualties among the goblin crew.

Soon every ship settled down on shore, and cries of pain and the dying could be heard over the waves. Jiak grinned, "We made it! Now get off the ships!"

Just as he said that several whistling sounds could be heard over the waves, growing louder and louder. Jiak looked up in confusion and his world turned into fire and hell.

125 - Unto the Breach

A whizz shrieked passed Jiak's head and the top part of his skull throne behind him exploded, bits of bone shards and splinters showered over his head. "What sorcery is this!" He roared, glancing up from over the wooden railings of his ship.

The sun had set, yet despite that, the area around the beach where Jiak's fleet had landed was brightly illuminated by mage fire, balls of glowing orbs hanging in the sky. He did not expect to encounter any resistance on the shore and now his shamans were mana drained and made useless by the shimmering spell used to cloak the fleet.

"How did the long legs know we are coming?" Jiak roared in surprise, "Could the attacks from the flying monsters be part of the long legs?"

"Charge! Attack the long legs!" He commanded, leaping off the side of his ship and slapping the flat of his blade at his confused goblins. "Get off the ships!"

The goblins near him gathered their courage and followed Jiak, shrieking a war cry as they charged up the beach. The magical lights floating in the sky lit the way for them and Jiak while flashes of light could be seen sparking in the distance and the buzz and whizz of something screamed around him like angry bees. Some of his goblins fell to the sand soundlessly as if they suddenly fell asleep, others screamed as parts of their bodies suddenly blew up.

A whistling sound was heard and a large gout of flames and sand erupted not far behind from where Jiak stood, the shock wave slamming into him and bowling him off his feet.

Jiak shook his head, spitting out sand from his mouth and tried to clear the ringing in his ears before standing up again. He turned to shout at his minions to follow him, only to find a smoking crater in the sand behind him, and his goblin minions shredded by the explosion. One of the goblins at his feet coughed and shrieked as its bloody guts flowed out from his missing half of its body.

He stared blankly for a moment before at carnage before one of his hobgoblin guards dragged him into the cover of a sand dune while the sand exploded around them.

-----

Recruit Platoon 2, Foxhole

Recruit Onetooth aka Slow was leaning over the foxhole he dug, looking down on the customized sights of the M1E Magelock. It was specially modified for Orcish hands, designated M1E, E for Enlarged. The trigger guard was removed to allow the thick fingers of the Orcs to squeeze the trigger while the rifle stock along with the rifle grip was also lengthened, adding another 20 cm to the butt.

The sights were raised to allow the Orcs to sight in as their heads were larger than the humans and elves. Onetooth peered through the notched sight, remembering Master Sergeant Pike's firearm lecture on the proper way of aiming and shooting.

He kept the single rear leaf sight center of the circle and aimed slightly ahead of a goblin dashing along the beach waving its spear in a somewhat threatening manner and squeezed the trigger softly. The slam of the rifle butt against his shoulder barely affected his stance as the bullet spiraled out of the barrel and smacked into the running goblin, sending it disappearing into the shadows with a puff of something dark and glistening.

Onetooth grinned and worked the enlarged knob of his M1E's bolt, ejecting the spent cartridge and pushing a fresh round into the chamber. He sniffed the sour piss smell of the gunsmoke and sighed happily, before scanning the illuminated beach for more goblins to kill.

"It is a good day to kill something!" He smiled happily as he shot another goblin runner.

-----

Rear of the Beach defense line

"Load starburst!" The gunnery sergeant yelled and the seven-man mortar crew leaped into action. One of the crew tossed a shell with a white painted nose and a crudely drawn star on the side of the shell to the Assistant Gunner who held the shell over the muzzle of the mortar tube and the sergeant yelled, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" and the whole crew covered their ears and opened their mouths.

The Assistant Gunner dropped the shell into the tube and stepped away, covering his ears and opening his mouth and a thunderclap sounded, compressing the lungs for a moment and causing heads to ring despite covered ears. In the distant sky, a star burst into life, a tiny parachute deploying, lighting up the area like a tiny sun.

"Switch to high explosives!"

-----

Frank and Pike stood next to their jeep watching the goblins get slaughtered on the beach lit by parachute flares lobbed by the mortars. "Better than I expected," Pike commented, "This batch of recruits is pretty accurate even without tracers to guide their fire."

"Might be due to being an Orc or elf? Doc did say they have better hearing and eyesight than unaugmented humans. Looks like they landed within a two kilometer stretch of the beach," Frank said as he peered through his binos in night vision model, "What are their numbers you think?"

"Maybe ten, fifteen thousand?" Pike guessed, "They took quite the beating when they beached in that mess."

Frank nodded, "I am pulling in the other two recruit companies to the north and south of the beachhead. We will box them in."

"The mortar batteries are doing pretty well so far," Pike observed, "Most of their shells are pretty on target."

"They better, this is a very expensive live-fire exercise," Frank joked, "We managed to pin them down with mortar fire, but once our supply runs out, the goblins will definitely make a break through the lines. They still outnumber us by thousands."

"We just have to keep hitting them while they are still confused," Pike said. "Since they are bunched up nicely among the beached ships, I took the liberty to call for an airstrike."

Frank nodded, "Nice, now we need to advance and push them into the sea." He pointed to the largest concentration of beached ships. "Prep Delta Company for assault, we will attack them there."

Pike nodded and reached for the radio set mounted at the rear of the jeep and started communication with Delta company before heading to find the company.

-----

Delta Company, 500 meters from Goblin beachhead

"Alright, Delta dogs! We are going over the hill and straight at those green skins!" Pike roared over the dim of gunfire and explosions. "Attach bayonets!"

Delta Company was the only company without any humans in its ranks. The elf Marines drew their sword bayonets and with a rattle, they attached their bayonets onto their rifles.

The light from the starburst parachute flares cast a hungry glint in the elves eyes as they stood in loose ranks among their platoons. The Platoon sergeants and corporals traveled up and down the ranks, ensuring their men's weapons were loaded and bayonets properly fixed.

"Company! Form up in line formation!" Pike barked. The individual platoons started to spread out and not long the whole company stood in a line following Pike's order. "Advance!"

Like the ancient musketeers, the whole company marched forward in step in a single row, climbing over the gentle slope and three sharp whistles were heard, signaling the recruits inside the foxholes to cease fire.

The recruits watched Delta Company march pass them and cheered, shouting encouragement to them as they advanced towards the goblins.

"Compaaaany... Halt!" Pike bellowed, and the men nearby echoed his command, and the line came to a stop and crouched down.

The night sky suddenly lit up again as the Airforce's Valkyries and Cobras arrived again, using the flaming wrecks as a marker, the aircraft volley fired thermobaric warheads into the mass of ships, setting the majority up in flames.

When their rockets depleted, the planes looped around, wagging their wings in salute to the Marines on the beach and returned back to base, while a pre-planned heavy barrage of mortar fire rained down onto the beach making it into the largest firework show for the Marines who had front row seats to watch.

Finally the last echoes of explosions slowly faded and Pike stood up, and blew his whistle, signaling the assault. The elves of Delta Company howled and charged, covering the last hundred meters in seconds and fired into the shell-shocked goblins. "OOORAAAAAH!"

Starburst shells continued to pop overhead, and together with the burning wrecks, the entire beachhead was almost as bright as day. The Marines fired at the goblins who finally seeing their enemies who screamed in their strange high pitch voices and rushed them with crude spears and blades.

The Marine line stopped as the surviving goblins came out from craters, sand dunes, and even from burning ship wreckages. They rushed out in small groups of threes or fours and died while the smarter goblins played dead till the Marines were almost on top of them, and they jumped up shrieking war cries only to get impaled by 15" long cold steel and died in doves.

-----

Jiak squeezed himself as much as he could into a ball to avoid the earth-shaking explosions going off all around him, ignoring the screams of fear and death of his lesser kin. Suddenly the explosions stopped and a roar that grew in intensity sent chills down his spine. He pushed himself up and peered over the sand dune, and saw a line of dark figures appearing out of nowhere and fire, smoke, and thunder erupted from the line of figures, and his goblins died all around him.

"Master! We must run!" His hobgoblin guards advised him, tugging his arm to pull him away from the approaching danger. "We must hurry!"

Jiak nodded and cried out, "Retreat to the sides!" Those goblins hearing his cry echoed his words and followed Jiak, scrambling away in fear of the approaching death. But the line of death stretch as far as the eye could see, and the only way Jiak got go was towards the sea. The fire and thunder grew more intense as the line approached closer, and suddenly the world turned into flames.

-----

Blue Thunder happily burped out sparks as he pulled up from his bombing run. His fireball impacted at a cluster of goblins, turning into dancing fire pyres. Quick Silver at his flank slashed down with his claws, gripping a couple of goblins and tossing them into the sea. Inside the command and control module, Tommy and the rest of the crew groaned as the module shook and buckled under Blue Thunders maneuvers. "Blue, enough fun yet? You need to break off, the air is too hot with friendly rounds!" Tommy yelled into the mic.

"Fufufu," Blue Thunder laughed manically, and hovered on the spot, spitting a couple more fireballs at the panicking goblins. "This is fun! Burn baby burn!"

Tommy rolled his eyes, wondering if dragons are naturally pyromaniacs and where did he learned that phrase from, and is that why stories always have them torching and burning villages and castles?

-----

It was not long before the goblins ran away screaming in fear from the advancing line of fire and steel, some tried to break out from the sides, only to encounter defensive lines manned by the recruits who gleefully shot down the goblins. Majority of the goblins were forced into the sea, some even tried to refloat the beached galleys, others pushed rowboats back out into the waves.

Pike halted the advancing lines of the Marines and they all prone down or crouch down and fired at the fleeing goblins. He took out his tablet and switched to a map and keyed his comms. "Magnum Zero Nine, this is Dog Pack Seven, fire mission, request for grid one zero niner four dash seven six two niner, immediate fire for effect on my mark, Dog Pack Seven, over."

"Dog Pack Seven, Zero Niner, that's a roger on your fire mission, on the way, Zero Niner out!"

Seconds later, whistles of mortar bombs screamed over the Marine line and hell visited on the screaming goblins.

126 - Author's HP 46.7%

Hi guys, just wanna share something about my health/medical condition.
I got diagnosed with two cancers during 2012, a tumor in my left lung taking up 2/3 of its space and thyroid cancer.

Went through the usual chemotherapy and operations to remove the remaining mass of tumor and my entire thyroid. Which 2 weeks after my chest op, I went back to ICU for having heart and lung infection, they reopened my stitches, re cut my chest up again, cleaned and removed what ever they forgot to take out in my chest ...

Fast forward to 2015, I got diagnosed with severe clinical depression, nearly died from overdose of sleeping pills and then ...

This year 2018 I got hit by two heart attacks. First at mid Feb and the second just a couple of weeks back and I still got 3 arteries at 60-70% blockage but the doctor is scared to touch them as they might shift and worsen my condition. (They removed 5 blood clots at my 1st bypass and 3 more blood clots at my 2nd bypass)

Frankly I am broke with all this medical bills. My insurance went over the limited, government support in the form of Medisave which I have had all gone into my hospital bills and whatever savings that I had. The current support at $79 from you guys is enough to pay more than half of my monthly medicine which I have to take for life. ( My daily cost of meds per day is the cost of 1 happy meal...less the toy and happiness... @ SGD $6++)

Therefore I am very grateful for the support you guys gave to me. Please be patient if some days I fail to deliver/post chapters up. Thanks for the support!

*** aaaaaaand my laptop have to die at this point ... have to use my workplace's PC. I am back to work aldy ...No rest for the wicked ***

127 - Picking up the Pieces

Falledge Town, Merchant District, North Star Trading

Etoro Arther paced around in his office, rubbing his hands anxiously as he waited for news from his people. The fine china holding his favorite snacks and sweetmeat were ignored as he stood before the window, peeking around to see if his people had returned every once in while before resuming his pacing.

Finally, a knock on his door and his clerk's muffled voice sounded through the door, "Sir, Mr. Bishop is here to see you."

"Let him in! Let him in!" Etoro hurriedly replied, and he stood before his office doors.

Qoum Bishop entered his office, his dark red hair plastered against his head with sweat. He quickly dropped himself onto the sofa chair, ignoring his travel-stained clothes against the rich leather and raised his hand up, and a couple of blue magic circles appeared.

A fist-sized piece of ice appeared over the magic circle before melting away into a thin fog, which covered the entire room. Qoum gave a relieved sigh as the room cooled down, and he removed his traveling coat.

"How is it?" Etoro asked as he carried over a set of tea and poured a cup for Qoum.

"Hmmm," Qoum took a sip and grimaced, raising his finger and using magic to cool the tea down before drinking it. "Job's done. 347 accounted for, 15 deaths during transportation."

Otoro sat down next to Qoum and pour them both another cup, "15 deaths? What happened?"

"The slavers were too rough, I guess?" Qoum gave a shrug, "Anyway I did my part, so where is the payment?"

"Of... of course," Otoro got up and went to his desk and opened his drawer, taking out four white coins with an image of a crystal shard on one side, and placed them on the table before Qoum who picked them up and nodded. "I just round it up to a perfect 400 royals.

Qoum pocketed the platinum crystal coins and rosed. "They are placed at the usual drop off at the warehouse, I also bribed the town guards and officials to keep it quiet."

"Thank you," Otoro said, and gave a short bow as Qoum gave a simple wave and left his office.

Otoro stood over his office window and watched Qoum disappear into the crowd before he rang a tiny brass bell, and a clerk appeared. "You called, Sir?"

"Yes, yes," He removed a key from around his neck and handed it over to the clerk and said, "Go to the warehouse and do the usual and prepare them to move at a moment's notice."

The clerk accepted the key and gave a bow before he left to do Otoro's bidding.

"Now, is to see if Tyrier can do what he promised."

-----

Somewhere in Falledge

Kaga Whitetail hissed in suppressed pain, as the boils burst open with bloody fluid leaking out from her bare feet. She swallowed back the tears threatening to break out from her blue eyes and gently rubbed her swollen ankles. Looking up at the unlit interior of the large room, she suspected that they were kept in some warehouse, where daylight shone through the eaves in the roof.

Moans and sobs could be heard from the large group of people lying on every surface or even on top of each other. She gently shifted herself to a more comfortable position against the hard packed ground and ignored the persons besides her. The thin dirty shift she wore for the last four months clung against her malnourished and wasted body, barely provides enough warm and decency to her body.

She shivered despite the being spring and in the day and hugged her dirty and matted tail, no longer looking white and healthy, her dirty white crudely cut short hair and her cat like ears drooping in sadness and pain, wondering what will happen to her and the people around.

Kaga gritted her teeth in pain the person next to her accidentally knock against her wounded feet, sending waves of pain, her tail tensing up. She cursed the Empire for causing all these hardships and tried to use magic to cast a simple healing spell, but she could not gather any spiritual power from her surroundings as the plain-looking metal collar shackled around her neck blocked her magical powers.

She sighed and curled up into as small a space as possible, hugging herself before slowly drifting off into a nightmare fueled sleep.

-----

The blue mountains outside the window brought a sharp and foul-smelling breeze into the room Kaga was in. She paused her reading of the scroll and set it aside and rosed, walking bare feet against the straw woven mats and stood before the open window and looked outside, wondering what was going on.

From her vintage view of the tallest tower in the city, she saw a plume of smoke rising off in the distance and suddenly a loud clanging sound was raised from one of the watchtowers where someone was beating an alarm.

"Priestess!" The wood and paper sliding door slid open and two handmaidens in white and red long billowing robes, "The Empire has attacked!"

"What?" Kaga spun around, "We had an agreement!"

"They broke it!" The two girls, one with brown ears, hair and tail cried, "They are storming the Beast City as we speak!"

"Quickly, we must head to the Formation Array!" Kaga said, "The guards? Takao, go inform the elders to gather at the Formation Hall!" She instructed the brown-haired girl who bowed and dashed off.

"They are mobilizing to the walls," The other girl with grey-blue ears, hair and tail replied. She waved for the two Kobold guardsmen stationed outside the Priestess room to follow them and the two dog-like looking humanoid carrying curved sabers followed faithfully along.

They hurried down the wooden steps and out of the Tower and headed past a large stone courtyard and up a flight of stairs again, before reaching a huge building with a large and gently curved roof with many pillars supporting the structure.

Kobold guardsmen bowed as they approached and they quickly pushed open the doors for the Priestess's party. Once inside, Kage's eyes took a short while to adjust to the darkness inside and hurried down into the middle of the empty hall, where a large complicated looking magic formation was etched into the tiles.

The interior pillars had runes carved into them and what appeared to be talismans were stuck all over the hall. A simple oil lamp sat in the middle of the formation, the tiny flame flickering slightly in the breeze that the party brought in.

"The elders?" Kaga asked as she knelt next to the lamp, checking the oil levels. "Are they here yet?"

"Here, Priestess," A mellow voice rung out from the main doors as another party of robe dressed beastmen entered. "We await your bidding." The group of elders with Takao bowed to Kaga.

"Quick, we need to bring the barrier up to stop the Empire," Kaga responded, pointing to each point of the formation. "I need all your help in this."

"Are we too rush to use the Formation now?" One of the grey-furred elder asked as they hurried in their own pace to the formation. "The guards should be more than able to handle some weaklings."

"No, I have seen their powers," Kaga said, "That is why I agreed to a non-aggressive pact and open borders with the Empire, just that, I never expect that Varacen to attack so fast! I miscalculated, I thought we had at least a year more to prepare!"

The seven elders muttered something among themselves as they start surrounding Kaga in the middle of the Formation, "We are ready."

Kaga nodded and sat down cross-legged in a meditative stance, while the elders followed suit, and started chanting. The magic formation and runes started glowing brighter and brighter before the countless talismans sudden burst into flames one by one and a bright beam of energy burst out of the building into the skies before exploding into a shimmering dome that covered the entire city.

Kaga sighed as powering the formation had drained her of all her energy. "Keep watch over the flame, do not let it go out!" She ordered the Flame Keeper at the side, who nodded.

Suddenly screams and cries could be heard outside the Formation Hall, and Kaga looked up in surprise. "The enemy? Here!"

The doors exploded into wooden shards and splinters and a kobold guardsman flew into the hall, his chest caved in, and blood pooling around its broken body. Two dark figures stood against the light and sniggered as they casually strolled in.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" One of them mockingly spoke. "Cute little kitties aren't they?'

As the two walked in, their features could be seen clearer, both were dressed in typical Empire plate armor, but more ornate and delicate looking. The one that spoke had his long blonde hair tailed in a ponytail and specks of blood could be seen on his smooth white face while the other Knight had a full faced helmet covering his head.

"Kill them!" One of the elders yelled and she conjured up several magical flames and shooting them at the two figures, while another elder took out a handful of talismans and chanted something before tossing them out. Kaga's handmaidens instantly took up positon in front of her, shield her with their bodies.

The spirit fires shoot towards the helmeted Knight and the Knight just casually sliced the fires away with his long sword, while the other Knight laughed as the talismans stuck onto his body and exploded.

Kaga looked in wild-eyed horror as that giggling Knight that exploded, emerged from a glow of a magical protection spell and causally dusted himself off unharmed from a spell that is equaled to an Empire level 4 spell! "Quick! Summon the guardians!"

The elders looked at each other and nodded before forming complex hand seals and chanted an invocation under their breaths.

"Hahahaha, what toys are the kitties trying to bring out this time?" The Laughing Knight asked, as he stood casually and waited for them to finish.

"Don't waste time," The Helmeted Knight said, "Kill them off."

"Alright, alright," The Laughing Knight grumbled, "You spoil all the fun," He reached to his back and drew out two wicked looking daggers, "Greater Agility!" and vanished from sight before appearing in front of a startled Elder.

"Hi!" He grinned and sliced the jugular of the shocked Elder, sending a spray of blood out. "Who's next?"

The Elders stepped back in horror as their concentration broke and Kaga quickly tossed out several talismans and quickly chanted a spell, turning the talismans into flying eagles, that swooped down at the Laughing Knight.

"Protect the Priestess!" Cries rang out from the rear as dozens of Kobold guardsmen rushed in and died as the Helmeted Knight sliced and diced with his swordplay against the badly matched guards.

The Elders quickly resumed their spell as the Laughing Knight was distracted by the paper eagles when suddenly the Helmeted Knight seemed to get impatient and threw his sword with full force at Kaga, "Greater Strength Up!"

"Noo!" The two handmaidens screamed as they quickly used all their power to boost up their protection spells, blocking the silver Mythril sword's passage and flew back into Kaga who was supporting the Formation Array.

As they fell back, the Spirit Lamp which was used to gather spiritual energy was knocked down and the flame went out, almost immediately the flow of energy into the Formation Array ceased, and without Kaga supporting the Array with her power, the city protection spell faded away.

The Laughing Knight grinned as he shredded the last paper eagle, his handsome face blooding from cuts from the attacks of the paper eagles. "Damn, that was interesting, your useless papers and actually able to hurt me, little kitty!"

"RUN!" Takao pushed her sister and Kaga to the back, "I will hold them off! GO!"

Takao's sister grabbed Kaga and dragged her away, much to the amusement of the Laughing Knight, "Trying to run, kitties? I so like a hunt!"

"Die!" Takao charged forward and the talismans in her fingers turned into daggers and she slashed at the Laughing Knight, aiming for his neck, but he just laughed and punched out, breaking her weaken protection spell, breaking her ribs and causing her to vomit out the contents in her stomach before collapsing in a heap in front of the Knight.

"Now, for the next kitties," He rubbed his hands gleefully when the remaining Elders lobbed spirit fire and exploding talismans at him.

"Nooo!" Kaga screamed weakly as she watched the Knights massacred everyone in the room before her mana drained body gave up and she lapsed into darkness.

128 - Freed

Kaga jerked awake, shivering an shaking as she curled up on the hard floor panting. Tears flowed down as she recalled the sacrifices made by others for her. Her last handmaiden hid her in some shacks and switched clothes before leaving her to draw away the searching Empire soldiers.

Without the Spirit Lamp and her as the key to the CIty Protection Spell, the Empire's dragons swooped in and tangled with the city's griffins while siege engines attacked the city walls. With the Empire Knights wreaking havoc behind lines, the city fell rapidly and the city inhabitants fled.

She was later captured by slavers who followed behind the Imperial Army, who traded gold for life, healthy bodies. Cutting her long hair short with a dagger and being on the run for over two weeks, she looked like any other refugee on the run. It was also probably due to her depleted both magic and physical powers from casting the City Protection Spell, the slaver's appraisal of her was that she was unfit as a prime slave, and was cast with the undesirable and dying leftovers.

She attempted to escape when her magic recovered, but unluckily she was stopped by an anti-magic formation cast into the slave holding pens which earned her a beating and anti-magic collar. She and many others were transported from one holding pen to another before reaching the southern trade hub of Woschester.

After a week of horrible treatment in the pens, a buyer came and said he needed bodies to clear the land near the uncharted forest and they were sold. Another two weeks of hard travel, several died along the way from the harsh conditions before they arrived at this place. Kaga laid shriveled up wondering when they will have some porridge to eat and drink.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Gods, what a mess! It's been three days since the goblins landed yet they are still running around... like a cockroach!" Captain Blake sighed as he read the after action report from Major Frank. "The goblin mop up is taking too much time and resources away from us."

"Yes, Sir," Frank agreed, "But we need to clear them out thoroughly or we have an unknown cancer at our flanks."

"Agreed too," Commander Ford added, "Despite the overwhelming victory at the defense of the beach, there are still hundreds shattered and hiding along the beach. We can't take the risk of having an enemy there. It's better to finish them off once and for all, or we have to spend resources just guarding against them."

"3 deaths and 47 injured from Delta company, the recruits suffering no deaths only 5 injuries due to mishaps," Blake read from the report. "And we lost a single F/A-1 Cobra on landing."

"Sir, the pilots are still new to night combat and landing," Lieutenant Commander Tommy replied. "The good thing is both the pilot and co-pilot suffered minor injuries and will recover in a couple of weeks time."

Blake nodded as he continued reading the report, "Ordnance used, 70% of all rocket stocks, 80% of all mortar bombs and roughly 295,680 6.5 mm Black Powder (BP) rounds fired."

"Estimated goblin deaths at roughly 21,000, with roughly 2,000 still hiding along the beach still," Blake put down the tablet and looked at the three commanders. "That's not counting the 12 deaths and 24 heavily wounded Marines of Alpha Company. That's almost half the fighting strength gone from an experienced combat unit."

"Sir," Frank spoke up, "It's my fault, Sir!"

"No, no," Blake waved Frank down, "I am not assigning blame here, we just could not foresee what dangers are in the dungeon. Even with having an entire platoon fighting the Boss of the level, it was almost wiped out even with all kinds of precautions we took."

"I think we should suspend exploration of the Dungeon till we consolidate our forces first," Blake said. "What do you all think?"

Ford looked at the other two and nodded, "We have been constantly encountering external threats without having a proper chance to rest and recuperate. Thou the Dungeon did offer us substantial rewards like the nitroshroom, but its dangers are just too overwhelming at the same time."

"What you are saying is?" Blake raised his eyebrow at arched his fingers together.

"Stop digging deeper," Ford replied.

"Sir, I think we should stop the exploration, and limit it to Level Two for our resource needs, and avoid deeper exploration," Frank said.

"I concur too, Sir," Tommy replied.

Blake looked at the three standing before him and nodded, "Ok, from now on till further notice, exploration of the Dungeon will be stopped, harvesting teams are only to have access to level two that has been cleared. No one goes down into Level Three, anyone caught will be prosecuted."

"And be shot," Frank grinned.

"And survivors will be shot again," Finished Tommy.

"Get out of here, kids..." Blake rubbed his face, covering the smile he had.

Both Officers gave a salute and left the Bridge leaving Ford behind with Blake. "Captain, regarding the trade deal with Falledge, you think its a good idea?"

Blake nodded, "We can secure a line of supply from the town, why not?"

"But it's in the enemy territory," Ford replied. "It will not be a stable source of supply."

"Yes, I know," Blake agreed. "That's why I want to milk it as much as I can before it gets discovered."

"Well, 10 tons of seeds, a thousand heads of muffalos and two thousand egg-laying bird wyverns," Ford replied from memory, "It isn't a lot to support our population of fewer than 9000 humans, elves, orcs, and three hungry dragons..."

"Well, its a start," Blake said, "City Hall is still at its baby steps, but these are seed stocks crucial for our food needs for the future. Besides, we do not know if the merchant friend of our Claymore One leader is reliable yet. It's like a test to see if he can deliver."

Ford nodded, "Then how about the transporting slaves crap?"

"If what Sergeant Tyrier reports is true," Blake rubbed his chin, "I don't mind opening up the Pass for the freed slaves. In fact, I would even like to meet with the person doing this, especially if they are from the Isles. That's another trade option there."

"And you can poach on the freed slaves to join us too right?" Ford shook his head.

"Hehehe," Blake grinned, "You know me too well!"

"Well, according to our good Sergeant there, the merchant Otoro Arther should have a batch of freed slaves to be transported to safety within the week," Ford said. "But do you think this Otoro guy will accept?"

Blake flipped open his tablet and pulled up the files on Otoro Arther, "Owner of North Star Trading, 31 years old, Son of Baron Arther, Kingdom of Goldrose..." There were several pictures of Otoro in the file too, most likely taken from a recording camera from Tyrier.

"Well, we can only wait and see," Blake said. "And hope our good Sergeant can convince his friend."

Ford nodded, "I am assuming you going to authorize the mission to extend over the one month period?"

"Of course," Blake grinned, "There is still so much to learn!"

-----

Somewhere in Falledge

The large barn-like wooden doors swung open and several figures stood before the flood of sunlight shining into the holding room. Kaga sat up slowly and squinted her eyes against the bright lights.

"Alright, everyone!" One of the figures spoke in a loud voice. "We are going to clean you up, feed you and have proper places to sleep. But I need you to be orderly! Come along now!"

Hearing the word food, the hungry people got up and slowly exited the room, and Kaga dragged her swollen and bleed feet along. As she came out of the room, she found her self in a large courtyard with three other warehouses like structures. People wearing white aprons were helping the slaves too weak to walk out of the warehouses and led to what appears to be a healer.

Stalls were set up along the courtyard where bowls of soup or porridge were handed out to the starving slaves while another area was covered up with cloth for people to shower and clean up. She limped her way to the shower area first, as she desperately wanted to feel clean again after so many months of filth.

Entering one of the shower stalls, she found a wooden tub filled with hot water and a female wearing one of those white aprons was saying, "Just wash up and I will remove the dirty water for you," And she placed a pile of clean clothes on the side for her. "For your dirty clothes just dump it here," she pointed to a basket, "We will burn them later."

Kaga nodded and stripped, dumping her dirty rags into the basket and slowly climbed into the tub. Her body was thin to the point where her ribs could be clearly seen, and her tummy was bloated due to malnourishment. Soaking into the hot water, Kaga gave a sigh of relief as the aches and pains in her body faded, despite her burning wounds on her feet.

Using a scrub, she washed off the layers of dirt and filth and had to ask the attendant for the second fill of water in her tub which had turned into a dirty grey soup. After that, she raised off and used a coarse soap to lather her whole body until she was sore and pink before exiting the shower, dressed in a simple clean dress.

Next, she limped her way towards the healers and had them help her with her feet. She was curious as to why there was such a good treatment but decided to just make the best out of the moment first.

The healer wrapped her feet in a foul-smelling salve which was cooling to her feet. The healer also brought along a Magesmith who carefully removed the anti-magic collar from her chaffed neck, and more of the foul-smelling salve was applied to her.

After thanking both the healer and Magesmith, she left to find food at the food stalls. The smell of food made her mouth water and after queuing for a while, she has gotten a bowl of porridge and she sat down on the floor and wolfed the hot food down.

Once satisfied, she started to observe her surroundings, finding it strange that someone would spend so much effort for some slaves. She wondered what their agenda could be and she watched the crowd of people and beast men mingling around, holding bowls of hot porridge and dressed in clean clothes.

Suddenly someone stood on top of a small raised platform and rang a small bell, catching the attention of everyone. "May I have your attention please?" Once he has gotten everyone's attention, he continued, "I have good news for you. From now onwards, everyone is free, no longer a slave."

After he spoken those words, the crowd broke into a wild discussion. "But, it is still not safe for you to be here, therefore, we will have to move you out to another place where you will be safe!"

Kaga touched the slave brand burnt onto the top of her right hand and wondered where will they be bringing them to.

"Where will you bring us to? Is this real?" Someone yelled, asking the question Kaga had. "What if we want to stay?"

"There is no point staying here," The man replied, "Staying here and getting caught by the Empire will be death waiting not only for you but also those that helped you! Therefore, you must leave here!"

The crowd kept quiet after hearing that. "Don't worry, we will bring you somewhere safe, where the Empire won't reach you."

"But where is safe from the Empire?" Someone yelled again. "

"We will bring you to The Isles."

129 - Green Troubles

Tyrier Lodess blew out a blue smoke ring as he leaned back against the posh sofa, savoring the smooth smokeleaf taste rolling in his mouth. He sighed contently as he watched the small crowd in the Clubs and Royals Gentlemen Club mingle among themselves and wondered how many of these sons of bitches jumped over to the Empire side on the first signs of trouble.

"Tyrier!" A voice calling his name snapped him out of his wandering thoughts and he looked around, seeing the fat form of Otoro Arther walking over to him with a large smile pasted over his face.

"Hello, old friend," Tyrier gave a wave and gestured Otoro to join him at his table. "Have a seat."

Otoro dropped his heavy mass onto the chair and it sank visibly and managed to somehow support his weight. "One thick cut, Ruby Stag steak, medium raw with a side of fried taters." He gave his order to the uniformed waiter serving at his side. "Also a bottle of fine red fire."

Tyrier waved away the waiter who looked in askance, "I have eaten."

"So," Tyrier turned his attention to Otoro while continuing to puff his smokeleaf cigar. "What do you think of the deal?" He asked after they were left alone.

"There is no problem for the livestock and seeds," Otoro said as he went into full business mode. "But the trade route through the Uncharted Forest..."

"Well, if you can deliver the goods, you don't have to worry on my client's end," Tyrier gave his assurance. "They can take care of transporting the goods once it is delivered to the agreed location."

"But the Empire might take note of the shipment..." Otoro pressed on. "It is risky..."

"Come on, old friend," Tyrier shook his head, "I am sure you know how to move goods in and out unnoticed by the Empire."

"Hmmm," Otoro finally nodded, "Its a deal, and the payment?"

"Payment will be on delivery," Tyrier smiled, "Don't worry, if this deal goes well, there will be more contracts in the future."

Otoro nodded again, stuffing a napkin onto his collar, and kept quiet as the waiter returned with a plate of dark red meat and a bottle of amber red colored wine. Tyrier waited till Otoro finished a mouthful of the rich looking meat before asking, "Regarding the other contract, what is you and your client's answer to my client's proposal?"

Otoro cut another piece of meat and chewed thoughtfully before swallowing it. "If your side can provide the protection for the shipment, they are willing to do things your way. But... they can't trust you fully."

Tyrier took a deep pull with his cigar and puffed out, "The problem is more on your client's side. How do we know if they are not really reselling on the other side?"

Otoro put down his knife and fork, and dabbed away the juice and oil from his mouth before saying, "I can vouch for them."

"Then you can rest assured that my client will do all in their power to ensure the safety of the cargo," Tyrier replied with a smile, "But if they wish to stay, you and your clients can't force them to leave."

"I... I can't make that decision," Otoro picked up his knife and fork and started eating again. "I need to discuss with them."

"Well, if you go by my client's route, it will be a lot safer than cutting through the Uncharted Forest," Tyrier said.

"But," Otoro pointed with his fork at Tyrier, "The traveling time by sea will be increased by at least a week!"

"Think about it," Tyrier unceremoniously poured himself a glass of red fire wine. "If my client can secure a safe route, won't you merchants benefit in the end?"

"Your current route is to cut through the Uncharted Forest, then the Sea Plains followed by climbing over the Mountains before going cut through the unknown territory towards the sea." Tyrier pointed out. "My client can ensure safety from half of the Uncharted Forest and to the sea directly. In fact, other then the extended sea passage, I expect the traveling time on land will be faster by at least one week or more!"

Otoro paused in his eating and gave a serious expression, "Are you serious?"

"Do I look like I am joking with you?" Tyrier looked squarely at Otoro and sipped the wine.

"This deal is too good to be true..." Otoro replied, "I never trust a deal like that."

Tyrier sighed, feeling exhausted trying to convince his friend. "Alright, the truth is my client wants to recruit people and also trade for basic resources like food, metals, and crystals."

"If you work with my client, my client can also gain a friendly contact with your client and could also form some trade contracts both ways," Tyrier made up some story on the spot.

"Hmmm, that makes sense," Otoro finished his steak and gave a small burp. "But if the Empire finds out?"

Tyrier leaned forward and whispered, "Why do you think the former Duke is on the run now?"

Otoro's gleamed brightly when he heard that. "Interesting! Very interesting!" He wiped his oily mouth and grinned. "I will contact my client and once they replied, I will give you an answer."

Tyrier nodded and leaned back to enjoy his cigar, hoping that what he talked with Otoro tonight is enough to convince the people behind him.

-----

Seacliff Mining Facility, Field Hospital

A massive silver dragon loomed over James who fired his M2 uselessly at the behemoth. The mouth yawned open and a glow lit up the insides of the mouth before a dazzling bright light lit up James's world.

He jolted awake, sweat drenching his hospital scrubs and winced in pain as his sudden moment pulled his internal injuries. James rolled to his side coughing in pain and realized that a blue light was flashing in the room.

He took a few deep breaths and realized the facility silent warning siren has gone off. A harried-looking nurse hurried past his row and he called out to the nurse. "What's go-going on?"

"It's a goblin raid," The pretty nurse looked deadly pale in the flashing blue lights and white LED lights of the field hospital. "Don't worry, we should be alright, we will be moving everyone into the mines." after saying that, she headed off to somewhere urgently.

"Damn, I was having this sweet dream with this girl..." Someone down the row of beds joked, and those awake laughed before lapsing into painful coughs.

"Sarge," Someone laying next to him asked James, "What do we do now?"

"We can't do shit in our condition," James panted as he laid back on his back. "Just trust your brothers out there."

"Hooraaah..."

-----

Sergeant Collins peered into the darkness with his night vision sensors and cursed. Just a few minutes ago, the outer perimeter sensors were tripped and movement detectors picked up dozens and dozens of sensor returns.

"Turn out the men, and sound the silent alarm, have all non-combat personnel help evacuate the wounded into the mines as we had drilled," Collins instructed the crew manning the Security Control Center. "We got a shitload of goblins coming for us!"

He left the SCC carrying his weapon and headed up the perimeter walls, where he saw several Marines were already on the alert and watching their firing zones in the wall bunkers. He quickly left the walls and head towards the parade square.

Two and a half platoons to cover the entire complex walls of over 4 kilometers. With the basic complement of security guards of 50 and his 69 combat effective Marines, each man has to cover roughly 35 meters of the wall by themselves.

By this time, all the combat capable Marines and Security had assembled at the parade square. Collins quickly assigned the troops to their defensive sectors. There were three walls, NW, SE and SW with the main gate, covering the complex that converged to the natural cliffs.

-----

The grass parted as a goblin carrying a crude spear crawled flat on its belly towards the lights of the strange yummy soft skin castle. Hundreds more shadowy shapes crept or crawled behind, all with one goal in their mind and bellies.

-----

"Damn it, how I wish I had a battery of mortars," Collins cursed again as he watched the goblins crawled their way past the 500 meters mark. "A couple of airbursts would seriously ruin their day."
He keyed the section leaders comms and ordered, "All units are weapons free at 200 meters, the facility floodlights will be turned on to signal the attack!"

Acknowledgments replied him and he returned to watching the sneaky goblins. "They are not from the goblin fleet Delta company defeated, so these must be the local goblins, which means there is a nest somewhere close."

"Sarge," One of the techs in the SCC called him, "HQ says reinforcements are on their way, and aerial support is 20 mikes out."

Collins nodded, and saw on the screens the miners and their dependants moving into the mines, while others helped the medical staff push the beds with the critically wounded or support those still capable of moving on their own into the mines.

"Alright, once all non-essential personnel has evacuated into the mines, lock it down," Collins ordered.

"Sarge! The green skins had crossed the 200 meters mark!" A support tech yelled from his station.

"Turn on the lights!" Collins commanded, "Blind them!"

-----

Stationed all along the perimeter walls were several powerful floodlights taken from the spare supply stores of the ship, UNS Singapore. The 225,000 lumens LED lights capable of lighting up stadiums blazed on, instantly illuminating the cleared land surrounding the walls and turning the night into day.

The goblins creeping up to the walls were suddenly blinded as the floodlights came on, most stood up and cried tears of pain at the bright lights in their face and the Marine section leaders seeing the goblins exposed themselves, yelled, "FIRE AT WILL!"

At roughly 200 meters away, most Marines were capable of hitting a man sized target. The smaller sized goblins were harder to hit as they were small and wiggling about in panic, but still many shots torn into the goblins, blowing away heads and limbs.

Knowing that their element of surprise was gone, the goblin chief ordered an all out charge to the walls, most followed his order, while others stumbled half blind in panic. Goblin archers with crudely built short bows fitted arrows and released them blindly towards the walls, hoping by luck to hit something. The gathered reserve of goblins was also pushed up, no longer worried about being stealthy and they charged forward, screaming in high pitch voices for blood.

"Aim for the archers!" The command was passed on, and the men echoed it along the walls.

The attack was coming from the South Western Gate and the South Eastern walls, leaving the North West facing wall quiet of any activity. Collins was tempted to pull some men off the NW walls to support the defenses at the Gate but decided not to commit yet. So far, the goblins had only managed to cross the 100 meters mark, their short legs giving them a disadvantage in closing the distance to the walls.

Cracks of fire and thunder rippled out from the wall bunkers, the heavy lead rounds punching through two or more goblins if they were stacked up closely. Even the lead bullets ricocheted off the ground would seriously injure a goblin if it was in the path of the spent bullet.

"How many are there!" Collins looked in disbelief as the outer perimeter motion sensors beeped madly, and the display screen showed a dark green horde pouring out from the forest edge towards the walls. The computer estimated roughly seven thousand and climbing sensor contacts moving in the forest towards the complex.

"Contact HQ, tell them we got a horde of goblins heading our way, if they don't hurry and give us some support, we might get overrun anytime!"

130 - It Ain't Easy Being Green

The howl of the Valkyrie's engine screamed as it came to a hovering stop over the concrete landing pad at the mining complex. The rear ramps dropped open and the troops housed inside rushed out, heading towards the walls and before the rear ramp was closed the Valkyrie had powered up the engines and lifted off, clearing the airspace and landing pad for the second Valkyrie coming in for a dust off.

Sergeant Collins blinked his eyes rapidly and shook his head to clear a ringing headache he had after a blow from a cudgel hammered his helmet as he fought off the goblins storming up the siege ladders at the walls. His Marines formed up beside him as they fired into the shrieking creatures as they climbed up in a swarm, crackling and giggling like mad constantly.

"Get them off my fucking walls!" Collins roared as he got up, racking his M2's bolt and getting back into action. "Use your grenades and blow those ladders!"

The elves around Collins obeyed and pulled out grenades from their pouches and primed them before lobbing over the walls at where the ladders were stacked up.

Loud cracks followed by high pitched screams showed the efficiency of the grenades. "Attach bayonets!" Collins roared and drew his sword bayonet and inserted it under his rifle barrel. "Chargeeeee!"

The goblin presence on the top of the walls ceased as the grenades did their work and the charge shattered the remaining goblin foothold on the walls. The Marine elves including Collins stood over the parapet and fired downwards at the clustered goblins, while others used their rifles to topple the ladders to the side ignoring the arrows and streaks of sparkling spells flying everywhere.

"Trolls!" Some one yelled at the side. Collins looked up and under the glare of the floodlights, several large humanoids carrying siege ladders under their ham sized arms were charging forward on the right.

"You five follow me!" Collins pointed to the nearest Marines armed with a bazooka, "The rest hold here." and he led the group towards the direction of the walls the trolls were aiming for.

The walls towered over 12 meters, and a troll was roughly three meters tall. they lugged along two long wooden ladders under its armpits easily, trampling over their own goblins that were too slow to give way or had noticed them in their paths. They wore a set of thick leather armor with a crudely made full faced helm, looking like a bucket with holes for the eyes. Bullets impacted against its body, making it grunt in pain but it continued on, its wounds leaking blood and supernaturally closing up as its innate regeneration ability kicked in.

Collins skidded to a stop before the troll, "Give it hell!" gesturing the rocket launcher team. "The rest provide covering fire!"

The team with the bazooka quickly set up the rocket launcher and leaned over the parapet, placing the wire crosshair directly at the center of the nearest troll who dumped the ladders at the base of the walls while checking their backblast.

"Clear!"

"One round away!"

A WHOOSH and a trail of sparks and flame burst out and a second later a loud thunderclap was heard. At such short distance, the rocket could hardly miss. The rocket punched through the thick leather armor like paper and detonated its shaped charge warhead. A jet of superheated liquid metal instantly melt through the tough bark like skin of the troll, cooking and charring the surrounding flesh.

The troll's chest cavity collapsed, its lungs and heart melt and burst into flames, rib bones blackening into ash, muscles, and flesh overcooking and burning, and blood boiled and turning into vapor.

It toppled backward with a mighty crash with smoke and flames flickering out from the charred hole in its armor. Even with its impressive regeneration power, it could not survive a direct hit to the chest, its healing speed unable to match with the destructive power of the rocket's warhead.

"Fuck yeah!" Collins cheered along with those that witness the kill. "Hell of a good shot!"

"Incoming!" One of the Marines yelled as a dark shower of arrows and fireworks appeared and peppered the wall. The fireworks-like spells exploded upon impact, sending sparks, heat, and smoke flying everywhere.

Screams and cries of pain followed as arrows found unarmored limbs and body parts among the exposed Marines, while some of the wildly errant spells hit some unlucky people. "Medic!"

"Get in cover and hit the rest of the Trolls!" Collins ordered and keyed his comms, "Valkyrie flight, this is Apache Three, requesting fire mission, over!"

"Valkyrie One, fire mission, over," came the reply over the comms.

"Apache Three, fire mission, grid three three fout dash seven two niner, fire for immedate effect, over!" Collins read off the map on his tablet as he leaned against the parapet, peering over the walls.

"Valkyrie One, standby," Collins's comms buzzed, "Valkyrie One to Apache Three, that almost on top of you guys, over."

Collins cursed as another volley of arrows landed around his men. The arrowheads landed with sparks and bounced off into the night. "Apache Three, that is an affirmative! Request immediate fire mission!" A magic spell whizzed by his head and banged off into the night sky.

"Valkyrie One, roger that, danger close, repeat danger close! Coming in hot!"

"Get down!" Collins yelled to his men, "Danger close! DANGER CLOSE!"

The Marines all dived down and huddled against the parapet, ignoring the Trolls who slammed the ladders against the walls where the giggling goblins rapidly crawled up. The Marines put a solid layer of reinforced concrete against the incoming bombardment and echoing, "Danger close!" down the walls. They turned away from the incoming barrage and covered their ears and opened their mouths to prevent the shockwave from damaging their insides and ears.

The high pitch scream of the Valkyrie's engines tore overhead as it lined up parallel to the South Western Gate wall and rippled fired all its rocket pods. The brightly lit no man zone was further brightened by the exploding barrage of rockets.

The mass of goblins archers vanished in rolling flames and smoke. The overpressure from the thermobaric warheads slammed into the Marines undercover, thumping their insides and causing their ears to ring and deafening others. The trolls and the goblins that were climbing up the ladders were swept away by the shockwave, most died from ruptured organs or fell to their deaths, while the trolls were cooked in the explosions, and were temporarily knocked down.

Collins forced a yawn, trying to get rid of his stuck ears. Even with the concrete parapet acting as a barrier, he still felt the shockwave and heat from the explosions. He stood up and survey the effects of the bombing run and smiled in appreciation. "I do love the smell of cooked goblins in the morning!"

"Apache Three to Valkyrie One, good run!" He comms his thanks to the Airforce bird and turned to check on his men and commanded. "Kill those trolls before they regen!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake watched the impressive rocket barrage going off via the UAV circling above the mining complex. "Damn goblins, how come there are so many?"

"From Magister Thorn's explanation, the goblins only eat, sleep and procreate all season. Only during winter, they hibernate and when spring comes they leave their dwellings in search of food." Commander Ford replied. "Apparently, goblins can interbreed with many other races, and can have as many as 40 babies per year."

"And what is the conclusion from Dr. Sharon?" Blake asked.

"She said that their sperm is kinda like some DNA parasite," Ford gave a shrug, "They enter the fertile host's embryos and recodes the female host's DNA string, and injecting its own DNA code over and a goblin baby is made."

"That is some sick screwed up shit," Blake replied, disgust showing on his face. "These goblins are like tougher than those from the landing fleet."

"Due to that invasive DNA re coding, most goblins take over some of its parental host traits but it might also fail," Ford continued. "That's why the good doctor thinks why some of the goblins show high levels of IQ, and others barely a child's IQ," Ford said. "It is also a reason why the goblins' growth are stunt due to DNA mismatch. In this case, these attacking goblins probably inherited some trails from something here, not to mention they are most likely doped up with some kind of drugs or herbs."

"They are like cockroaches," Blake said, "If we don't stamp them out, they will be a blight to us all."

"We guess is that the goblins from Goblin City mostly interbred among themselves, that is why their genes might have regressed. And one of the reasons why they have an annual crossing to the mainland is to collect genetic material for breeding," Ford nodded, "We also found some larger goblins, we believe to be an evolved version or a cousin breed."

"From the goblin landing ships?" Blake asked.

"Yes sir, actually more like pieces," Ford added. "Magister Thorn believes it to belong to a hobgoblin, which basically are larger, faster and smarter versions of goblins."

"So it is like a goblin that has leveled up?" Blake asked.

"Ahem," Ford gave a cough, "Yes Captain, its a leveled up goblin."

"We estimate as much as a thousand were spread across the fleet, most likely as lieutenants to control the goblin horde," Ford gave a serious expression, "Most likely the overall commander of the goblin fleet is a hobgoblin."

Blake turned back to the screen, watching the Marines fending off the remaining goblin wave which appeared to be dying down. "Damn, we have the Empire coming head-on, and goblins to our flanks and rear."

"Any reply from Claymore One on the situation with the merchant's backers?" Blake asked suddenly.

"The last report was that the merchant Etoro will be contacting his backers," Ford replied. "We are still waiting for them to reply, which will take up to a week for the reply to travel up and down. But the food supplies will be proceeding as agreed."

"Good," Blake replied, "Have Major Frank send in a couple of platoons to secure the supplies at the arranged location and escort it back, and have Commander Tommy to send one of the dragons as overwatch."

"Yes, sir," Ford noted it down in his tablet. "Then we will proceed as planned for the resupply. But we expect to find more goblins or other monsters to attack the convoy as they travel past the Uncharted Forest."

Blake gave a sigh, "Damn crazy planet. Have the Airforce standby to fire bomb the forest if needed. If this supply run is successful, I think we might need to force a road into the forest."

Ford shook his head, "That will take too many resources and manpower, which we are both lacking. And the maintenance of the roads in the forest will be hell. The basic road that Duke Sturm had built with his army to attack us, has already being reclaimed back by the Forest."

"I was thinking to cut it into the side of the mountain. It might increase the distance to Falledge but it will be safer for traveling." Blake gave his idea. "But first, as you said, we are lacking in a lot of things in every field. That road building will be a long-term project which we can't afford to invest in now."

"The Empire and goblins," Ford added in. "We need to handle these two first."

"We need a line of defense against Goblin City's fleets," Blake nodded, "Well, regardless if its a goblin or a hobgoblin, bastards are trying to eat my people and fuck them, and we can't have that can we?"

"No, Sir," Ford smiled at Blake's use of vulgarities. "You are suggesting?"

"We are going to need a good old fashion navy!"

131 - The Council of Masters

"... had brought in a new contract with the Meccan Kingdom, with an estimated annual net profit of 235,387 gold royals after deduction from taxes and expenses." A loud voice droned on in the massive open hall, where a large circular rough table stood in the middle. Approving claps could be heard from the audience in the hall. Five figures sat in high backed chairs, spaced evenly around the round table, that was stacked with scrolls and documents. "Next on the Agenda, approval of Item #13, the construction of 10 ships of the line..."

Surrounding the five figures in the hall, where a ring of tables which clerks and assistants to one official or another sat and took down notes. On a raised tier above them, was a viewing like a galley were other officials who conduct their day to day businesses. Each of the five figures wore a long coat slung over their shoulders, and they sat listening to the official presenting the Agenda.

"Finally, the last item on the Agenda, the purchase of slaves on the Mainland. Our contact has informed us of a new player in the Mainland, who is willing to provide escort services to the seaside, on the conditions provided." The richly dressed Speaker wearing a gold chain with a gold seal spoke, his voice resonating clearly in the whole council hall. "First, they have proposed a new route through the Uncharted Forest which will change the rendezvous with the ship. Second, they wish to discuss trade with us. And lastly, they requested that should the freed slaves wished to stay behind, we will not force the issue."

The first figure to react sitting on the round table had a white long jacket with gold braids and ornate gold designs on the sleeve cuffs dangled over his broad shoulders. Three gold loops hung from his right earlobes and he rubbed his shortly cropped straw-colored hair as he threw his head back and laughed out loud. His good-looking weathered face split into a large smile as he spoke. "Damn, those Goldrose survivors are good!"

"Tsk, how crude as usual, Fleet Master Dijon," The other member, the only female on sitting at the round table with long raven black hair frowned at the laughing Fleet Master. She looked strictly at the Dijon who just grinned back at her.

"Ahh, relax, Megan," Third Fleet Master Dijon replied, "You just get more wrinkles!"

"Alright enough banter there," A large presence loomed over the table and the one who spoke leaned forward. His ornate jacket draped over his muscular right shoulder and his white spider silk shirt stretched taut against his barrel-like chest. With a mop of greying hair and beard, the speaker continued, "What are the advantages and disadvantages of this deal? Akron? Marshal?"

The remaining two Fleet Masters on the table looked at each other and Akron spoke first. He was a frail-looking elf with silver-blue hair with a crystal monocle over his blue eyes. Despite looking weak, his eyes were sharp and alert. "First Fleet Master, the information we have on the so-called 'Rebels' was that they had defeated the Duke Sturm of Fallowfall in at least two engagements."

First Fleet Master Kose Torke gestured the Fourth Fleet Master Akron to continue while he pulled a small pile of document scrolls relating to the Rebels and opened them and started to skim through the scrolls.

"We estimated less than 10,000 Goldrose survivors had held up at this Pass here," Akron used a long wooden pointer and tapped on a mountainous spot on the table where a map of the New World was drawn on. "They have defeated a force of at least 40,000 Imperial troops led by Duke Sturm."

Dijon gave an impressed whistle as he heard the report. "Damn, they must have a pretty good commander leading them to defeat Sturm."

"That, we do not have much information, but all reports led to the remnants are led by Lord General Joesph Baker and the last surviving royalty, Princess Sherene Goldrose," Akron replied, "Also, there were unconfirmed reports of the rebels had managed to acquire some magical artifacts from some ruins or had contracted a demon, which made them powerful enough to fight against an enemy three to four times their size."

"Marshal?" Kose turned his attention to the silver-haired old man, wrapped in his long jacket like a robe. "Your thoughts?"

Fifth Fleet Master Marshal, also known as the Old Man, cleared his throat and spoke with a rasping voice, "If the Fourth's information is correct, then, working with Rebels will greatly help in our plans in the long run. But..."

"But?" Megan asked, her willowy eyebrows rising up in question.

"It is best not to turn them into an enemy for now," The Old Man coughed, "if the rumors of artifacts are true, it will be wise to trade with them in the hopes for getting our hands on some of the artifacts. But if they are found to be demon worshippers, we have to distance ourselves from them and instead work with the other nations to destroy them."

"How about the terms they give?" Kose asked.

"There is not much difference except in sailing time, we do expect to lose a certain amount of slaves to the Forest. If they can deliver the slaves by their route perfectly and we deduct half of the slaves wishing to remain behind, it is still within our expected outcome," Marshal replied. "We also can gain a better understanding with the capabilities of the Rebels if we work with them. I give my agreement."

"Information is key," Akron sounded his approval.

"The rebels want to make use of us to provide more warm bodies for their army I say," Megan voiced her objection.'

"We can bring along a large fleet to the Goblin Sea, on the pretense of fighting goblin pirates and as a show of force," Dijon grinned, "I approve!"

First Fleet Master nodded, "Then it is one against and three yes," He looked at the Speaker and nodded, "We agree."

The Speaker bowed and hammered against the podium and declared, "The Isles will accept the new terms of conditions of the Slave Trade with the Rebels."

------

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

"What's the toll this time?" Captain Blake asked Major Frank as they sat in Blake's office.

"We managed to repulse the attack on the mining facilities," Frank reported, "3 deaths and 28 wounded. And also 9 others got hexed."

"Hacked?" Blake gave a confused look.

"No Sir, its hexed, not hacked," Frank replied, "Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn are looking into this matter seriously." Frank handed over his tablet to Blake who started to scroll through the contents on it.

"What the hell is this?" Blake asked in surprise, as he passed the tablet to Commander Ford at his side.

Ford looked at the content and blinked his eyes rapidly in surprise, "Molecular disassembly and reassembly?" The content on the tablet showed several images of bird wyverns, frog-like creatures and Puffball-like creatures with the names and image identity of elves in the Marines.

Frank nodded, "Yes, apparently it is some kind of curse from a goblin spell. It turns living matter into something else, in this case, it turned the Marines into critters of some kind."

"So this hex thing, is it permanent?" Blake rubbed his face tiredly, "What's the diagnostics?"

"Well, according to Magister Thorn, depending on the level of the hex, it could be temporary or permanently," Frank explained, "But in this case, it should be temporary, the affected Marines will return to being huma-, eh, elvish again after a day or two."

"How do we know if they are our men?" Ford asked.

"Well, most of them still had their dog tags hanging over their necks," Frank said, "They were found mostly next or on top of their uniforms and gear, while others had eyewitnesses of something bright green hitting them before they turned."

Blake sighed, he was tired, barely having much sleep and rest, since the attacks from the goblins. "How is their health?"

"Dr. Sharon is looking after them," Frank gave a grin, "It's kinda funny actually, the hexed Marines retain their consciences and intelligence but could only communicate with quacking, chirping and sign language."

"God, this is becoming a zoo," Blake shook his head but he grinned, "Bet you that Sharon is having a great time."

The officers laughed while imagining the short doctor trying to communicate with the animals, just as the door to the Captain's Quarters slid open, and Dr. Sharon herself appeared, "Captain!"

The men quickly stifled their laughter and straighten their faces. Blake gave a cough to hide his amusement and invited Dr. Sharon to have a seat. "What's up? Everything alright?"

"Yes, No," Dr. Sharon waved off Blake's questions and sat down heavily on the chair offered by Frank. "It's like a zoo in my med bay."

"Yes, I heard," Blake gave a small smile at that statement. "How are you coping?"

"Actually it is amazing," Dr. Sharon replied, "Magic that is able to restructure living matter! But that's not really the thing I'm here for." She dug into her oversized doctor coat's pockets and pulled out a large shard of clear crystal.

"Isn't this from the T-Rex boss?" Ford asked as he observed the crystal Dr. Sharon placed on the table.

She nodded and said, "Yup and the test results are out." She pulled out her tablet and transferred the data over to the display screen in the room. "You will be amazed!"

The display screen booted up and showed a schematic of the crystal with colorful graphs and charts. "This has enough power as a micro-fusion core!" Dr. Sharon said excitedly.

"Wait," Frank injected, "Isn't it some kind of mana stone?"

"No, it's not even close to a mana stone or even a Dragonite stone!" Dr. Sharon explained, "It is pure energy, and unlike mana stones which comes in different flavors, this is neutral."

"Neutral?" Blake raised his eyebrows in confusion, "So what are the difference with it and a mana stone?"

"A mana stone comes with different elemental properties which power that particular magic element," Dr. Sharon replied, "While Dragonite stones are like fossil fuels. This here has no affinity to any elements nor is it a fossil fuel."

"It's pure energy condensed into a crystal form," Dr. Sharon said, "It has enough power to say, fire the ship's main guns or the whole Colony for a week."

Blake sat up straight as he heard that, "Are you sure?" The ship's main guns had been dug out but due to power constraints, it was just sitting there doing nothing.

Dr. Sharon nodded, "I passed the data and a sample over to Chief Matt and his engineers to take a look and do tests, they should come out with a detailed report within a week or so."

"Great!" Blake exclaimed, "At least some good news."

"Well, you haven't heard what they found in the Mutated Silver Dragon's lair?" Dr. Sharon grinned.

Blake looked at Ford who shook his head, "No, I did not have the time to review that report yet," Ford said sheepishly. "Too many happenings going on in this 32 hours."

"Well, they found a bag inside," Dr. Sharon and Major Frank grinned.

"A bag of?" Blake and Ford asked together. "Gold? Silver?"

"Hehehe," Dr. Sharon lowered her voice and said mysteriously, "It's a bag of holding!"

"A what?" Blake and Ford looked confused, "I think I heard or read of it somewhere before..."

"Oh come on, you guys are not fun," Dr. Sharon pouted. "A bag of holding has a dimensional space inside, allowing it carry more than what you could think of." She searched her folders in her tablet and brought the dungeon report up onto the main display.

"Huh?" Blake rubbed his forehead, he felt a throttling headache coming along. "So you are saying this bag can hold more than what it appears to be able to?" He pointed at the screen where a picture of a simple looking light brown colored, cloth sling bag was shown.

"Yes, well, we did find a horde of gold, silver, potions, magical scrolls and even some weapons and equipment inside," Dr. Sharon grinned. "Our own tests showed that it could carry roughly 226 kg of items, not exceeding a volume of 1.2 cubic meters and the bag only weighs half a kg. You can't stuff items later than 32 m by 12 cm into the mouth of the bag and to retrieve an item out, you just have to place your hand into the bag and mentally you can 'sense' what is inside."

"Sense what is inside?" Ford raised his eyebrows, "That's quite unscientific for you Doc."

Dr. Sharon rolled her eyes, "You need to try it to understand, anyway, coming here, science gets thrown out of the window."

"So you are saying this bag allows us to carry," Blake did a quick mental calculation, "over 450 times its weight in small items?"

"Yup, it is a bag of holding after all!"

132 - Magic Appraisal

The Academy

Magister Thorn hummed a tune from one of the hooman songs he heard over the 'rad-eo' as he drew out a magic circle on the glossy black obsidian table top. He carefully consulted the flayed yellowed tome as he etched arcane runes carefully on the edges of the magic circle. Once he was satisfied, he carefully wrapped the tome up with a piece of soft leather and kept it back into the bookshelf.

"Now, I have completed the magical formation for appraisal of magical items," He declared to the group of students and observers. "Appraisal of magical items usually involves using magic greater than the item its self, but most of us do not have that much magic power in the first place."

"So what we can do is to 'borrow' the power of our surroundings," Thorn gestured towards the magic formation he drew out earlier, "By using the natural energy that is everywhere, we draw three Magic Gathering Formations linking together to power the Magical Appraisal Formation that on the center."

"It is not advisable to use four or more Magic Gathering Formation to link to the Magical Appraisal Formation," Thorn explained, "It becomes redundant as there is only so much magic in our surroundings for the Formations to draw on."

"Sir?" A 13 year old girl raised her hand up in question.

"Yes, child?" Thorn paused with his lecture as he pointed to the student.

"If the magic item level is higher than the power gathered, how will we be able to appraisal it then?" the female student asked.

Thorn smiled, "Well, that's what I will be touching on now. Just by using Magic Gathering Formations is sometimes not enough, so we have to inject our own magic powers into the array to boost the spell. Another method is to use Mana stones to power the magic arrays or even use a Great Magic Gathering Formation."

"There are also areas where the natural concentration of magic is very high, these areas are of course highly coveted by anyone, and kingdoms and nations have designated them as strategic resources," Thorn explained, "That is why most Appraisal Mages charge an arm and a leg for appraisals of high leveled items and also why most of them are high leveled Mages."

The class broke out in Oooos and Ahhhs as they heard it and the students started to excitedly chattered among themselves, talking about becoming rich by being an outstanding Appraisal Mage.

Thorn smiled at the students and clapped his handed together loudly, "Alright, now we should test this Appraisal Array of mine and let's see if it works!" He rubbed his hands together and retrieved a matte black case from behind his desk.

The students quieten down as they saw the matte black case. The smooth sleek lines and mystical materials of the case were clearly made by the hoomans. The students craned their heads as they watched Magister Thorn slowly and carefully pressed several glowing hooman runes on the side of the case before the case popped out.

What appeared in the foam lined case was an ancient looking sword to the elves in a rough scabbard. Thorn carefully drew the sword out and an old fashioned leaf-shaped blade was drawn. The blade of the sword was wide and fat for most of its length but the final third narrowed into a thin tip intended for thrusting. Spiral patterns were etched onto the surface of the blade while the grip was molded together with the blade from a single piece of iron. Spiral patterns and swirls designs could be seen along the grip.

"This was found in the second floor of the Dungeon by the Marines," Thorn explained as he showed off the sword to the class. "I have done a simple Detect Curse spell on the sword and have found nothing, but anyone with a sliver of magic ability will be able to feel the magic power in this sword."

He then re-scabbard the sword into the rough hide leather scabbard and passed the sword to the students for them to feel the presence of magic power in it. The students excitedly observe and examined the sword, passing it to the next person once they have felt the magic inside.

"To roughly gauge the power needed to appraisal a magic item, you first examine the item, and feel its magic," Thorn continued his lecture as the students look at the sword. "Most of you should feel an overwhelming source of shock from the sword as you magical powers are weaker than the weapon."

The students who had examined the sword earlier nodded and massaged their tingling hands and arms, while the student who was pouring his magical sense into the weapon gasped in surprise and nearly dropped the sword. "As of your magical strength now is not strong enough to handle a magical item of its level, that is why you will feel something like lightning traveling through your bodies. This is a way your body is telling you that your powers are not strong enough to handle the sword's magic."

Dr. Sharon sitting at the rear, pursed her lips as she thought of what Thorn had just said. Does this mean that the elves nervous system has a natural defense against magic their body couldn't handle like the pain is telling the body of injuries? She quickly noted down her theory in her tablet.

"Now who can tell me how magic is classed?" Thorn asked the class and pointed to a boy who raised his hand.

"Magic is classed from Level Zero to Ten," The boy responded.

"Good," Thorn nodded, "How about Mages?"

"Eh, from the number of Magic Circles they can form?" The boy replied.

Thorn nodded, "Yes, how we class magic and the level of Mages is similar. From the number of magic circles. A Mage is classed by the number of Magic Circles, he or she is able to manifest. As each magic circle increases the power of the spell by one fold, but overuse of magic will lead to mana exhaustion, which can be fatal in the battlefield or even have long-term health effects! So remember do not overexert your magic power!"

"So for you all to graduate at the end of three years, you have to be capable to cast at least a Level 2 spell, which you will be needed to be able to manifest two magic circles," Thorn demonstrated by having woven a magic circle in form of him. The blue-white circle glows brightly in the classroom, followed by a second circle and ending at a flickering seven magic circles.

"I am barely at the strength of a 7th Circle Mage," Thorn grinned sheepishly. "Maybe someday one of you will overtake me and go beyond the 7th Circle.

The sword had made its way to Dr. Sharon who drew the blade out halfway and she looked at the dull spiral covered surface of the sword. She frowned and remembered the lecture from Thorn's classes, and closed her eyes. She slowed her breath and calmed her heartbeat, trying to visualize and feel the natural flow of the world, but try as she might, she couldn't feel anything.

She opened her eyes and sighed, maybe it is something to do with the biology of the elves and humans, that's is why humans couldn't sense the mana of this world. She had racked her brains many times in the past, following the scrolls and techniques taught by Thorn but there was still no results.

As she was able to return the sword, she thought of something, maybe she should try yoga or tai chi since both of them do have breathing mantras and techniques. No harm trying, she thought as she does some simple yoga exercises and she slowly took a breath and it moved the diaphragm down and up as she inhaled and exhaled, pushing the abdominal organs forward, and then back inward. But after a while, there was still no response and just as she exhaled out in frustration, a tingle of electricity coursed up her fingertips, making her drop the sword in surprise.

The loud clanking of the weapon made the whole class turned their attention on to her, and she half stood in her seat looking at the sword with wide eyes. "Dr. Sharon, are you well?" Thorn asked in concern, looking at the petrified Sharon.

"I.. I.." Dr. Sharon looked down at the sword and up at Thorn and back at the sword, "I-I think I am alright," She suddenly gave a huge grin, "Oh yes, I am alright," Her eyes shone as she bent down to pick up the fallen sword, "Please continue with the class, sorry for disrupting it."

Thorn looked at Sharon for a while, before nodding and taking the sword back and returning to the front of the classroom. "Now we will test if my Appraisal Array works!" He placed the sword onto the center of the magical formation on the obsidian table and placed both his palms on the top of the Magic Gathering Formations.

"Heed my call, the power of this world, and gather upon me," He chanted and injected his magic into the array, "Magic of the world, lend me your strength!"

The magic formations glowed as multi-colored light motes appeared in the class, the colorful light motes float gently towards the magic formations and as they landed the glow of the formation grew brighter. The light started to travel on the lines drawn on the table and traveled all the way to the center of the array and connected with the Appraisal Formation and lighting it up.

The whole class's attention was all focused on the glowing formation on the table and just as suddenly as the formation glowed, the light faded away and Thorn exhaled out a puff of smoke from his mouth and grinned, "It's done!"

He reached out and touched the sword, injecting a wisp of mental energy into the sword and information flowed into his mind. He smiled and said, "Alright, I have appraised this weapon. It is a Wind Elemental Sword, imbued with arcane energies of the air element. This essentially allows its wielder to engage in ranged combat by casting Air-based magic from a distance."

Dr. Sharon's eyes gleamed as she heard that, what did I felt just now? Was it just an illusion? Did I just successfully touch magic? I need to quickly do more experiments!

The school bell rang and Thorn started to keep his things, "Now, the class is over, for homework, read up Chapter 4 on Effects of Magic on Items. Tomorrow we will be talk about it."

The class rose and thanked Thorn before leaving gathering their belongings and leaving the room, leaving behind Dr. Sharon and Thorn. "Did something happened just now?" Thorn asked as he cleared away the marks on the obsidian table.

"I think I felt magic!" Dr. Sharon grinned widely. "But just a tiny weeny bit!"

Thorn stopped his work and looked up in surprise, "That is amazing!" He started pacing as he thought of all possibilities. "I did not expect you hoomans to able to interact with magic since your race is not from this world."

"Yes, I did too," Dr. Sharon picked up the sword on the table. "We humans should not be able to cast magic in this world. But I managed it somehow." She sat down on the front desk and went through her yoga breathing exercises, putting all her focus on the sword. Several minutes later, she opened her eyes and smiled happily, "I felt it again! Just a slight tingle, but its there!"

Thorn smiled excitedly, "Could it be limited to certain persons? Like not every people have the magic aptitude."

"I need to experiment more on this first," Dr. Sharon said. "In the meantime," She waved the sword, "I am gonna borrow this for a while!"

"Sure sure," Thorn nodded, "You will inform me of your research?"

"Of course," as Dr. Sharon left the classroom, "You will be the first to know!"

133 - The Appearance of a Hero!?

First Fleet Master Kose stood on the wooden balcony as he looked out to the mass of tiny islands and sails spread out before him. He rapped his fingers against the wooden railings as he waited for the messenger wyvern's handler to finish securing the message tube on to the small wing blue-green reptile which looked like a tiny version of a fighting dragon. The Blue Spotted Wyrven patiently withstood the minstrels of its handler, who hand fed it with strips of raw fish. The handler whispered into the ears of the Blue Spotted Wyrven who cocked its ears as it listened to the instructions.

Bobbing its head in acknowledgment, the messenger wyvern with an intelligence of a 10 year old child gave out a squawk before spreading its two meter long wings out and catching the warm sea breeze. Its forearms hugged the message tube secured in a harness over its half meter long serpentine body and with its wing filled with wind, it kicked off from the wyvern roost and allowed the warm air currents to boost it into the air like a kite, and it slowly disappeared into the redding sky.

"Fleet Master, it is done," The wyvern handler gave a salute, left hand with open palms against the chest, touching the right shoulder. "It should arrive within six days."

Kose nodded and continued watching the scenery in the roostery. Tiny islands cleared of all vegetation were used to grow a sugar crop called Cococane. The thick segmented stalks ended in palm like leaves with large hard shell meaty and juice filled nuts. The stalks were crushed to produce a sweet greenish nectar which could be drank directly or processed into sugar.

The sweet nectar was fermented into a strong alcohol which was in great demand in as a trade good, making it the Isles primary cash cow, earning the island nation millions in gold royals annually.

Kose took a deep breath of the salty air, enjoying a moment of peace, watching youngsters playing and running along floating bridges that linked the tiny islands together. The Isles buildings were built out on the seas on tall stilts and wooden floats to compensate for the ocean tides.

Land was at a premium, as it was to be used to grow both cash crops and food crops for the nation. Terraces were dug out by hand and magic on the mountainous slopes, where the rich fertile volcanic soil provided nutrients for the grown crops.

Several large floating harbors housed the mighty naval fleet of the Isles. If the Isles' Navy claimed to be second best, no nation in the New World will dare to claim first place.

Kose gave out a deep breath and waved his hand. His attendant waiting on him approached from behind and waited for his command. "Instruct the Third Master to prep his fleet for sail. Inform him to be ready to sail with the tide in three-five days."

The attendant saluted and retreated out, leaving the First Fleet Master alone in his thoughts as he viewed the scenery in the tower.

-----

Somewhere near the town of Falledge

"Come on, Dante, are we seriously going to fight the rebels?" A slim, roguishly looking elf stepped out of the foliage while grumbling, "Damn insects and trees, nothing but trees, bushes, trees, oh look! More trees!" He brushed off a fallen leaf from his shoulder and stood with his hands on his hips, a rapier dangling on his belt while a knapsack was carried on his back.

A young looking male wearing full plated ornate armor stepped out behind the rogue, sweeping his golden hair off to the side, his youthful good looks and bright blue eyes took in their surroundings in one glance and he smiled radiantly at his companion, "Come on, Stab, look around you, can't you feel the surrounding beauty of nature?"

"Hell no!" Stab slapped an insect away and wiped his sweaty brow and paused halfway, his eyes narrowed in suspicion, "Wait a minute, why are you not even sweating in that armor of yours?"

"That is because, unlike you, my hero can't sweat!" A female voice came from behind Stab, "Move out of the way, you sleaze bag!" A staff rammed against the Stab's bag, pushing him out of the path of a dark purple robed mage.

"Wait- what?" Stab hopped nimbly out of the way, "That's cheating! You waste your magic on making Dante not to sweat?"

"Of course, unlike you," The female mage turned and smiled sweetly at the sheepishly looking Dante who gave a helpless shrug, "My hero must always present the best of himself!"

"Hahaha, for who to see in this endless parade of trees?" Stab rolled his eyes, "Ohh, maybe that wyvern there? Or those little ants at your feet?"

"Come on guys, stop fighting," Another female elf dressed in a hunter attire with a longbow and quiver hang over her hip appeared before them, "Liz and Stab, please?"

"Hmph," Liz turned her head away from Stab and marched over to fawn over Dante who was helpless in his efforts to fend her off.

"I found a game trail leading towards Falledge," The Huntress reported, "It should take us a day the most if we follow it, instead of going by the main road."

"Good work, Evelyn," Dante gave a charming smile, which dazed Liz, and making Evelyn blush.

"Tsk," Stab shook his head, "Come on, let's hurry, I can't stand trees and more trees, I wanna have a drink and a proper bed!"

Dante nodded and gestured for Evelyn to lead the party while Liz waved her staff and their luggage floated along with them as they followed Evelyn.

After walking for a distance, Dante suddenly stopped the party, "Wait!" His handsome features narrowed in concentration, "We got company! Make ready!" He pointed towards the left of their party towards the thick trees surrounding them.

"Oh, I was getting bored," Stab jerked his neck sideways, making popping sounds and he loosens up his muscles. "What do we have?"

Evelyn leaped up effortlessly onto a tree branch and readied her bow, deftly stringing the bow and drew a couple of arrows pinched between her knuckles of her index, middle, and ring finger. "Smells like goblins?"

"I hate goblins," Liz dropped her magic over their luggage and stood with her back against the tree where Evelyn was in. She raised the head of her staff up and a four greenish magic circle formed, "Nature Protection All!"

Dante and the rest of the party bodies glowed green and a warm, fuzzy sensation covered their bodies before fading away. "Thanks, Liz!" He unhitched the massive kite shield from his back before drawing his great sword out from his back. "I sense over a hundred of those evil beings... They have not sense us yet!"

"Attack or ambush?" Stab asked as he held a long stilleto in his left and gave his rapier in his right hand in few quick flicks.

"Wait, I see them, about 150- 200 feet away," Evelyn peered through the forest in her vantage point, seeing dozens of shadowy figures moving between the trees. "It looks like a raiding force."

"There must be a village or farm nearby if they are moving in such numbers," Dante guessed, "We will attack."

"I thought you say that," Stab gave a sigh, "Usual formation?"

Dante nodded, "I will be the vanguard, Liz, and Evelyn on the rear while Stab, do what you need to do."

"Got it."

"Yes, my hero!"

"Uh-huh..."

Dante went down on a knee and closed his eyes, his greatsword, normally a two-handed weapon for others, but used single-handedly by him rested against the dry forest soil. "Sun God, hear my prayers," He heaved his kite shield on his left arm, "Grant me the strength to wipe evil off the land."

Standing up, "For I am the Hero of the Sun!" and a radiant glow burst out from him, gaining him a great increase in strength, agility, and resistance. "AND I SHALL KNOW NO FEAR!"

He took over in a sprint, faster than a horned rabbit, leaping over massive tree roots like a walk in the park before his glowing figure slammed into the flanks of the goblin raiding party.

"Damn, it must be that damn Sun God's blessing that makes him so ... bright and popular with the ladies," Stab rolled his eyes and sprint after Dante, his body was feeling lighter as Dante's Sun Bless Aura affected him too, granting him increases in his stats.

"Ahhh, wait for me!" Liz cried as she chased after Dante's after image, her pink eyes glowing with passion. Her short stature having a problem keeping up with both Dante and Stab's speed despite the Aura effects. Her oversized wizard hat flopped madly as she navigated her way around the trees, seemingly glued to her head. "My herooooo~!!!"

Evelyn shook her head and leaped from one tree branch to another, making sure to stay within sight of Liz as they approach the one-sided slaughter happening ahead.

A wooosh of wind generated by the greatsword's after swing, sent a couple of weaker goblins tumbling down on their backs while those unfortunate enough to be in the way of the sword parted into halves. "Haaa..." Dante breathed out deeply, releasing his pent-up breath as he swung his greatsword. A trail of broken and sliced body parts followed behind him, yet despite all the blood and gore, none touched his body nor armor.

The goblins were stunned by his sudden glowing appearance and even more so by the sudden carnage wrought among them within seconds. They stood there dumbly for a while before some goblin let out a cry of fear and the rest was jolted awake.

Some ran while others charged towards the glowing figure, swinging their crude weapons wildly. Dante ignored the flimsy attacks and just focused on swinging his greatsword, cutting down dozens of goblins with each sweep.

Stab flicked his rapier and a goblin grasped its torn throat, trying to staunch the green blood. Stab sighed as he watched Dante swinging his sword around energetically, while he sidestepped and riposte a clumsy swing from another goblin and ending its life with an elegant stab into the right eye with his rapier.

A blood-curdling roar suddenly broke out and a huge figure charged out from the depths of the forest. A forest troll armed with a broken off tree branch swung it mightly at Dante who stabbed his greatsword into the ground and bracing with his shield, taking the attack head on.

"Other than his godly looks and strength, that kid is just all muscles and no brains," Stab shook his head, and stepped into the shadow of the tree next to him and disappeared from sight. He suddenly reappeared behind the troll, emerging from the shadow of the troll and stabbing deeply with his stillelo at the left thigh of the troll, effectively hamstringing it, bringing the troll down on one knee. "Now, that is a good boy."

"Thanks!" Dante yelled, flashing a perfect row of pearly white teeth, and beheading the troll half-kneeling before him. "Just the right height!"

"Fight with your brains! Not with your muscles!" Stab yelled as he neatly skewered two goblins in the heart with his rapier. "Like this!"

Suddenly several bolts of white magical energies smashed into the far ranks of the goblins. "Hmph, you dare lay your filthy stinky hands on my hero!" Liz appeared, panting angrily as she stood on top of a tree root, "DIE YOU FILTHY ANIMALS!" Her staff glowed and six massive bluish glowing magic circle appeared before her, one over each other, "MAGIC MISSILE TIMES ONE HUNDRED!!!"

Dozens and dozens of energy bolts rained out and slammed into the shattered goblin raiders, causing heavy casualties and blowing away trees and creating holes to the forest ground. "WAAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!" Liz stood there with her hands on her hips and threw her head back laughing madly in triumph.

"Are you trying to kill us too!" Stab cursed, as he stepped into the shadows to evade the magic missiles and reappearing next to the tree where Liz stood, while Dante heroically stood there unflinchingly with his sword and shield, painting a heroic scene with the background in explosions and death.

Evelyn gave a sigh at the antics of Liz and Stab and turned to look at Dante, secretly admiring Dante's pose which painted a heroic scene with the background in explosions and death.

*** Author's rumblings ***

N-NANI!!!! A hero!?

Cococane is basically sugarcane + coconut ... btw its a drink too ~ Tastes pretty good, when mixed together with some squeezed fresh lemon.

134 - Supplies

Chirps and cries of bird wyvern echoed softly down to the forest grounds. Creaks and squeaks of wooden wheels could be heard along with the stamp of steel-toed boots.

"Bronco One to Bronco Two, have you got eyes over Blue Diamond? Over."

"Two, affirmative," A low voice replied 1st Battalion, Bravo Company, Platoon 1's earpiece. "Two, two wagons spotted, a large herd of livestock and at least four zero bodies, over."

"Roger, keep eyes on them, over,"

"Copy that."

The convoy of wagons and livestock with the guards rumbled on unaware of being observed by a platoon sized recon party hidden in the forest. The convoy so stopped next to a clearing where a small spring was nearby. The wagons were drawn up into a circle and the livestock and dragons used to pull the wagons were kept coraled in the middle of the encirclement. The guards and the wagon drivers collected fresh water from the spring and set up camp within the wagons, some kept guard, while others pitched tents and prepared cook fires for dinner.

"See anyone following them?" Third Sergeant Eunos Silverstar asked his point men over the comms.

"Negative, Sarge," The replies came back from the scouts scattered along all likely approaches to the clearing. "Nothing here."

"Roger, stay alert, out," SGT Eunos ended the comms and gestured his radioman over. The backpack-sized radio equipment carried by the signaler was a new product from the mysterious factory of the Iron Castle. Due to the lack and shortage of the vastly more advanced communicators, only certain personnel will be issued with the communicators while the rest had to use bulky radio sets for long distance communications or for platoon based communications, they used a low tech short distance walkie-talkie.

"Radio back HQ, and tell them Blue Diamond has arrived, Bronco Two and Three are standing by for further instructions." He passed his instructions to the radioman, who nodded and remove his backpack radio and started to fiddle with the controls of the radio set.

"Bronco Two to Thunderchief, come in over?"

Due to the thick canopy and strange properties of the trees, radio waves, laser, and even infra were blocked or partially scrambled by the forest. The tech guys came up with an idea to plant relays at fixed intervals all around the surrounding areas. An all-weather antenna rose above the thick canopy of the forest and a signal transmitter is housed in an armored camouflaged casing at the bottom of the antenna.

The relays were installed next to the tallest trees in the area and used the trees as a natural support. Each relay uses a battery able to last a week and the Marines used the relay points as patrol routes, heading to each relay in sequence and ensuring that the expensive relay stations have power or were not damaged or tampered with.

"Sarge, HQ is telling to hold and proceed according to the plan," The signaler looked up from his radio set, wearing a pair of large ear cups.

"Got it," SGT Eunos nodded, "Inform all units that Operation Chaperone is go."

The signaler nodded and returned to his set, and started to issues out instructions to the rest of Bronco Two and Three. SGT Eunos looked up to the gaps in the canopy and looked at the matte black hooman made digital wrist watch and mentally calculated. "Still three more hours to night fall, tell the team leaders to let the men rest and rotate the watch."

Soon night came, and dozens of fire from the camp cast shadows to the surrounding forest. The men of Bronco Two and Three hunkered down in tree roots in ones or twos or slung themselves up onto the tree branches. Night creatures and monsters came out and stalked the caravan but none approached, just keeping to the edge of the clearing, watching and growling at the ring of wagons with the alert guards.

The creatures and monsters ignored the men of Bravo Company, as they had sprayed something called a Monster Repellant on themselves. Rumor among the Marines had it that it was made from the dung of the Mutated Super Silver Dragon aka Mini Godzilla and the spray does smell bad, but it worked and the low leveled monsters avoided the Marines.

The night passed peacefully for the caravan, as the pointmen of Bronco Two, stealthily lobbed a few Monster Repellant stink bombs around the caravan, protecting them from the creatures of the night. As day broke out, the camp stirred to life, groups of elves headed towards the spring to refill their water buckets and others started to make breakfast and break up the camp.

Sergeant Eunos walked out calmly with two other Marines as escort towards the camp in full view of the guards. He kept his hands off his weapon and waved at the guards who looked dumbstruck at their sudden appearance. "Hello, the camp!"

-----

Norman Stone was washing his face when a loud commotion broke out, outside his wagon. "Foreman Stone!" A guard in leather armor and wielding a windup crossbow yelled urgently, banging at his wagon. "Eh... something or someone is here! Anyway, come see!"

"What thing?" Norman gave a confused look and hurriedly wiped his face with a towel draped over his neck and followed behind the frantic guard. He noticed the whole camp in an uproar as they all stood around nervously and staring at the same direction the guard was leading him to.

"What is going on?" He pushed his way past the caravan workers and guards. He climbed up on top of the outer ring of the wagons and peered over the roof to see a trio of strangers in strange items of clothing and appeared to be covered in paint and bits of leaves and twigs on its helmet or head, he couldn't be sure.

"Greetings to the camp, is there a Foreman Norman Stone among you?" SGT Eunos ignored the looks and crossbows directed at him and his men. His escorts, however, were on high alert, their Magelocks snuggly nested against their shoulders, ready to aim and fire at the first sign of danger.

"I am Foreman Stone," A sweating, half dressed, potbellied elf, waved his hand from one of the wagons. "Are you the contact we are supposed to meet here?"

"Yes, we are. We will be your escorts and guide," SGT Eunos nodded, "We can move off at any time when you are ready."

Norman wiped his face again with his towel and frowned, wondering what kind of barbarian tribe did they came from. On close inspection, all three of the guides wore the same item of clothing, and have tree leaves to branches to pieces of shrubs struck all over their bodies. The swords on their side looked more like a long dagger, and the long wooden sticks they carried doesn't look like any weapons he had seen before in his many years working in the trade industry. And the barbaric paint that covered all visible parts of their body was just so uncivilized in his opinion, but he kept his mouth shut, and instead forced a smile out.

"Come, share our salt and bread," He gave a traditional greeting to the strangers, offering salt and food in exchange for peace in the camp. "Alright make way!" He turned and shouted at the gawking workers and guards. "Finish your breakfast and prepare to break camp! I want the caravan to be ready to move out before high noon!"

The three Marines easily climbed up the side of the wall of wagons and found Norman waiting for them, offering them a waterskin. "Here have something to drink."

"No, thank you," SGT Eunos declined politely, "My name is Eunos Silverstar, my rank is Sergeant, you can call me Sergeant Eunos or Sergeant. As you know, we are here to escort you through the forest to our camp where payment will be made on delivery of the goods."

"Eh, of course, Sergeant," Norman gave a short bow, being used to the strange customs of many tribes and nationality he had encountered over the years. "Food?"

"We have eaten," SGT Eunos declined again, "We want to see the full ledger or inventory list for this shipment."

"Eh, sure, sure," Norman gave a complicated look, wondering why won't a barbarian want to see something like that? Would they know how to read civilized words? Still, he kept his mouth shut and lead them to a cluster of wagons in the center of the camp, and climbed into one of the more sturdy looking wagons and soon reappeared with a covered slate, which he removed the cover, showing an inventory list of items in the caravan written down in white chalk.

"Good," SGT Eunos reach over and took the slate from the startled merchant, he quickly scrolled through the list and said, "I want to do a stock check."

"What?" Norman looked surprised, "I-it's all there!" He gestured to the list, "Look, you can't read, then let me explain to you."

"4 tons of grains seeds, 3 tons of buckroot seeds, and 3 tons of purple yam seeds." SGT Eunos read out from the slate, "1000 heads of Muffalo and 2000 bird wyverns." He looked up and scowled at Norman, "I know how to read, and count." He gestured to the herd of shaggy looking muffalos. "There is barely 200 of them there."

"Ah-h, they... they were killed by goblins and monster raids while we are getting here!" Norman stammered at first before firming up his voice. "We can't help it if they died along the way!"

SGT Eunos shooked his head and the two Marines at his side looked at Norman with pity in their eyes. "We followed you ever since you left Falledge, you had only suffered one attack by a small group of goblins, which only two of your guards got minor injuries. This is the same amount taken out from the town since you left it, minus whatever livestock you and your men slaughtered for meat."

"Wha-what? How?" Norman's eyes went wide in surprise and fright. "G-gu-!"

One of the escorting Marines rammed his fingers in a strike against Norman's throat, while the other moved quickly and braced Norman up, preventing him from toppling over. Norman's eyes bulged wide open and grabbed his own throat and dry heaved, his face turning red as he choked.

"Now, now, Mr Stone," SGT Eunos patted Norman's cold sweaty cheeks in a friendly way, "No more lies, what happened to the rest of the cargo?"

"I-I-I," Norman coughed and hecked as he struggled to breathe.

"Loosen him up, let him breath," SGT Eunos gestured to his men, who lowered their grip on his collar, letting him breathe. "Slowly now, take in deep breathes. Now tell me what happened?"

"I-I- so-sold th-them off," Norman coughed, "I- didn-didn't think you wou-would find out."

"Please," SGT Eunos sighed, and gestured to the livestock pen, "One look and anyone will know at least half is missing."

"But we didn't count on you following us from the start!" Norman replied meekly as he rubbed his sore throat.

"Ahh, nevermind," SGT Eunos said, "We take what is left, payment will, of course, be deducted from the missing amount."

"W-what?" Norman looked up in surprise, "Ah- no is good, all good," He quickly changed his tune when he saw the evil glare from Eunos.

"Once you delivered the goods to our camp," Eunos glared at the trembling merchant, "We will do full stock check, any missing goods will be deducted from the payment. So it will be in your best interests to keep the livestock alive and also not to lose any more grain!"

"Yes, yes, yes!" Norman bowed a few times rapidly, "I shall make sure everything is in proper other." And with that, he quickly made his escape.

"Sarge, this is farked up," Private Toton said as he looked at the escaping figure of the fat merchant. "HQ will be pissed off."

"Well, no plan survives contact with the enemy..."

135 - Stressed Out

Dr. Sharon hummed the theme song from Starwars as she shook a test tube filled with a thick red liquid. She carefully slotted the test tube in a centrifuge tube and inserted into the centrifuge lab machine before hitting the start button. The machine hummed and started spinning rapidly while she replaced the sample of the healing potion back into the lab fridge.

"Dum dum dum da da dum da da dum..." She hummed as she waited for the machine to finish separating the particles from the healing potion. A short while later, the countdown on the machine reached zero and the machine gave beep to indicate the sample is safe and ready to be removed. She took the tube out from the centrifuge machine and placed it onto a stand. The liquid had separated into what appears to be four different layers.

The topmost layer appeared to be a clear looking liquid, while the second layer had a tint of orange. The third layer was a thin layer of cloudy white substance while the final layer was a thick slurpy red in color.

She took a pipette and carefully separated the four different substances into other test tubes for testing and research. "Interesting..." The red substance was like a thick jelly. "I wonder what is this made out of."

"sercë... salquë..."

"What?" Dr. Sharon spun around in surprise as she heard someone speaking to her. "Who is there?" She looked around the empty and brightly lit lab, where she was the only one working.

She looked at the clock showing the shipboard time, "Damn, its almost 3 am. I must be exhausted and hearing things." She turned back to the table and started to pack the test tubes into different containers. Picking up the test tube with the clear fluid, she gave it a little shake and held it up against the light to observe it.

"welel... tuilë... laiquë..."

She nearly dropped the test tube as a voice spoke again. She felt goosebumps appearing all over her body and she shivered. "Whos ... there?" She craned her head, looking left and right in the lab, "Anyone? Ok, no, please don't answer back, thank you!"

She quickly packed up everything and secured the samples into the fridge and practically ran out of the lab. Her footsteps storming down the deck as she headed towards the ship's canteen. As she entered the canteen, she felt better as several late shift crew members were gathered here for either their break or for a late night meal or snack.

She collapsed on one of the benches and slumped over the table. "I must be overworked lately till I am hearing voices..." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Too much stress lately."

"Dr. Sharon?" Sherene appeared beside her with a tray and a stack of documents. "Are you alright?"

"Princess?" Dr. Sharon pushed her self up from the table. "I'm okay, just tired and overworked I guess? What about you? It's late and you are still awake?"

"Oh, I was reviewing and studying some files," Sherene replied, setting her pile of documents and tray on the table. "I am trying to understand what this 'sep-tick' tank does and also sustainable sanitation for City hall to review next." She took the plate of cookies and a mug of tea from her tray and placed it next to Sharon. "Would you like some?"

"Oh, thank you," Dr. Sharon took the mug of tea and generously pour several teaspoons of sugar into the drink and stirred it vigorously before taking a long sip and sighed contently. "That hit the spot."

Sherene stared at the amount of sugar used and smiled awkwardly. "You like sweet things a lot?"

"I needed the sugar rush, I have low blood pressure," Sharon replied as she took a cookie and dunked it in the tea. "Helps keep me awake and active."

"Ha ha... I see," Sherene was not too sure what she meant by sugar rush and blood pressure. She took a cookie and happily nibbled away at the chocolate chip cookie, savoring the taste.

"So," Dr. Sharon grinned slyly at the princess munching away at the cookie, "How's the progress with you and the Captain?"

rene paused with the cookie in her mouth, "Aaa- tain- not-in!" She coughed and choked on the cookie and Dr. Sharon hurriedly handed her the mug of tea which she drank and nearly spit out the overly sweet tea. "I mean... there's nothing going on with me and the Captain!" Her face was red.

"Fufufu, are you sure?" Dr. Sharon gave her a sly look. "Well, he's not a bad match for you, but he's too rigid. You need to take the initiative!"

"In-initiative?" Sherene blurt out, "What?"

"Oh my gods," Dr. Sharon shook her head, and giggled, "You really are clueless about dating and relationships?"

Sherene blushed and took a nibble of her cookie saying in a small voice, "There was the war and all that..."

"Excuses!" Dr. Sharon brushed off her explanations. "Now you must be active! Take the first step boldly! Attack! Attack! ATTACK!"

The whole canteen paused and stared at the two women, with Dr. Sharon bouncing up with one leg on the bench and shaking a clenched fist. Sherene blushed even deeper and lowered her head, and acted like she did not hear anything while chewing her chocolate chip cookie. "What? Never seen a pretty lady?" Dr. Sharon rebuked her surroundings and the people quickly returned to their own matters, avoiding the Doctor's evil eye

"Come let me tell you more!" Dr. Sharon hugged the shoulder of Sherene excitedly and started plotting out her plan for Sherene whose ears turned as pink as her hair till the sun rose into the sky.

-----

"Niélë... -o... alda..."

"undumë... alma..."

"húmë.. loa... golodh... sulca..."

Sharon hugged her pillow covering her ears as a mysterious voice keep saying names of stuff that she has no idea what they were. She plugged her earpiece into her ears and blasted some pop songs to drown out the voice coming from her head.

Professionally, she suspected that she probably was suffering from some sort of psychological stress and her mind is playing tricks on herself. She could self-medicate but she knew the risks of overmedication, therefore she decided it to be the last resort.

Grouchy with barely a wink of sleep, Sharon left her bunk and decided to go workout at ship's gym. Dressed in PT attire, she entered the gym and saw some off-duty Marines from the original crew working out with the gym weights.

"I'm telling you, man, those Orcs are batshit crazy," One of the Marines was heard telling the others. "I think it is a bad idea to introduce heavy weapons to them."

"Why is that?" Dr. Sharon joined their conversation as her interest was piqued.

"Mdm!" The group of three Marines leaped to attention in surprise. "We were just discussing for fun! Mdm!"

"At ease, gentlemen, we are in the gym and out of uniform," Dr. Sharon waved them to relax. "Anyway, mind if I join you guys?"

"Eh," The trio looked at each other and nodded, "Yes, Mdm..."

"So what is the issue with the Orcs?" She laid down on the bench and gestured to one of the Marines to support the barbell and started to bench press. "Don't worry, I am a doctor, doctor to patient confidentiality," She winked.

"Well ok, for one, they are huge, I mean, compared to Bartley, one of our largest guys, they still tower over him!" The Marine earlier explained.

The other skinner looking, Marine, added, "Quartermaster Chen is making a big fuss too, about how they keep tearing up the sleeves of their no. 4 uniforms."

"Yea, especially when they started working out in the Camp's gym," The Marine supporting Sharon's barbell said. "Those guys are like gym rats, just racking up their muscles."

"And they started a fight over the use of the gym with another platoon recruits the other day," He replaced the barbell onto its supports and Sharon sat up. "Those on duty had to taser them to put them down."

"The current batch is gonna graduate soon right?" Sharon wiped the sweat off her brow with her towel as she listened to the men gossip.

"Yes, Doc, they gonna form the 2nd Battalion and then the next new batch of recruits will be processed for training again, "But I heard the Orcs will be spread out among all the companies in both 1st and 2nd Battalion."

"But I heard they gonna replace the losses for 1st Battalion, Alpha Company losses first..."

"Shit, platoon 2 and 3 had it bad..."

"Damn, mini Godzilla... what do you think is the level three Boss? A demon? Or maybe an eight-headed hydra?"

"Doc?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I was... erm... mediating... sorry what were you guys talking about?" Dr. Sharon blinked her eyes rapidly and refocus to the gossips the Marines were chatting about. The voice in her head was saying something and she found that she recognized one of the words.

"Oh, we were just talking about what could be down in the dungeon after level two," The Marines look at her with concern, "Doc, are you ok?"

"Yes, yes!" She smiled at the men, "Just had an inspiration, thanks for the chat and help guys! See ya!" She quickly left the gym and head towards her lab in excitement.

"Weird but ok..." The trio shrugged and returned to their gossip and weightlifting.

-----

Camp Alpha, Commandant Office

Major Frank glared at the three massive orcs towering over him by a good half meter who stood in perfect parade attention after being escorted in by Master Sergeant Pike and two other Marines with a black armband and armed with tasers and revolvers. Frank remained seated in his chair as he observed the muscular built of the Orcs and the way the uniform stretched tightly over their body frames.

"So, what is the cause of the fight, recruits?" Frank finally asked after a while of silence, making the three Orcs sweat.

"Sir, Recruit Gor has no excuses, Sir!" The leftmost Orc spoke up while the other two remained quiet.

"Recruit! I am asking about the cause! Not who's at fault!" Frank snapped angrily. "Under Military Regulations, fighting among fellow Marines is an offense punishable by death! So you better tell the truth!"

"Sir, Recruit Slow, reporting, Sir!" The middle Orc barked, "Sir, Recruit Gor and Recruit Bighead were just sparring among themselves, Sir!"

Pike at the side turn away and swallowed his smile. Frank shook his head and asked, "Sparring? Using dumbbells and barbells? And you? Why do you have a bruised eye then?"

"Eh, Sir, this recruit was.. erm... trying to.. eh.. make sure they fight fairly? Sir!" Recruit Slow resisted the urge to scratch his head as he came out with some nonsense. "Sir, this recruit was unlucky, Sir!"

Frank rapped the table loudly with his knuckles startling the three sweating Orcs while Pike tried to keep a straight face. "This is the first and final warning for you three. I do not want to see you fighting among yourselves, save the fighting with the enemy. Your instructors will deal out the punishment for you three! Dismissed!"

The three Orcs saluted and the two duty Marines escorted them out of the office, leaving Frank alone with Pike who gave out a loud laughter. "Hahahahaha, it's so funny to see something twice your size shaking and sweating in their boots."

Frank sighed, "The Orcs have lots of aggression, I think we need to give them more ventures to vent their energy."

"Hehehe, I know just the thing, sir!" Pike grinned evilly, "It is always a good day for training exercises."

Frank nodded, "Make sure they are still in one piece for the final Crucible."

"Hahaha, no worries, after this, I am sure they won't dare to do anything too excessive," Pike gave a wave and left the office.

"I need a damn break..."

136 - Operation Chaperone

Norman Stone cursed his luck to have met such barbarians out here. He thought he could pilfer and trick the rebels who will be desperate for the supplies he was delivering and force them to concede to the full payment despite only delivering half of the agreed amount of supplies.

If it wasn't for those strangely dressed barbarians with black grey war paint's interference, he would have succeeded. Norman leaned over to his chief guard and spoke in a low voice, "Can your men take them out?"

The grizzled looking old war veteran, shooked his head slightly and replied back in a low voice, "They got us surrounded, if you look closely at the trees around us, you can catch a glimpse of them following us."

Norman jerked his head around in surprise, and stared intently at the surrounding trees, trying to spot the barbarians following them.

"Save your effort, they are very hard to spot," The chief guard said, "those damn leaves, twigs and strange clothing makes them almost invisible in the forest. Even the war paint serves to hide them."

"If word got out to the boss that we ripped his clients off..." Norman twisted his coat tail nervously. "We are in big trouble..."

His chief guard just gave a shrug, "Well, think of how to survive this first before thinking of tomorrow!"

The wagons creaked as they followed the direction given by the three Marines, following a freshly cleared trail around the massive tree roots and towards the distant towering mountain peaks. The moving was slow, as the caravans had to maneuver around the trees despite a trail clearly marked and cleared by the Marines days before. So far, the caravan managed to avoid most of the weaker and lower willed monsters with the usage of the monster repellant, but on the third day of travel, they have gotten a close encounter.

-----

Private Lenn walking point cocked his head to the side as he thought he heard something. He paused and raised his left hand up in a fist, signaling his section mates to halt and take a kneeling position. He crouched low and slowly and steadily crept forward to observe the terrain in front of him. Once in the cover of a tree root, he slowly removed his motion detector and scanned his surroundings, but there were no return signals on his scanners except for the convoy's movement at the rear.

He paused, his sixth sense was telling him something is wrong ahead, the forest was too quiet like it was holding its breath, waiting for something. That was when he heard a soft hissing from the trees. He froze and only moving his eyes upwards and saw a large coiled shape in the trees, several meters away.

The dark bronze scales blend the giant serpent almost perfectly against the tree trunks, the only give away is the hissing the snake made as it tasted the air with its tongue. The creaking and squeaking of the wagons grew louder, as Pvt Lenn stared at the side of the snake. He did not dare to look directly at the eyes as it might sense him, so he used the corner of his eyes to carefully observe it. A trickle of sweat slowly rolled down his eye and he ignored the stinging sensation of his eye and very softly, he touched his mike key and radioed his sergeant. "Contact, big snake on a tree ahead, over!" He whispered softly.

A second later, two burst of static replied him, indicating the message was received. Pvt Lynn slowly readied his shotgun as he waited for orders to come and kept watch on the snake. Suddenly the creaking and squeaking sounds from the wheels of the wagon at the rear stopped, and the giant snake jerked its massive diamond shaped head up and gave a low hiss.

"Oh, shit," Pvt Lynn cursed softly, as he calmed his beating heart, "here it comes!"

-----

"What? A Giant Bronze Boa is ahead?" Norman nearly yelled out as he heard the news from the dirty looking barbarians. "Are you sure? You can sense it from here?" He looked at his chief guard in disbelief at the words of the barbarians.

"Stop the wagons," Sergeant Eunos repeated tiredly, finding that dealing with this merchant was harder than killing goblins and imperials. "Get you people prepared and ready for an attack now!"

"I simply can't believe it!" Norman folded his arms, "We have not been attacked for the past three days! Why would there be any monsters now?"

SGT Eunos rolled his eyes and thought inside, its because we were protecting you, you farking dumb ass! He gave up trying to reason with Norman and looked at the chief guard next to him instead. "Come on, it's the bloody Uncharted Forest, there are monsters everywhere."

The chief guard looked at Eunos and pondered before he said to Norman, "I think we should take up defensive positions, to be safe."

Norman looked at his guard with a red face and nodded angrily, "Fine! Fine! If we are late to return, there will be a fine to pay!" He waved for the drivers driving the wagons to stop and they reined in the land dragons who, honked and rumbled as the iron straps dug into their fleshy necks, making them stop.

Suddenly several loud thunder cracks were heard, and then the whole forest erupted into chaos.

-----

Pvt Lenn watched the Giant Bronze Boa slithered its way down the tree majestically and crawled its way towards the convoy. He hugged himself against the tree roots and prayed that the snake did not detect him as it passed by his way. The Bronze Boa's tongue flicked in and out as it tasted the air and it suddenly froze, before whipping its head directly at Pvt Lenn's position.

"Ah fark this!" Pvt Lenn cursed out loud as the large glassy eyes of the Bronze Boa stared at him, its jaws slowly stretching out and exposing fangs the size of his arms. He aimed his shotgun directly at the mouth of the Bronze Boa and said, "Say hello to my little friend!" and held down the trigger while furiously pumping away at the pump action slide.

Blasts of 12 gauge, 00 buckshot fanned out into the head of the giant reptile, stinging and hurting it. Its soft meaty mouth ruptured with dark red blood as shot torn into its opened mouth. The Bronze Boa jerked its head back in pain and surprise, an angry bubbling hiss came from its bloodied mouth and it wrapped its rear body around the tree which Pvt Lenn was sheltering at.

"Ahh!" Pvt Lenn yelled in terror as the lower half of the tree was crushed into two, showers of wood bark and splinters rained down all over him as he ran half crouched away from the destruction caused by the thrashing snake.

Gunfire popped in front of him as his section mates opened fire with their Magelocks, clouds of smelly and dirty grey smoke shrouding the undergrowth. Pvt Lenn leaped over another tree root and slid to rest against the tree, and dug into his ammo pouches and started to reload his shotgun with shaky hands. "That was farking scary!"

"Go, go, go! Spread out!" Someone yelled as the gunfire intensified, causing the roosting wyverns in the trees and other small animals to scramble or fly away in fright at the sudden loud thundering roars. "Use the RPG!"

The Bronze Boa rampaged as bullets slammed into its body, most were deflected off by the tough bronze scales while some managed to penetrate into its body, the soft lead bullets ballooning inside the flesh of the snake, tearing muscles and severing nerve endings. It swung its massive body towards the creatures that stung and hurt it but the tightly packed trees blocked its attacks.

The Boa decided to run as no matter where it tried to attack the strange creatures, more appeared and stung it with their loud weapons. It turned tail and tried to slither its way away from the stings when suddenly a loud crash threw it against a massive tree trunk and breaking it. It wiggled its body feebly, trying to escape but its back was broken and it felt the lure of sleep calling it into its embrace and gently it surrendered to the darkness.

-----

The RPG-1 team hoisting the smoking bazooka had fired at the back of the retreating giant snake, the rocket-propelled grenade took less than two seconds to impact against the back of the snake, where it punched through the bronze scales and dumped all its explosive warhead into the snake, ripping out a huge chunk of flesh and the force of the explosive slammed the snake into a tree and breaking both the tree and snake into two.

The stench of blood and cooked meat rosed from the aftermath of the one-sided battle and other then a few scratches and torn skin, the Marines suffered no other injuries. SGT Eunos received the all clear from the forward team and he invited both Norman and his chief guard over to take a look at the dead giant snake.

Norman stiffened when he saw and smelled the gory scene and quickly covered his nose with a scented napkin while his chief guard's eye glinted with excitement. He stood over the dead carcass of the snake and peered at the damage of its body. "Magic?"

SGT Eunos nodded, not wanting to disclose their strength yet. "We will need some of your people's help in dismantling the meat, bones, and skin of the Bronze Boa." He said instead, "And fast, this amount of blood is going to bring a lot more trouble."

The guard stood up and turned to Norman with a questioning look, who agreed and nodded, the merchant inside him seeing the value of the skin despite it being damaged. "I get my people on it quick!" and with that said, he turned and hurried off back to the safety of his caravans.

"Very powerful," The chief guard praised SGT Eunos, "Your warriors are very strong to defeat a Bronze Boa, that monster should be at Level 4 or at the peak of Level 3. It would take over a hundred warriors to fight and take it down, and at least half or two third will die fighting it." He spoke in a respectful manner. "Many must have died to fight that monster and I give my regards for their sacrifice."

SGT Eunos nodded and did not share that there virtually were zero casualties at all. Nevertheless, he thanked the guard and watched as the caravaners appeared nervously and started to butcher the Bronze Boa up, skillfully separating the meat from the skin and bones out.

In a span of the turn of two-hour glasses, the giant snake was cut up and quartered and carried back to the caravan. The men were in high spirits as the meat will be a vast improvement over their current travel rations.

As they left the area, snarls and cries were heard as lesser monsters and creatures fought over the scraps left behind.

-----

Camp Alpha, Recruit Barrack 'C'

Recruit Onetooth aka Slow was on his knees scrubbing the white urinal with a toothbrush that looked like a tiny toy in his ham-sized fists. He sighed as he carefully scrubbed with the toothbrush, as he had already broken several by using too much force, earning him extra toilet cleaning duties.

It will be almost time for the final Crucible test and he has to pass the inspection of the toilet first before he could join in as punishment for fighting among themselves. If he failed this inspection, he will have to retake the whole course again!

He frowned when the doors burst open and his platoon soft skins and orcs entered laughing and joking there watching him clean the toilets. "Come on Slow! You can't be that slow!"

Onetooth sighed inwardly and forced down the rage boiling inside him. He kept quiet and focused on moving the brush up and down, the wooden brush creaking as his grip tightened.

"Hahaha," His platoon mates laughed and to his surprise, they crouched down next to him and brought out brushes and started to scrub the toilets along with him. "Come on, you can't be slow for the inspection!"

"Whaa-what?" Onetooth looked around and found everyone in his platoon here, helping to clean the toilet. "wh-why?"

"Come on, we are all one big family!" One of the elves said as he bent over the sink with a brush. "Yeah, we do this together!" Another spoke up.

Onetooth sniffed and quickly rubbed away a tear forming in his beady eyes. "Oh, is our poor orc boy crying?" The platoon laughed.

"Not crying!" He hid his face away from his teasing mates.

"AM NOT CRYING! It's THE KHEN-MI-KALS!!"

137 - The seeds of a Nation

The parade square roared with thousands of voices as the viewing stands erupted in cheers when the marching Marines entered in near perfect formation. Rifles held diagonally across their chests, the freshly graduated Marines and the newly commissioned officers marched in step to the marching band's tune. Their heads tilted at an angle towards the reviewing stand as all the major VIPs stood saluting or clapping the soldiers' march pass.

A dozen F/A - 1 Cobras in three diamond formations did a fly by over the heads of the speculators, earning more cheers and waves. The last plane on each diamond formation released a trail of colored smoke trailing behind, in three colors, red, blue and white for each formation. The left and right formations broke formations as they came over the parade square, earning Ooos and Ahhhs from the crowd at the display. It was the first time the inhabitants of this world had ever seen an aerobatic display despite just a simple maneuver, but it wowed the hearts and minds of all present.

As the parade came to an end, Captain Blake strolled up to the front and spoke into the microphone set at the podium in front of the formation of Marines. "Today marks another extraordinary day for our people. In less than a year, we achieved many things. From fighting off an enemy ten times our size to fighting off goblins invasions and building a community for our families and loved ones." He paused and looked around the parade square where everyone who can make it to the graduation came.

"We have humans and elves. And now the Oerkins join us, and we even have dragons now." He continued, "In the past, who amongst you would have thought of that? Now we have enough food and thriving industry and... military strength. But we must not become conceited as there are still many dangers in this unclaimed lands and nations wanting to swallow us all. Therefore we must persist in our efforts, and stay strong together! Forget that you are humans, elves, orcs or even dragons, we are now one family. And as a family, we help each other and grow together, for being united we can be the strongest!" The stands exploded into cheers at Blake's speech.

"United we stand, divided we fall!" Blake yelled into the mike over the dim of the cheers and the whole parade echoed his words while fireworks exploded overhead, lighting up the evening sky.

"United we stand, divided we fall!"

-----

Camp Alpha, Meeting Room

Blake nodded and greeted everyone as they gathered into the meeting room. "Alright people settle down, we do a quick brief than you guys can go party!" Blake grinned at the faces of his department heads as they quickly settled down.

Major Frank stood up and started the meeting going, "542 freshly minted Marines and 61 Officers graduated from this batch. They will have a few days of leave before we send them their orders."

"Most will, of course, form the backbone of 2nd Battalion. We will also be posting replacements to 1st Battalion to cover their loses, especially for 1st Battalion, Alpha Company." Frank said. "Those currently still on sick leave once they have recovered will instead be posted over to 2nd Battalion to boost the overall experience of the men."

"The new officers will also be spread out among the two battalions and also some will be posted to the Airforce," Frank nodded towards Commander Tommy. "And also we will be taking out selected personnel out for extra courses and advanced training. And also for the formation for the second ATI team."

"Claymore Two?" Blake raised his eyebrows.

"Yes, Sir," Master Sergeant Pike replied, "We all have seen the effectiveness of an arcane commando unit, therefore we will be having a selection course for candidates for the second team."

"Nice," Blake nodded in approval, "Next?"

Tommy stood up next and started his report, "After this parade, we will be starting our next recruitment drive for pilots and service crew among the civilians. As of now, we have a total of 17 combat operational F/A - 1 Cobras, one heavy weight, and two medium weight dragons and two Valkyries. The current pilots are also undergoing night time operations so in the near future we can expand our flight operations to include night ops."

"Next we are also looking at developing aerial transportation for both troops and cargo," Tommy replied, "We are working with Chief Matt and Chief Gale to come out with a design for that."

Chief Gale stood next, and said, "Under production, we are currently splitting our resources to 25% consumer products, 25% machinery, and 40% military needs and 10% maintenance. We took out fabricator production line to primary focus on pumping out fabricator parts and have one line primary just replicating fabricators out."

"But due to the lower quality of materials we have, the newly built fabricators require more maintenance and also the new parts break down faster than normal," Chief Gale reported, "Unless we have better materials like aluminum, titanium, cobalt, nanomaterials or even composites materials, the fabricators all will be required to undergo major downtime for maintenance and servicing."

Princess Sherene gave her report next, "We have confirmation of the supply convoy heading our way under escort of our soldiers, and will be expecting the shipment of seeds within two weeks. Food stocks are adequate for this year, but it will be good to be able to stockpile more for winter."

"Public works have been ongoing in terms of housing, roads, schools, hospitals, and markets for the civilian population," She continued, "There had been increasing cases of unrest and unlawfulness in the city but we are managing to keep it in check so far."

"I see," Blake nodded again, "Do what you need to, to deal with the unrest and lawbreakers, you have the full support of the police and security force."

Next, Chief Matt started his report, "We have been testing the Dragonite fuel and found that it can be used as a petrochemical substitute to our combustion engines but it produces much much more waste heat compared to fossil fuels. To offset that, we have to install large radiator panels to disperse the heat. All the current F/A - 1 Cobras have upgraded engines with radiators panels, improving their heat management."

"We also have built up a prototype Dragonite generator to provide power, which is still under development and testing stage," Chief Matt smiled proudly, "It should be able to provide enough power for the city. We will be undergoing heavy testing soon, and if it works, it will also be able to power our point defense lasers thus increasing our defensive capabilities."

"Good work on that," Blake grinned at the news, "What you need, just inform Ford, he will get it approved for you."

Magister Thorn rosed, "I have been studying the creatures we have found in the Dungeons and found them to be thought to be extinct in our time. The mutations and the monsters in the dungeon were most likely due to the higher concentration of magic and cannibalism among the monsters, which caused some kind of mutation or evolution that made them vastly different from what we know. That is why the monsters are a lot harder to defeat and more dangerous."

"To determine the Boss of the dungeon, we found that the primary dormant species normally will be the greater variants. For example, the spider ant queen, and the silver dragon. The dungeons were massively populated by spider ants on level 1 while on level 2, it was a lesser rock dragon." Thorn explained, "So if we went down to level 3, and determine which monster is the dormant species, we can roughly estimate or guess what the boss will be, thus improving our response to fighting it."

"Got it," Blake said, "But we will not touch level 3 for the time being till we are ready for it."

"I see," Thorn looked disappointed.

"Dr. Sharon?" Blake called out to the doctor who was strangely quiet throughout the meeting. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?" Dr. Sharon snapped her head up, she looked quite pale and has dark eye bags. "I-I am fine, just thinking about something."

"Ok, so do you have anything to report?" Blake raised an eye at her condition.

She rubbed her head before standing up and say, "Well, I made a breakthrough in identifying the ingredients of the healing potions. I know what they are made of, and I know how to make them."

The room became silent as everyone stared in surprise at her. Even Magister Thorn's mouth dropped out in shook, "B-but that's something lost since the Age of Gods! No one has successfully made a healing potion for hundreds of years!"

"Err... well, yeah I found out how, and what was inside the potion," She gave an absentminded shrug, "Just that we need to find the herbs for it."

"How?" Blake asked, he read the report of the healing potion effects and found them incredible, it has the ability to close wounds, repair bones and torn muscles, and with a higher dosage, it can even regenerate lost body parts! It was more amazing than their medical nanites!

Dr. Sharon rubbed her hair, messing it up more, "Well, first you need the flower of a White Poppy, you dry it and grind it into powder and boil it with Lunar Nectar collected from the Lunar Tree. Next, you drop in Blood Grass and wild Sageroot and simmer it for two hours. You then strain the solution out and infuse a Greater Healing spell into the clear liquid and voila, one bottle of healing potion!"

Everyone in the room looked blankly at her explanation and were dumbstruck, as they did not understand half of what she was staying, except Magister Thorn who bounced up in excitement. "Really? Is that it?"

Dr. Sharon nodded, "You have to control the temperature and of course the number of herbs and order which you put it in."

Thorn's eyes glowed and he went over to Dr. Sharon and started discussing potion making in excitement. Blake gave a cough and said, "I guess that's it for the meeting. Good work everyone, now go enjoy the party!"

The room started to file out and Ford gave Blake a wink before leaving the room laughing to himself. Blake shook his head and as he turned around he saw a blushing Sherene still seated at the table. "Princess?"

"Ahh?" She jumped and lowered her head again in embarrassment. "Y-yes?"

"Do you want to join me at the party?" Blake asked gently, raising a hand out to her.

She looked up and smiled charmingly at Blake who flinched slightly at the dazzling smile. He felt his heart rate increasing and his face flushing and Sherene took his hand and stood up, "Let's go!"

"Damn, am I still not immune to that charm effect?" Blake whispered softly as he led the princess out of the room.

-----

Falledge, Merchant District, North Star Trading

Etoro Arther balled up the message that just arrived from the Isles via a message wyvern. He read the message twice before he released the wyvern who had landed on his window frame and stood before the fireplace. He slowly chanted a flame spell and dropped the smoking message into the fireplace, watching the flames turning the balled up message into ash. He returned to his desk and rang a bell, and in less than a minute, his clerk reappeared at the door. "Boss?"

"Prep our goods to move, and also inform my friend, Tyrier, that my client has agreed to his terms," He instructed, "Tell him we will move the goods within five days."

The clerk bowed and gently closed and door and left to do his bidding while Etoro sat down on his chair and rubbed his brows, wondering if all this was a good idea after all and how many will survive the travel to freedom.

138 - Troubles

Falledge, Adventurer's Guild

Hitsu tilted back his head as he downed a pint of local beer, and gave a satisfied sigh. He smacked his lips and licked the foam around his mouth and called for another refill. Leaning against the bar counter in the Adventurer's Guild, he watched the comings and goings in the area with one eye.

Suddenly the door swung open and a party of four stood haloed by the afternoon sun at the doorway. Hitsu squinted his eyes as he tried to take in their features, and only when they entered did he clearly see how they looked like.

The youngster standing in the front looked to be in his early twenties or maybe younger. A mop of golden curly hair covered his head. His perfectly chiseled face was handsome enough to make the females in the guild to swoon and the smile he flashed made even the vilest tempered character in the guild blush and acknowledge back. The silverish ornate armor had a motif of a crying dragon with a sword through it, and on his back hung a massive pommel of a greatsword.

His companions followed behind him was a slim, sharped eye make with gold rings in his ears and a rapier hooked to his belt, and a petite girl in oversized mage robes and hat, with one hand clutching a knobbed staff and the other holding onto the dark blue cloak of the youngster. The final companion was a huntress in leather with a short sword sheathed to her hip and an unstrung bow over her back with a quiver full of arrows in red fletching.

A few luggage floated behind them as they headed towards the Guild's counter. Hitsu leaned back against the bar and watched the party walk pass, taking a drink of his beer as he observed them. He felt that the youngster looked fairly familiar but just could not place his face.

-----

Walking up to the counter where a blushing female Guild administrator sat, Dante gave his winsome smile at the young girl, who nearly swooned at his feet, and making Liz go purple with jealousy. "Hi, there! We just came into town and want to cash this in!"

Stab dug around the floating luggage and removed a coarse bloodied bag and he set it carefully onto a stone slab at the side for turning in bounties. "147 goblin right ears and 1 troll right ear."

The Guild admin girl looked startled and quickly called for the bounty handler to check the bloodied bag. And not long the handler with a bloodied apron nodded and confirmed the tally, "147 goblins and 1 troll."

"C-can I have your guild card?" The admin girl asked Dante who nodded cheerfully and removed his guild card worn like a necklace and handed it over to the girl. As the admin girl checked his credentials, she nearly dropped his card in shock, "H-h-hero?"

She looked up and ask in a timid voice, "Y-you are the H-Hero Dante?"

"Of course he is, you dumb big boobed bitch!" Liz snapped, her patience stretched to the limit. "Hurry up with the cash out! You are wasting our precious time!"

"A-ah... yes, I am s-sorry!" The girl cried and quickly started to process the payment and records, tears forming at her eyes. "H-here is your p-payment of 6 gold and 47 silver..." She handed over a small tray with the coins placed on it with her head lowered.

"Thank you!" Dante grinned and gave a wink to the apologizing admin girl and left, with Liz hissing and glaring at the admin girl while Evelyn tried to calm her down.

"Come on, let's find an inn to rest!" Stab grinned as he hefted the bag of coins they just made. "This should be more than enough for us to stay for a week here."

----

At the side, Hitsu narrowed his eyes as he watched the antics of the party. In fact, the whole Guild went quiet when they heard the admin girl called the youngster 'Hero Dante'. As they left, the whole Guild burst out in speculation and discussion about the Hero.

"Damn, we have some annoying players in the field now..." Hitsu cursed under his breath. He now knew why that youngster looked so familiar, as he saw that face years ago, as he destroyed a Goldrose stronghold singlehandedly. "Damn, fake bearer of justice!"

He dropped a silver for his drinks and quickly looked around and found Billy, the girl who dressed up as a boy on the other side of the Guild. "Billy, I need your help!"

"Huh? What news do you want this time?" The tomboy asked. "You want to know who just came into town?" She grinned slyly.

"I know who just came to town, the Hero Dante and his party," Hitsu said, and Billy's face fell, losing her chance to make some easy money. "I need you to follow them discretely, find out where they are staying and what are their plans coming here. Can you do that?"

Billy snapped her head up with a money gleam in her eyes, nodded and put out an upturned palm and smiled happily at Hitsu who grumbled and dug out a silver and dropped on her palm. She continued to smile while holding her palm up still and Hitsu rolled his eyes and dropped another two silvers coins on her hand before she kept the money, "Considered it done!" and she ran out of the Guild after the hero's party.

"Damn money grubber..."

-----

Coast off Goblin Sea

Lance Corporal Fowl jerked his Magelock up when he heard a crunch of sand on his right. His buddy quickly took up position on the side and readied his weapon. LCP Fowl gave a quick glance at his buddy who nodded and he approached the sand dune where they heard the sound coming from.

His company has been on a search and destroy patrol for the past two days, encountering several small holdouts of goblins along the coast. If it wasn't for the goblins, the beach was actually very scenic, and he actually enjoyed the times where there was a lull in the action.

The beach has numerous sand dunes, made by the constant strong sea wind which pile the sand up into little sand hills, dotting the entire coast. He kept his eye at the top of the dune and making sure his footing was solid before rapidly charging up the shifting sand in a single breathe.

As he crested the sand dune, he saw a large group of goblins sheltering within the dune. The goblins looked up in surprise at his sudden appearance and soon turn to horror and fear. They leaped up and shrieked loudly, and the whole group suddenly started to panic.

A half-naked goblin wearing some kind of grotesque looking headgear flung a crude throwing ax at Fowl, who yelped and threw himself to the side. He struggled to bring his Magelock at the crazed eyed goblin and fired, hitting the goblin in its left cheek, blowing out a large chunk of flesh and bone out, together with a large part of the grotesque headgear.

Laying on his side, he kicked his legs and shifted himself to a better sitting position, and quickly worked his bolt action, jerking out the smoking empty cartridge and rechambering in a new round and fired into another goblin charging up the slope of the sand dune.

The shot knocked the screaming goblin off his feet and sent it tumbling down on to the middle of riled up goblins. Fowl kicked madly backward while working his action and fired at the mass of goblins trying to reach him by climbing up the sand dune.

Suddenly several loud gunfires erupted next to Fowl, making his ears ring painfully and he saw the rest of his section had climbed up the dune and were firing into the mass of goblins. The goblins screamed in terror and suddenly as one they dropped their weapons and laid flat on the sand, shaking in terror.

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Fowl's Section leader yelled over the loud thundering guns. "Goddamnit! I said CEASE FIRE!" He slapped the rifles next to him upwards as he roared at his men.

Fowl pushed himself up and dusted as much sand off as he can, grimacing as sand had gotten into his boots and underwear. He looked at the cluster of goblins prostrating before them in terror, their half-naked bodies shaking visibly. "Are we taking prisoners?"

"Damn, I don't know!"

-----

Goblin Coast Staging Area, Prisoner Camp

Commander Ford and Captain Blake stood watching a long line of naked and cuffed goblins getting processed at the field next to several large newly erected tents for the goblin prisoners. The surrendered goblins were given a hose down and cleaned up properly before they were transported here to be held.

"You think its a good idea to do this?" Ford raised his eyebrow at Blake, "That's extra mouths to feed and seriously what do you want them to do?"

"You asked around the Orcs to see who can speak goblish or whatever they call it?" Blake ignored Ford's question.

Ford sighed and nodded, "Yea, I passed the word out, Pike should be getting word back to us soon."

Blake continued to watch the wide-eyed goblins who were observing their surroundings in wonder. "I read the report from Dr. Sharon on the goblins. They actually have a very high level of intelligence, higher even when compared to higher primates."

"So they are a bunch of super smart monkeys," Ford sneered, "A bunch of bloodthirsty man-eating green monkeys, and you are keeping them."

"Remember what Thorn said about goblins?" Blake ignored Ford's sarcasm. "That they are good at replicating items?"

"Yea, they are good at eating and raping over other races genes too," Ford continued showing his displeasure.

Blake shook his head, "You are not seeing the big picture. Thorn said that goblins are good at reverse engineering and are capable of replicating what they learn, albeit in a cruder form."

"So you want them to be your Santa little green elves?" Ford asked. "Teach them advanced production methods and let them learn how to build advanced stuff? That's suicidal!"

"For them to run a production line, yes," Blake admitted, "But of course there will be limits to what we want them to learn and be able to make. It's just that I haven't thought of how to recruit them over properly."

"Recruit them?" Ford was almost livid, "You know you are inviting trouble in the long run? The risks of having those things passing on their knowledge to their own kind and have it used against us are almost 100% guaranteed."

"That's why I am still cracking my head over it," Blake gave a sheepish smile, "Chill."

"The risk factors are too high," Ford continued to push his point, "You will probably get an uprising if the people knew you are recruiting the goblins into the ranks. Not to mention, we do not know if the goblins might grab someone and cook them for dinner or even betrayal."

"The Orcs at least are more honorable compared to a goblin," Ford stared at Blake, "We have no way of knowing how a goblin will act or even what they are thinking of!"

"So its a no from you?" Blake asked, to which Ford nodded in reply. "Hmmm, I was thinking of having the goblins work in prison camps, it will help our manpower issues greatly if they proved to be handy enough."

"I understand our production needs," Ford said, "But some risks we just couldn't take and the aftermath is something we cannot bear either. You need to consider more about this!"

"I need to think about this more," Blake rubbed his day-old stubble forming on his chin, "In the meantime, make them useful, get them to do some work and earn their keep."

Ford nodded, his eyes cold as he stared at the goblins wandering around in the enclosed area.

139 - The Evil Within

Camp Alpha, Firing Range

"Alright, some of you are vets, while others had just passed out from basic," Master Sergeant Pike gave a no-nonsense glare at the gathered Marines seated on the dirt floor next to the firing range in Camp Alpha. "Now, you all have been selected to attend this course and will be assigned as your section's automatic riflemen!"

The mixed group of elves and orcs, looked upon wonder at the boxy looking weapon displayed in front of Pike. "This is the latest weapon designed here! Straight out from the labs of Ordnance and tested thoroughly before we decided to hand it over to you shitheads!" Pike growled.

"This is the MG-1 'Magebreaker', chambered in .338 or 8.5mm, weights 10.8 kg unloaded. It can use either belted ammunition," Which Pike held up a length of chained ammunition from the table, "Or a drum magazine of 75 rounds. This baby has a tested muzzle velocity of 807.7 meters per second, and a rate of fire of roughly 500 rounds per minute. It has an effective range of up to 1,770 meters!"

Pike displayed the new weapon, which looked a bit similar to the M2 Magespitter except its body is boxier and has a longer barrel at 24" long with a flash suppressor at the end and a carrying handle. The wooden pistol grip and rifle stock were painted in matte black paint. Pike placed the weapon down and picked up a couple of loose cartridges off the table and placed them side by side for the Marines to compare.

"On the left is the old 6.5 mm round and the longer round is the new .338 or 8.5 mm round," Pike explained, "The new 8.5 mm round uses a new smokeless propellant for firing, and it is three times more powerful compared to the same amount of black powder. The bullet weights at 19.44 grams compared to 9.3 grams of the 6.5 mm bullet. It is available in Full Metal Jacket (FMJ) or also known as Ball, AP, and Tracer ammunition types."

"It also has close to 2.5 times more penetration power compared to the current 6.5 mm black powder loads," Pike grinned at the wide-eyed Marines listening intently to his description of the weapon. "That is almost three times the effective range of your standard issued Magelocks! And its current recorded maximum range is up to 5,642 meters!"

Some of the orcs were using their fingers, trying to count and gauge the distance, making Pike sigh and shake his head. "Nevermind, today this week-long course is to familiarize yourselves with MG-1! It will be your best buddy, your wife, your girlfriend, sexual fantasy or your right hand! You will be taught how to clean it, service it, fire it and repair it!"

"And if anyone of you shitheads fails to reach my expectations, I will bust you back to be an ammo runner!" Pike roared at the suddenly alert Marines, "Now is that clear?"

"YES! MASTER SERGEANT!"

-----

Falledge, New Dragon Gate Inn

Billy sat on the side of streets watching the Hero Dante and his party enter the New Dragon Gate Inn with their floating luggage. For half a day, she wandered not too closely behind, watching the party as they wandered around the town, selling loot gathered from their travels and having blacksmiths to maintain their weapons and armors.

She gnawed at her piece of hard bread, using her saliva to soften it before swallowing as she watched the party through the open doors of the Inn. Billy looked up at the darkening skies and sighed, wondering should she still tail them or should she return to the orphanage. She saw the party got led away by a server and hesitated for a while before deciding to find out at least which room they were staying at.

The streets and shops around her started to darken and lamps were lit while the Glow Moss of the street lamps cast a dull pale glow to the streets. She craned her head looking at all the windows of the three-storied Inn, hoping to see where they will be staying at, but to her dismay, as darkness came, most of the rooms' windows lit up.

Stuffing the remainder of her bread into her pockets, she timidly walked into the Inn and headed straight to the counter, "Good evening, Sir!" She greeted the manager at the counter who gave her a once over and sniffed his nose.

"What do you want, brat?" The sharp nosed manager asked, "No begging allowed here!"

"Ahh, no, I just wanna ask if the Hero Dante is staying here...?" She asked in a small voice, acting like a timid child but inside her, she was fuming at the attitude of the manager. "I'm a fan of his, and would really like to get his signature..."

"Shoo, go away," The manager waved his hand dismissively at her, "Our guests are not to be disturbed by begger kids, shoo!"

"But..." She gave her best puppy eye look at the manager, who ignored her and instead rang a bell, where two burly men appeared. "Throw that begger kid out!"

"Waa?" She was unceremoniously dumped out of the Inn and warned never to appear again or she will get beaten up. Billy rubbed her sore butt and dusted her clothes angrily and struck her tongue out at the retreating backs of the bouncers. She retreated to the side of the streets and started planning for her next move. If I can't get n from the front... then I will go back the back! She thought and headed off to the rear of the New Dragon Gate Inn.

But as she explored the rear of the Inn, she found it all fenced up with walls and a locked gate. She frowned and thought of climbing over the gate but suddenly noticed the building at the side of the Inn looked deserted and there were no walls covering it. She wandered around the building and found that the side of walls had several sculptures that give easy hand and foot holds for her to climb up.

Looking around, she found no one in the vicinity and the darkness of the night gave her plenty of covers to climb up the side of the building next to the Inn. This is gonna cost that Uncle plenty of silvers once she was done with this! She though in her mind as she expertly crawled up the side of the walls.

Giving out a final grunt, she flopped her self over to the roof of the building and laid on the sloped tiles panting from the effort of the climb. Billy laid on the roof for a while, catching her breath before she sat up and looked across the gap to the Inn opposite her. A balcony laid before her eyes within a couple of meters away and she decided to jump across. Gathering her courage, she nimbly ran along the side of the roof and leaped across the distance and hit the balcony rolling and slammed against the wall.

Groaning with pain from the land, she rubbed her elbows and knees and thanked the gods that the room's balcony she landed on was unoccupied. She leaned over the balcony and started to slowly climb over to the next balcony, as the balconies of each room were within easy climbing distance.

After peeking into the windows and curtains of several rooms, she still couldn't find where the Hero Dane and his party were staying at. She leaned out of the balcony and gauged that there were roughly another six or seven rooms she still did not check yet.

"I am really gonna charge that Uncle for more money! Not silvers but in gold royals!" She grumbled under her breath and started climbing again. This time, after the second balcony, she found the girls from the Hero's party. She peeked through the tiny crack of the curtains and saw both girls were blushing their hair and preparing to sleep.

Ignoring them, Billy quietly climbed out of the balcony and headed to the next but found the room to be dark and empty. She continued on to the next balcony were lights could be seen from the window and peered in.

To her happiness, she found the Hero Dante! He was laying on his bed with his top off, showing off his perfect muscles with his hands over his head. He appeared to be humming and he turned to the side of the room and said something which surprised Billy till a woman walked into view.

They started hugging and kissing on the bed and Billy watched with wide-eyed, blushing at the intimate act and at the same time fascinated by it. As the couple reached the climax of the act, Billy recognized the girl as the Adventurer's Guild admin girl! She covered her mouth and sniggered, thinking that this piece of information should be worth something to someone, when she heard a gagging noise from the room, loud enough to be heard despite the thick windows and stone walls.

She peeked back into the window and saw the girl who was saddling the Hero Dante, had her throat gripped by the Hero and was struggling in his grasp. The Hero Dante had a strange smile on his face as his eyes were half closed and Billy noticed with a shock that the bare skin of the girl was turning grey and wrinkled, at a pace that was mind-boggling to the young girl.

Soon in a matter of seconds, the body of the girl held by the Hero Dante, turned into a grey and dry husk, totally unrecognizable as the pretty and vibrant admin girl earlier. The Hero dropped the shriveled body on the side of the bed and stood up naked.

Billy gasped as she saw the terror sicken looked of the shriveled body and quickly covered her mouth in panic and dodged down away from the window, praying that the Hero Dante did not hear it.

-----

Dante stretched his body, feeling power and youth coursing through his veins when he heard something from the window. He tilted his head and smiled, grabbing his discarded clothes and putting them on and stepped over the dried up husk on the floor.

He yanked the balcony door open and looked out, left and right and saw nothing. "Must be a bird or something," He said and closed the door.

-----

Billy let out the breath that she held, and sighed in relief. She stood up from the next balcony which she managed to climb over just in time before the Hero opened the door and started her climb back down from the Inn when she felt a chill on her back.

She turned slowly and saw the Hero Dante standing at the balcony, giving her a charming smile but his eyes were giving off a sense of dread. Billy froze and said, "Hi, and... bye!" before quickly jumping over the side of the balcony and madly climbed down to the first level.

As her feet touched the ground floor, she barely cast a glance back up and took off as fast as her legs could. But to her dismay, she heard a heavy thud and looking back, she saw the Hero Dante landed right behind her and his face still held that cheerful smile.

"Oh heavens!" Billy panicked, her heart beating rapidly as she ran for her life, knowing that if the Hero caught her, she will be killed or turned into that dried up body!

The adventurer uncle! He must be able to save her! She thought as she ran through the small alleyways, hoping to lose the Hero.

"Run little rabbit run!" She heard soprano voice mocking her from behind and she chanced a look and regretted as she saw that smiling face behind her, keeping to her pace easily.

"I am coming to catch you~!"

140 - See no Evil

Falledge, The Prancing Pony Inn

Tyrier's leg was propped up against the table as he leaned back on the creaky wooden chair as he waited patiently for Doth conversation on the radio with HQ to end. The rest of the Claymore One team have gathered at the Prancing Pony, taking over two other rooms down the hall. Now half the team was gathered at the Doth and Tavel's room as they communicated the latest piece of information back to HQ.

"Damn, I did not expect that bloody Hero to come here!" Hitsu grumbled as he sat on the edge of the bed. "That guy is crazily strong!"

"Yea," Tavel nodded as he leaned against the wall next to the window, "I heard he single handed destroyed a third of the beastman army."

"Yea, I saw him once at the border," Hitsu said, "He destroyed the border fort just by himself. Calling himself the light of justice..." Hitsu spat at the side, "Just because he found some remnants of the old gods makes him think that he is some kind of savior to the people and everyone must worship him."

"Well, we got to be careful with him, we don't know why he is here," Tyrier suddenly spoke, "He is dangerous."

"Well, I got someone to tail him for us," Hitsu said, "Hopefully, we can get some info on him and be better prepared."

"Alright, done!" Doth set down his headgear and mike, "HQ tells us to sit tight and focus on transporting the freed slaves and do not get into any trouble."

"One more night before we leave this place," Hitsu sighed, "I am starting to like this place."

"Nah, I want proper showers and toilets!" Tavel joked, "I think I have gotten soft!"

The men joked and laughed among themselves when suddenly a ground shaking rumbled was heard and felt. "What the..?"

Cries and shouts could be heard from outside the window, and Tavel quickly opened it and looked out, the muffled sounds immediately became clear as another rumbled shook the Inn and more cries and screams of panic were heard.

"What's going on?" Doth asked as he quickly put away the precious radio equipment into a leather carrier while Hitsu and Tyrier grabbed their weapons from underneath the beds.

The door suddenly banged urgently and Altied poked his head in, "Something is wrong!"

Tyrier took one look out into the night and ordered, "Load up, be prepared for anything, if its nothing to do with us, good but if it is something that might affect our mission, be ready to move at any time!"

The men nodded and Altied went to alert rest outside, while Doth and Tavel headed back to their rooms for their gear. A short while later, everyone had gathered around Tyrier's room all armed discretely and ready for action.

"Altied, Young, Doth, and Tavel, you four form one team and standby at the ground floor and secure an exit," Tyrier ordered, "Hitsu and Loke with me as the second team. Loke and Histu go up top and keep watch on the roof."

The Claymore One members split up as ordered and headed to their positions. As the disturbance keep going on, almost all the customers and even the workers in the Inn came out to the streets to stare and discuss, making Altied's team easy to access the back area of the Inn without anyone noticing them.

Loke hoisted himself up from the side of the window and hooked his feet over the roof shingles, and rolled himself up. He leaned down and grabbed his gear handed out from the window by Hitsu and set it aside before giving a helping hand to the rest to climb up.

Another rumble was heard, louder and closer this time and a cloud of smoke lit by the lamps of houses could just be seen a few streets down from the inn. "Its like getting closer!" Loke pointed out.

"See anything?" Tyrier asked as he stood on the roof, trying to see what is going on. Some of the roofs of the other buildings were also occupied as the inhabitants also climbed up to see what is going on.

"Too many buildings in the way," Loke replied as he sat with his scoped M1S, looking through the 6x scope, trying to spot what is causing the disturbance.

"Wait, I see something!" His scope spotted a small figure darting out from a side alley next to the main street where a few gawking pedestrians were staring at the commotion. He saw the small figure nearly trip but managed to keep his balance and kept running when the alleyway where the figure came out exploded. "What the hell?"

Alerted by Loke's sighting, both Tyrier and Hitsu removed a small pair of binoculars and peer to where Loke said. They too saw the walls of the alleyway exploded out, and a figure appeared from the smoke. Despite the lower zoom of the binos, Hitsu quickly recognizes the figure walking out of the smoke, "That's the Hero Dante!"

"Wait!" He tracked downwards to the running figure, "Oh shit, that's the girl who I got to tail him!"

"She must have either seen or heard something that is really bad for him or she had just pissed him off really badly," Loke said, "Orders?"

Tyrier frowned, noticing girl heading towards their Inn before the buildings across the street blocked her from his view. "I think shes headed to us."

"Damn, she must be coming to find me!" Hitsu cursed, "Now what?"

Tyrier rubbed his chin in thought before saying, "Back her up, she must have some information that is very important for him to risk killing someone in public."

"Go pick her up," Tyrier ordered Hitsu, "We head to the freed slaves location. We are pushing the mission up by one day!"

"Got it!" Hitsu swung down over the side of the roof and rapidly disappeared from view.

Tyrier next said, "Provide cover as much as you can for the girl, then pull out, don't tangle with the Hero solo!" He then followed after Hitsu down over the edge of the roof.

"Roger that!" Loke said and he made sure that all his gear is properly secured as he sat with his left knee up. He braced his left elbow against his knee and used it as a support for his rifle as he aimed at the Hero strolling down the street like nothing is happening. The dim lights barely cast enough lights to illuminate him but under the scope, Loke placed the crosshair right at the center of his body silhouette and squeezed the trigger.

The muffled puff of the suppressed shot barely could be heard over the dim of noises made by the town's inhabitants as they were speculating on what is happening. The smoke from the shot was quickly dispersed away by the night breeze and the bullet drop straight down at the Hero.

-----

Dante grinned as he watched the girl run away from him in fear. The feeling was intoxicating, different from killing monsters, especially since he had absorbed the life force of the girl in bed with him earlier.

He ignored the shouts and cries of bystanders as he punched out into the air, were three magic circles formed out. His fist impacted the magic circles and a force of compressed wind exploded out, slamming in the alleyways where the girl had run into. He gave a smile to a city guard who shouted at him and casually gave the guard a backhand slap, which blew the head of the guard away, leaving behind a headless body, squirting blood and screaming people.

As he walked out of the smokey alleyway, he saw the girl running still, and his grin grew wider, "Run little girl, run~" He laughed cheerfully, "It is a nice night for a hunt!"

Suddenly his senses warned him of danger, and he sub consciously brought up his magical defenses. Something slammed into his chest, powerful enough to knock him back a step. He looked down surprised at the attack from nowhere and saw a strange flat object stopped at a few centimeters from his chest by his flickering magical barrier.

He picked the object up and looked curiously at it, wondering what is it, for it does not look like a throwing dart, an arrowhead or even any hidden weapon he has seen before. Dante looked up and his smiling eyes narrowed, wondering who sent this to him that is strong enough to make him feel threatened and he crushed the heavy pellet in his fingers, flattening it more.

-----

Loke cursed, "Farking magic barriers! I hate magic sometimes!" He worked the bolt of his rifle and re-scope at the target but the Hero had vanished from view. "Fark!"

He keyed his micro communicator at his ear, "I lost sight of the Hero! Make ready, he's coming and he shielded!"

The rest of Claymore One returned their affirmatives and prepared themselves for a strong fight ahead while Loke took a running leap and jumped across the roof of the inn and landed on top of another building's roof across the street. The tiles cracked and shattered as he landed heavily, and pieces of tiles slid down and fell down to the streets.

"I see him!" Loke yelled into his comms, "One street down, right behind the girl next to the bakery!"

-----

"Roger!" Hitsu replied as he pushed past the crowd forming at the streets, and headed towards the bakery. He ignored the yells and cursed thrown his way as he shouldered roughly aside those in his way and he unwrapped his M2 Magespitter out, and did a quick check of his weapon and stepped out into the street where the bakery was located.

He saw the kid, Billy, her face frozen in terror as she ran blindly away from the monster behind her. Her cap had fallen off and her shoulder-length sweat-plastered hair flying wildly as she twisted her head to look behind her at the smiling Hero.

"Billy!" Hitsu yelled as he took a firing stance with his M2, aiming the sights down at the approaching Hero. "Over here!"

Billy spun her head around when she heard Hitsu's voice and her tear stained face broke into a relieved smile and she dashed with all her remaining strength towards Hitsu.

-----

Dante looked at the person dressed like an adventurer in leathers and holding something like a pole in his hands and his brow ceased slightly before he gave a shrug and raised his finger and a magic circle formed up before a bolt of light burst out and slammed into the girl's back. "Magic Missile!"

-----

"NO!" Hitsu shouted as he saw in horror the bolt of magic missile slammed into Billy's back, and she collapsed like a puppet with strings cut off. "YOU FARKER!"

He raised his weapon and fired in short bursts at the Hero standing at the end of the street while advancing step by step towards the fallen child. "FARK!"

-----

Tyrier pushed his way out of the gawking crowd and saw the girl downed by the Hero, and Hitsu advancing by fire towards the fallen girl. "Shit!"

"The girl is down!" Tyrier spoke into his comms, "Loke, overwatch now! The rest we need an exit now!" After he gave his orders he dashed forward to provide support for Hitsu.

-----

Dante face twisted as suddenly his magical barrier was barraged by dozens of attacks. Sparks and smoke exploded all over his magical shield and the impacts of the unknown spells were forcing him to step backward.

"What sorcery is this?" His normal smile disappeared and replaced with a cold glare, as he looked at the adventurer with the strange pole that was smoking and popping away with sparks at him. "Wand of magic missiles? Or a wand of lightning bolts?"

He narrowed his eyes as he felt his magic shield starting to weaken from the barrage of spells. "Sun god hear my prayers!" He started to gather his divine powers to empower himself. "Grant me the light to light up the night."

"For the light shall cast away the darkness from this land!"

141 - Hear No Evil

Uncharted Forest

"Look!" Norman cried out in surprise as they exited the edge of the forest after days of travel in the forest and came up next to the sheer cliff walls of Sawtooth Mountain. He pointed at a structure seemingly formed from the mountain itself, a fort right at the face of the mountainside. Lights lit up the side of the mountain and appeared to cast away the night from the fort.

Sergeant Eunos grinned, his white teeth a sharp contrast to the grey-black face paint, "Welcome to Fort Aegis!" He gestured to the stunned caravaners as the wagons rolled out one by one to full view of the stone fort.

Norman's eyes widen as they approached the dark gaping hole that was the gate into the fort. He noticed the surface of the walls were smooth and seamless, without any traces of seams or joints. His wagons stopped at the entrance and where several similarly dressed warriors without the facepaint and leaves and twigs stood guard. The stone grey walls had several long slit holes on their surfaces, spread evening among the wall and what looked like thin coils of wires covering the gateway.

The barbarian warrior next to him leaped off the wagon and navigated through the strange looking coils and approached the guards, doing some kind of hand gestures to the head before the one named Eunos walked back and waved them in and he suddenly blew a loud whistle which made no sense to Norman till his chief guard nudged him and pointed to the rear of the caravans.

He turned and looked, and was surprised again as scores of barbarian warriors emerged from the edge of the forest and into the lights cast by the fort, their strange outfits making them difficult to spot among the forest foliage. "We were guarded by so many barbarians?"

His guard shrugged, "I am not too sure, but I will expect so if they can fight and kill a bronze boa."

Norman was glad that he did not order his men to attack Eunos and his men if not his life will have been forfeited long ago by the barbarians surrounding them! He waved for the wagons to start moving forward, wanting to quickly unload the supplies and leave this place.

As they entered the gate, Norman was amazed by the strange strips of glowing light that lit the internal of the fort brightly. He noticed that the walls to the floor were a perfect even flat surface, no rough edges and he wondered how powerful the magic is needed to create such a perfect construct inside a mountain.

The guards led them to a huge cavern which was also brightly lit by the strips of strange magical lights and were told to unload within the yellow and white lines painted on the floor. Several strange looking people wearing uniformed grey clothes came up to the caravan as they stopped and asked, "Hey Sarge, who's the one in charge of this outfit?"

The barbarian escort jerked his thumb towards Norman who quickly went down his wagon to welcome the newcomers. "Greeting, I am the Trader Norman Stone, I represent North Star Trading."

"Sure, I am the Quartermaster here," the one that called out to their escort replied. He was shorter than the people around him and had jet black hair with slightly slanted eyes. "You can call me Chen." Norman suddenly stopped in his tracks as he noticed that the newcomers' ears were round and not long tipped!

The rumors and gossips he heard from others suddenly came into his mind, these must be the demons that the rebels had sold their soul to! His face turned ashen and he stood several steps away not daring to make a move as he stared at the hand offered out by the short one called 'Chen'.

QM Chen had held out his hand and felt awkward as the merchant looked frozen in his steps, his face looked pale and his lips were trembling. "Are you alright?"

"Ahh.. ahhh..." Norman trembled as he saw the short demon coming closer and jumped when someone tapped his back. "AHH!"

"Boss? Are you feeling well?" His guard looked at him with a strange look and Norman noticed him giving a subtle shake of his head.

"I... I am fine," Norman forced his emotions into control and gave a forced smile at the short demon. "Must be the weather, hot, cold, hot, cold..."

"Yea, I get that too, well, take a break if you need to," QM Chen gave a shrug, "We just need a few of your guys to do the stock taking, then we will be out of your hair."

Norman nodded hurriedly and made some agreeable noise from his throat and quickly disappeared to the rear of the wagons with his guard. "Demons!" He hissed in a low voice, "We are in a den of demons! Did you see their ears?"

His guard nodded, "But we have to pretend nothing is wrong, if not we only live to see the sun!"

Norman nodded worriedly, "Inform the men, tell them to act like nothing is wrong, and work quickly!" He ordered his guard, who nodded and left to tell the rest.

"Gods! Please keep us safe!"

-----

Falledge, a street away from the Prancing Pony Inn

Tyrier ran up next to Hitsu and slapped his shoulder, giving him a signal that he is next to him. Hitsu dropped down on one knee and swapped out his empty magazine while Tyrier advanced up firing his M2 with single shots steadily at the flickering blue white magic shield covering the Hero.

As Tyrier reached the girl, he took a knee and with his left hand he checked the pulse of the girl with keeping his steady fire at the Hero. "She still has a pulse!" He yelled at Hitsu who formed up next to Tyrier and the downed girl.

"Fark!" Hitsu saw the burnt and smoking wound on the back of Billy, her clothes burnt away and the white of bones could be seen glistening with blacken blood. "She looks bad! Young! I need you here now!"

"Got it!" Young replied on the squad channel, "ETA... Five mikes!"

"Reloading!" Tyrier yelled and Hitsu took over the cover fire, spamming shots at the Hero, preventing him from doing any action.

"Oh shit," Hitsu saw that the Hero started glowing, "He's gathering divine power! We need to get out of here now!"

"Go! I got the girl!" Tyrier yelled as he left his M2 on his sling and grabbed the unconscious girl up in a fireman carry. "Go, go, go!"

A sudden flare of bright light lit up the entire street like day, and the Hero in the middle of the eye scorching brightness and dashed forward, his right arm drew back in a punch.

"DOWN!" Hitsu yelled and threw himself out of the way of the Hero, while Tyrier dropped flat on the street, cradling and protecting the girl as much as he could when he felt the air on his back super heated up and a flash of light smashed into the gossiping crowd.

Wails and screams erupted from the crowd as bodies burst and burn, skin turning crisp and smoking as a concentrated beam of sun ray torched the watching crowd. Tyrier concentrated all his mana into his magical barrier, as the edges of the beam superheated the surrounding air and baked the steel plate in the leather armor on his back.

Hitsu after rolling away, scrambled up to a firing position and fired at the Hero, and cursed when he saw his bullets melting as they impacted the Hero's Sun Aura, leaving glowing red liquid dripping down. "Fark!"

The Hero looking like some superhero in the 2D picture movies Hitsu had watched back in base, was bathed in a white glow covering his whole body. The Hero turned and looked directly at Hitsu who was firing still at the Hero and closed the distance, swinging his arm, trying to punch Hitsu.

"Shit!" Hitsu kicked away from where he was crouching and rolled away, as the wall where he was at nearly exploded into smoke and pieces when the Hero's punch had landed. "These are the times, I hate magic!"

Tyrier pushed himself up and lifted the girl, "Distract him and I get the girl to safety!"

"Wh-what?" Hitsu yelled as he heard Tyrier's command in the comms, "Seriously? No help?"

"Loke!" Tyrier snapped as he took the opportunity to run away from the Hero who was busy trying to beat Hitsu up into a pulp.

"Wait one!" Loke's voice came back, "That crazy son of a bitch blew the building I was in up!" He climbed out from the rubbles covered in brick and stone dust from the second floor. "Goddamn it! I hate fighting magic users!"

"Ain't you one yourself?" Doth teased as he and Young appeared around the corner of the street, ignoring the overcooked bodies and the smell of roast meat. "Engaging!"

Sparks and molten lead dotted the Hero's body as rounds fired by Doth and Young slammed into him at the side. The Hero jerked in surprise despite the divine power protecting him, kinetic energy was still transferred into his body, knocking him around.

Hitsu took the opportunity to drop his emptied M2 on his sling and quick drew his Glock and emptied the whole 30 round magazine into the center of mass of the Hero, causing the Hero to cry out in pain and shock as he raised his hands to block the bullets slamming into him and toppled into the ruins of the wall.

"Now run!" Doth yelled and Hitsu turned without even bothering to check if the Hero was dead or not and just took off on his heels.

"Link up at the Merchant district!" Tyrier voice came in, "We are getting out of here now!"

----

Dante coughed and spat out blood as he laid in the ruins of the brick wall, his divine powers gently ebbed away, and the glow from his body died down. He pushed himself wobbly up and spat another glob of blood out of his mouth and rubbed his swollen arms and chest where the strange spells had hit him.

He bent down with a wince and picked up a piece of deformed lead, and crushed it in his hands. "Now this is something new," His cold and hard glaze disappearing and replaced by a boyish and charming smile. "I haven't bled in over fifty years!"

He stepped out of the ruins and ignored the cries of pain raising from the wounded and walked back to the New Dragon Gate Inn. Those that hurt him will soon face his wrath, and the Huntress will be able to track those that ran away tonight.

-----

Falledge, Merchant District Entrance

"Let's me see!" Young bent over the wounded girl and placed his hand over the wound, "Minor Heal!" He cast a healing spell to stabilize her condition and started cleaning and applying some medicine over the wound. "She's stable now but it doesn't look so good, we need to get her to a healing house or a proper hospital!"

"Shit," Hitsu cursed, "What now?"

"We find my friend," Tyrier said, "Then we get out tonight!"

"How about her?" Hitsu asked, gesturing the girl under Young's treatment.

"We bring her along," Tyrier hesitated before saying. "The Hero is willing to show his face to kill, she must know something that is able to make that guy go on a killing spree!"

"Damn," Young cursed, "I prep her for transport."

"Alright, you four stay here and keep watch for that maniac," Tyrier gestured Altied, Doth, Tavel and Young to stay. "I will go with Hitsu and Loke to talk to my friend first and get some supplies, then we move out."

"Got it!" The men nodded and spread out to take up positions to keep the surrounding area under watch.

"Let's go find Otoro and get the hell outta this place!"

142 - Speak No Evil

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Blake nodded at the two Marine guards and palmed open the armored blast doors leading into the Bridge and stopped the Marine from announcing his arrival. He quickly climbed up the steps and stood next to the tactical plot table, "What's the situation now?"

"Sir!" The officer of the watch greeted Blake, "Claymore One has reported that they are engaged with the Hero roughly 20 minutes ago and have just managed to disengaged in battle with him."

Blake's raised his eyebrows in surprise, "What happened? I thought the last transmission we had with them was to stay out of the way of the Hero?"

"Yes Sir," The officer replied, "But they found an informant of theirs being chased and attacked by the Hero. The Hero has attacked anyone in his way in the town to try to kill off the informant so far."

Blake tapped the table with his fingers before saying, "Get me all the info we have on the Hero so far."

"Yes, Sir!" The officer nodded and started to key into his tablet to bring up all the files they had on the Hero, before transferring the data over to Blake's tablet.

Blake sat down on his command chair and the Officer started the briefing, "Date and place of birth unknown, age unknown, previously known location was at the Capital of Bluewood."

"Powers appeared to be some blessing of the Sun God, giving him supernatural powers and strength," Blake listen on, "First seen, in the Year 71, but multiple sightings and appearances over a period of 150 years, till this Year 231. Rumors are either he obtained the divine fragment from the Sun God or he was blessed by the God himself."

"Unconfirmed reports that the power is passed on to another person or that the powers granted the user eternal life. Last known affiliation unknown, but suspected to be with the Empire of Bluewood." The officer finished the short brief, "That's all the information Intel has gathered from Empire defectors and the people of Goldrose. Also, almost everyone heard of the Hero as a bedtime story."

"So are we dealing with an urban myth, folktale or a real Hero...hero?" Blake pondered, which the officer gave a shrug, "Sir, it could just someone who found some godlike powers."

"Are we still able to contact Claymore One?" Blake asked.

"Yes sir," The officer replied, "We have them on standby. They are planning to leave the town now and will head towards the location of the freed slaves. They will push up the escort mission by one day."

"Contact them," Blake said, "Tell them to use extreme measures to ensure the safety of the team and their informant. The suspect hero is heavily armed and dangerous and if he is willing to kill in front of so much eyewitness despite being a 'Hero' their informant must have found out something that is potentially very valuable. Ensure all means to protect the safety of the informant."

"Yes Sir!"

-----

Falledge, Clubs and Royals Gentlemen's Club

Tyrier ignored the indignant cries of the footman as he barged his way in with Hitsu and Loke on tow, kicking the double rosewood doors open with his booted feet. "Stuff it!" He shoved past another footman who tried to block his entrance and stormed into the main hall of the Clubs and Royals.

The commotion attracted the attention of everyone and they stared at the black powder stained, disheveled man armed with a metal and wooden pole. His clothes with ripped and dirt-stained, with a hint of urine stench. Otoro looked with dismay when he recognized the face under all the smudge.

"Otoro!" Tyrier stormed up directly at his pudgy friend who looked at him with surprise in his face. "We need to talk now!"

"Sir!" The manager of the Clubs and Royals arrived, flanked with four large muscular men, "We request you leave this premises now!"

Otoro stared at the fierce glint in Tyrier's eyes and looked at the manager, "Wait, let me talk with him."

"But Sir! This man barged into the Club and is violating the laws!" The manager exclaimed, "He is disturbing all the guests here!"

"It's alright," Otoro waved away the manager's concerns, "I can vouch for his conduct."

Otoro then led Tyrier to a private corner, ignoring the indignant manager. "What is it? Are you alright?" On closer inspection, Otoro saw specks of dried blood on Tyrier's clothes and face. "What is going on?"

"I'm fine," Tyrier brushed off Otoro's concerns, "We need to move up the transportation of the freed slaves."

"What?" Otoro looked around to make sure no one is nearby to hear their conversation. "Why? Did the city guards found out? Is that why you are in this state?"

"You know the Hero?" Tyrier asked, "He's out in the streets murdering people, and he has targeted one of mine,"

"What? The Hero is killing people?" Otoro felt the news was unbelievable. "But he's the hero! How will he want to kill innocent people!"

"I don't care about that now," Tyrier said harshly, "Tell me where the freed people are, and I will move them out now, tonight! It's getting more dangerous here now!"

"Alright!" Otoro nodded and dug into his pockets searching for something before he gave an 'ah' and took out a small runestone. "Here, this will lead you to where the place where they are currently at. Just imbue some of your magic powers and it will show you the way."

Tyrier nodded and pocketed the runestone, "How about supplies, is it ready?"

"It should be, we had stored most of the traveling supplies at that place, but we wouldn't have all the wagons and land dragons to move everyone," Otoro said, "The rest was supposed to come on the day itself but..."

"It's alright," Tyrier said, placing his hand on Otoro's shoulder, "Thanks buddy, you watch yourself, especially with that Hero, he is not what he seems."

"I.. see," Otoro nodded, and gripped Tyrier's hand, "You be careful, see you when I see you!" With that, Tyrier turned and left, and with the other two scruffy looking adventurers, they left the Clubs and Royals with the manager and his goons escorting them.

Otoro stood at the same spot watching his friend disappear from his view and a strange glint in his eyes.

-----

Tyrier deftly climbed over the low wall, where they had left the rest and everyone gathered up in the empty courtyard. "How's the girl?"

"She's stable, gave her some tranq shot," Young replied, "She won't feel a thing nor wake up for the next six hours give or take."

"Good," Tyrier nodded, "We are moving out," He tossed a pebble-like object to Altied, "You're on point, put some magical energy into it and it will lead us to the freed slaves location. Hitsu help with the girl."

"Boss, HQ sent new instructions," Doth said, "We are to keep the girl alive and safe, she's our number one priority now, the secondary mission is the escort of the freed slaves."

"Got it," Tyrier gave a nod to everyone, "Check your gear and let's move!"

-----

Altied hugged the side of the building as he navigated down the street, heading towards the western gate of the town. He felt the runestone tugging his senses towards that direction. The streets were strangely deserted, the windows of the buildings were all shut up tightly, barely a sliver of lamp light leaking out.

In the far distance, cries and wails got be heard on and off, raising and falling as the maze-like streets echoed the sounds. Reaching an intersection, he paused and took a quick peek left and right, and Young behind him clapped his shoulders before he took over in a low run to the next block of buildings across the street.

Altied peeked out again and gave a thumbs up, signaling to the rest to move up, and they started to dash across the open street, alert for any hostiles. Hitsu carried the unconscious girl on his back, tied up with some rope into a support sling, carrying her like a backpack. They continued in this way until they reached the dark looming town walls.

Peeking out from a hidden corner of the street, Altied counted five guards, that appeared to be on high alert, as they stood watching nervously around them, the cries and wails in the distance unnerving them.

"Knock them out with non-lethal means," Tyrier whispered and the five of them excluding Hitsu who carried the girl and Young stayed in the shadows . The five Claymore One members quietly crawled their way across the open expanse between the walls and building they were hidden next to. They sneaked past the hundred meters or so of open area and crouched next to the walls, the firelight from the burning brazier effectively blinding the guards' night vision as they crowded around it nervously.

With barely a sound, the five of them approached as one, looming up behind each suspecting guard and with a quick chokehold, all five were dragged away and knocked out without causing any alarm from the patrolling guards on top of the walls. Their unconscious bodies were dumped in a dark shadow zone and Hitsu and young rapidly dashed across the open area and hugged against the gate.

The heavy bolt was pushed back and the small wooden side door built into the huge gates was slowly and carefully opened, to prevent any squeaky hinges from sounding. The group slipped through the opened door and closed it before disappearing into the night, headed towards the cover of the forest.

-----

Falledge, New Dragon Gate Inn

Dante strolled up the stairs smilingly, ignoring the questions from the innkeeper and his minions and knocked on the room door of where Liz and Evelyn were staying in. After a short while, a sleepy looking Evelyn opened the door, dressed in a simple frilly nightgown.

Dante smiled cheerfully and entered the room, brushing past the groggy huntress. "I need your help!"

"Huh? what?" Evelyn rubbed her sleepy eyes and flinched from the bright glow of light on Dante's finger, which lit up the dark room. The sleeping form of Liz got to be seen snuggled up in the bed covers, giving a soft snooze once a while.

"I need you to help me track a few people," Dante said, and he placed a flattened piece of lead on the table.

Evelyn headed towards the side table and poured some water onto the copper basin and splashed her face, before lighting up a table lamp and carrying it to the table where Dante was seated. She put the lamp down and picked up the piece of lead and sniffed it, and also coughed as the stench of urine was very strong to her magically enhanced sense of smell. "What is this?" She held the lead piece away from her and rubbed her nose.

"Are you fine?" Evelyn asked as she looked at the dust-stained clothes of Dante. She patted at his hair, dusting away some tiny pieces of stone. "Why are you in such a mess?"

"I am fine," Dante smiled and gestured the lead again, "How?"

"I should be able to track who that belongs to," Evelyn said, turning towards the lead piece on the table. Dante suddenly reached out and grabbed her and sat her onto his lap, grinning at her surprised and blushing face. "We can't" She whispered to Dante.

"Why not?" Dante smiled, "Liz is sleeping, as long as you don't make any loud noises... she wouldn't know!"

"But..." Evelyn wanted to protest but Dante kissed her deeply and all thoughts of protest disappeared as her mind went blank. "mmmmm...."

Both her and Dante clothes were soon removed and Evelyn mounted Dante on the chair, burying her head on his shoulders as they writhed against each other in pleasure and Evelyn collapsed on top of Dante, exhausted while he sat there with an amused glint in his eyes.

143 - Tears of the Sun

Kaga was rudely awakened when she heard loud bangings and frightened cries coming from outside the shared living quarters. She rolled off the wooden pallet and spied out the cracks of the wall panels. She saw several of the helpers that provided food to the people were holding burning torches and gathered at the main gate which someone or something was banging loudly at.

"What's happening?" Someone asked in the room as the people sleeping inside were waking up by the dim outside. "I don't know!"

The banging grew louder and yells and shouts could be heard coming from the gate, before it burst open, swinging creakily on the rusty hinges. Gasps were heard from the helpers who brandished their flaming torches at the intruders who barged in.

Kaga's eyes widened in fear as she thought that the Empire soldiers had come to arrest them and take them back to slavery. The others having the same thoughts panicked and started to flee out of the buildings, hoping to escape the Empire soldiers.

But she saw only several dark figures at the gate who entered and closed the gate before the firelight lit up their features and they do not dressed like any Empire soldier. One of them was even carrying a child on his back.

She walked out of the building and came up close until she could hear what the housekeeper and the newly arrived men were talking about.

"- move now!" The foremost scruffy looking male spoke sharply at the housekeeper, who face was turning pale at the bloodthirsty sight of his eyes. "There is no time, gather all the people and load up the supplies as fast as possible, we need to leave now!"

"But.. but!" The housekeeper sputtered, trying to reason with the tall scary looking man. "We do not have enough wagons! And some are still sick! Nor are the adventurers escorting them here! It is suicidal to go out there!"

"The Empire is coming!" The man angrily hissed, "If you stay any longer, everyone dies!"

The housekeeper paused at the man's angry words, "They know...? Oh, the heavens! Quick!" He turned around and gestured wildly at his helpers, "Wake them all up and get whoever is able bodied to help load the supplies into the wagons we have now! And hitch the dragons up to wagons too!"

The helpers hearing that quickly dispersed and started to call out the people still indoors and also rounded up those that went hiding away. Kaga watched as the leader of the fierce-looking group sat down at one of the outdoor benches and the rest of his party gathered around him.

Soon the whole yard was a hive of activity as workers and the ex slaves started to carry and hoist sacks of food and barrels of water onto the wagons while other harnessed the land dragons in the stables and led the sleepy beasts to be hitched onto the wagons. The word had spread that the Empire will be coming soon lit a fire under the ex slaves, who worked without complaint and rest, and soon everything that could be loaded up was done.

The weak and sick were placed on the remaining empty spaces onboard the wagons while the rest moved on foot, as they headed out of the yard led by the fierce looking mercenary who brought the news of the Empire's arrival. They hurried along with the wagons, using the dim stars lit sky to light their way as torches or lamps were forbid by the mercenaries, to prevent the Empire soldiers from spotting them, they said.

The camp was so abandoned as the housekeeper and his staff scurried away home, not wanting to be caught when the Empire's soldier came to raid.

-----

Dante stepped out of the shower tub, and carried Evelyn's exhausted body out of the tub, wrapping them both with a dry towel. They have returned to Dante's room for another bout of intense lovemaking before showering.

Dante casually wiped himself dry and dress up, before un-sheathing his greatsword and used its edge to open a cut on his finger. He then used his blood to draw runes on the surface of the greatsword before imbuing it with his magic powers.

Evelyn woke up at some point and watched Dante at his work, only when he was finished did she snuggled up next to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Great!" Dante smiled, "Get dressed, its nearly morning, we will grab some breakfast before we head out."

Evelyn nodded and kissed the side of Dante's face before slipping on her nightgown and exited his room. Dante stood up and gave a few swipes of his sword in the room, making and blood red after image with each swipe, the force of the swipes shaking the room slightly. Finally satisfied, he returned his sword back into the sheath and headed down the inn to find some food.

Stab and Liz were surprised that they were moving out so soon after they arrived at the town. Dante just casually explained that they are hunting a group of adventurers who were holding a child and that the child was in danger.

Liz almost immediately stood up and said, "Evildoers! Bullying and threatening children! We must stop them!" And she almost stormed off, when Stab stopped her by pulling her robes.

"Where do you think you are going?" Stab sighed, he had heard of the commotion that was going on outside during the night when he was having several drinks at a pub a few streets away. He did not think that it was due to Dante trying to save the child and fought against several people and he wasn't victorious. It was almost impossible, thought Stab as he knew that Dante was one of the strongest fighters he ever has seen. "Do you know how to find them in the first place?"

"..." Liz froze and jerked her robes away from Stab before returning to her seat and buried her blushing face into her mug of hot milk. "..."

"Don't worry," Dante smiled and patted Liz's head, her fuzzy red hair standing out without her usual pointed hat. "Evelyn has gotten their scent, she can track them easily."

Evelyn nodded, "As long as it does not rain, I can find their tracks."

"Good, everyone full?" Dante asked, "Alright, let's go!"

-----

After a few hours of tracking and searching, the Hero's party arrived before them a large camp surrounded with wooden palisades and a stout gate. Pushing the gates open, showed the camp had an abandoned feel to it. The party stayed within sight of each other and they checked each and every building, finding it empty and the signs showed it was abandoned in a hurry.

"Looks like everyone left in a hurry," Stab said as he came out of the last building shaking his head. "No one is home."

Dante nodded, as he sat on the bench which Tyrier and Claymore One had sat on a few hours earlier. "Evelyn?"

The Huntress stood braced on top of one of the roofs of the buildings, staring out into the sea of trees surrounding them. "They left that way, at least nine wagons and dragons, almost 300 people." She pointed towards the south.

Next, she gestured down to the tracks on the ground floor from the roof. "You can roughly see how many different sets of feet there and the lines drawn by the wagons."

"I found several sacks of dried rations and some water barrels in the stores," Stab said, as he joined Dante and Liz at the bench. "I think they took what they could and left the rest."

"This group looks quite big, are you sure this is the correct people we are supposed to go after?" Stab asked Evelyn who had nimbly climbed down the side of the building and joined them.

She nodded and indicated to the bench which they were sitting on, "I can smell the same scent which Dante gave me to track them with." She bent down and sniffled the wood, "No doubt about it, it's the same scent!" She rubbed her nose.

"I thought we are going after a small group of people over a child, but this looks like more than that," Stab said, "Could it be some kind of kidnapping racket?"

Dante gave a good natured shrug, "We will know when we find them," He turned to look towards the south, his eyes turning cold.

-----

Southwest of Falledge, Uncharted Forest

Two untidy lines of tired people were walking on the sides of the row dragon pulled wagons. The lines weaved around the massive tree roots and disappeared from view in the forest. Kaga slowly put one put before the other as her healed sores on her feet were started to hurt again after more than half a days travel.

As she rounded a bend, she saw the head of the column had stopped and the people were gathered around a clearing. Her stomach rumbled when she saw some people starting to take out cooking pots from the wagons and remember the last time she ate was dinner the other day.

The people surrounding her saw that the cooking pots were being laid out over cook fires, forgot about their tiredness and pushed themselves faster, flopping down on the green grass when they reached the gathered wagons.

Kaga headed for the water barrel set out with ladles for people to drink and pour a mouthful into her parched throat. The mid-spring weather made the forest humid and hot, making her sweaty and sticky. She wished that there was a river for them to wash up as the water in the barrels were limited and precious.

"Alright, people listen up!" The mercenary from before stood on top of one of the wagons yelled, "I will form every one of you into teams. Each team will be responsible for one aspect of workload, be it cooking, driving the wagons or collecting firewood."

"There are no maids or servants here," Tyrier continued, "Everyone has to play their own parts if we are to survive the trek to safety! After getting fed, I want to start organizing every one of you. Now, drink more water, get some food and rest!"

Kaga nodded, thinking that what he said was right, and headed to one of the cookpots was an ex-slave was stirring some grain porridge with strips of dead meat inside. Several chipped bowls were set to the side and Kaga took one and had the cook serve her up one big bowl of porridge with some chunks of vegetables and strips of dried meat and started feasting.

Tyrier hopped down the wagon and looked worriedly to the rear, where small groups of stragglers were coming in slowly. "Shit, this is not good. We have too many people lagging behind."

Young stood next to Tyrier and said, "If the Hero is chasing her, he should have come by now. I don't think we need to worry much about pursuit now."

"I don't think that S O B will give up so fast," Tyrier said. "There is only seven of us to guard this rubble of over three hundred, we can't be everywhere if they are strung out too far back."

"Hitsu, Loke, and Tavel are acting as the rearguard," Young said, "They should be able to handle anything that comes their way."

"I seriously hope so," Tyrier said grimly.

-----

"Yup, the campfires are still warm," Stab dug his fingers into the soil covered campfires. "I say, half a day ahead of us?"

Dante smiled, "We are getting close." He looked up to the sky, "It will be dark soon, but we should be able to catch up with them before the sun sets."

"Let's go!" Liz waved her staff threatening, "I want my bed! And a shower! I will make those people that forced me out here to suffer!"

Dante laughed and patted Liz's shoulder, "Get them we will! Let's go!"

144 - Sum of All Fears

Kingdom of Bluewood, Imperial Capital

A tall muscular bald elf wearing pure black plate mail with a crest of a twin-tailed scorpion strolled past the featureless Lifeguards of the Emperor, his plated boots clanking as he walked down the narrow spiral stone steps and entering into an underground hall. The globes of light moss lit the way for him as he pushed the heavy stout wooden door open and entered a stone chamber of horrors.

Dozens of tables and wall racks hung naked people of all races, sex, and ages in various poses of agony. Some had their eyelids cut away, and forced to watch various kinds of torture inflicted on their bodies, while others had their tongues removed. The black armored elf stood before a table filled with instruments of torture and gently removed his plated gloves, and slapping them on top of the table, ignoring the screams of the condemned.

The Emperor bent over the wriggling body of Sturm, eagle spread over a rack with steel bars securing his arms and legs and watched his mage drawing lines of arcane symbols that confound and distort the mind. Sturm's mouth was opened in agony, a dark bloodied pit of emptiness as his tongue and teeth were all forcibly removed. His eyelids were also cut away, forcing him to watch the dark mage drawing magic runes on his body with the blood of the sacrificed.

Once the hooded mage was done with his art, he bowed to the Emperor who smiled and patted Sturm's shoulder in an assuring way. "My dear Sturm, well let this be as enjoying to me as to you." The Emperor then turned and nodded to his mage who started to whisper some form of chant which crawled the insides of the mind if one were to listen closely to it.

Suddenly Sturm jerked upwards, despite the steel bands holding his body, he bent up in an arc, thick veins appeared over his head and body as he contorted in pain and suffering. Underneath his skin, worm-like veins were wriggling all over his body and his body turning red and his temperature went up higher and higher.

The Emperor tilted his head as he watched in fascination at the changes occurring to Sturm's body. The skin of Sturm grew taut and turn dark shiny brown, his muscles growing abnormally, while his pupils turn red and sharp teeth grew out from his toothless gums. The metal bands holding on to his arms and legs creaked and strained as Sturm struggled and growled in suffering.

Finally, after a turn of the glass, Sturm slumped down back onto the rack, his lidless eyes staring blankly at the stone ceiling while his chest rose up and down as his body had changed to almost twice of his actual size.

The Emperor clapped his hands happily, as the mage bowed and gestured that the experiment is a success. "Well, at least you can be useful even if you have failed me after all." He turned to the newcomer and smiled, "So what do you think?"

The bald knight just gave a raised eyebrow look and said, "Won't know till he goes into the battlefield."

"Ahh, my esteemed mage here assures me that his," The Emperor gestured the changed Sturm on the rack, "Bronze Men, are more capable than our knights, one of them equaling 10 knights in strength and resistance. Normal swords and spears can barely penetrate their bronzed bodies."

The bald knight shrugged, and repeated, "Still have to see their performance on the battlefield."

"Haha," The Emperor laughed, "Then he's all yours! Since you caught him and brought him back to me. How's the situation at the border?'

The bald knight just gave a casual nod, "Not good, the two nations had allied up and are resisting rather strongly. But your Bronze Men are still tough as claimed, we should be able to force breakthrough before winter."

"And the rebels?" The Emperor stabbed the unmoving body of Sturm with a dagger. "How do you plan to deal with them?"

"I have sent the Hero down to deal with it first," The black knight replied, "The priority now is the Two Nation Alliance. The Hero should be able to deal with them, if not after we crushed the Two Nations, we can easily divert all our attention to the south, once we unite the whole New land."

"Good," The Emperor looked at the skin of Sturm were he had stabbed hard with his dagger, yet there was barely a mark seen. "I will be sending all the Bronze Men we have to be under your command.'

The black knight nodded, "I will make preparations for departure as soon as possible. Please send the Bronze Men to the Black Scorpion Legion barracks." The knight then gave a bow and departed from the stone chamber.

"Don't fail me, Rock..." The Emperor advised at the disappearing back of the knight and smiled at his mage. "Now, who is next?" He rubbed his hands together in glee.

-----

Uncharted Forest, 479 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass

"GO, GO, GO!" Tyrier yelled as he fired at the approaching blue-coated soldiers mounted on dragons. He pushed the frightened ex-slave as he aimed at the charging dragons. His single shots snapping the soldiers off their saddles.

"Come on!" Altied helped one of the fallen ex-slaves up from the ground and urged the rest to run faster. "Where the hell did those blue boys come from?"

"I have no idea!" Doth yelled over the dim of gunfire, as he crouched next to tree root and fired single shots at the dragon cavalry. "I thought we are dealing with that Hero guy only!"

Unknown to Claymore One, the Hero and his party had managed to track the escaping slaves and Dante sent Stab back to Falledge to the garrison to bring reinforcements. Stab had shown up at the garrison and showed a letter to the garrison commander who immediately after reading it, turned pale and followed all instructions given by Stab.

It took the garrison's cavalry 3 days to catch up with the Hero and his party who followed behind the convoy and they took the opportunity to attack the ex-slaves when they stopped to setup camp.

"Go!" The men of Claymore One held the rear and proceded in a tactical withdrawal, buying time for the non-combatants to escape. Due to their firepower, they managed to stall and even led the pursuing cavalry into an ambush which decimated more than half their numbers.

"Doth!" Tyrier yelled, "You gotten in contact with HQ?" He dropped down behind a massive tree root and replaced his empty magazines with a fresh one.

"Negative!" Doth yelled back from a tree further down the line. "Too much interference from the trees!"

"Damn!" Tyrier cursed, he patted his ammo pouches and found he barely had two magazines left. "Try harder! Find high ground!" He yelled back to Doth who nodded and dashed off somewhere.

"Ammo status?" Tyrier yelled to the rest.

"Two mags!"

"Three left!"

"Same three here!"

"Shit, at this rate we need to go melee!" Tyrier cursed to himself. "And the damn Hero hasn't shown his face yet!"

"Save the last two mags for the Hero and his party!" Tyrier ordered, "Switch to melee against the blue boys!"

Suddenly, a warcry roared out from dozens and dozens of soldiers as they charged across the trees to close in with Claymore One. "CHARGGEEEE!"

Tyrier dropped his M2 and drew his longsword, stepping over the roots of the tree he was at and skewered a charging blue coated soldier right in the chest. The boyish features of the soldier's eyes widen in shock and he crumbled down while Tyrier barely gave a second glance at the dying soldier.

Hitsu raised his palm up and two blue magic circles appeared and a crack of lightning flared out, followed by a strong smell of ozone and burnt meat as he blasted at the enemy soldiers. He blocked a spear thrust and grabbed the spear and jerked the surprised soldier holding the spear towards him and impaled his sword bayonet into the surprised soldier.

Taver leaned against the tree roots and calmly fired his M2 at the charging soldiers, at the short distance, he barely missed, each shot dropped a blue coated soldier. Altied also did the same, popping single shots at the enemy, providing cover for the rest.

Young and Loke were leading and escorting the escaping slaves, while the rest held the rear, trading spells, and gunfire. And just as suddenly as it happened, it was over, the Empire soldiers were either dead or dying, the small battlefield was littered with the dead and dying.

"Grab whatever is useful!" Tyrier ordered, "Five minutes then we retreat!"

The men quickly went forward and started to loot the bodies of the Empire soldiers, picking up swords, water skins, dried rations, and even healing items. They gathered the weapons and retreated, leaving behind broken bodies. They managed to catch up with the ex slaves and handed out the weapons and supplies to them, as they had run away when attacked, leaving behind most of their supplies of food and water.

"I think the Hero is purposely draining our strength before he will show himself," Young spoke up as he applied some medical paste on a sword cut on Tyrier's arm. "At this rate without any supplies, we will be cut down one by one."

"Damn," Tyrier looked at the frightened and exhausted ex slaves. "How many made it?"

"I did a roll call earlier," Young replied as he bandaged up the wound. "232 of them, roughly 110 people are missing or lost."

"Shit!" Tyrier flexed his bandaged armed and grimaced. "Doth! Did you managed to contact HQ yet?"

"I am still trying!" Doth was perched on top of a tree branch, the radio headset covering his ears while he fiddled with the dials of the radio. "No go!"

"Keep trying, if you managed to get to HQ, tell them we need a dust off, ammo and supplies," Tyrier ordered.

"Hitsu, find out who can fight or know how to use a sword," Tyrier ordered next, "Issue out the swords we got from the Empire." Hitsu nodded and started yelling to the ex slaves who were huddled up together.

'Tavel, check our total ammunition amount," Tyrier said next to Tavel, "Redistrub the ammo evenly out."

A smallish girl with white hair and fluffy ears suddenly stood before Tyrier who looked up in surprise," Yes? Can I help you?"

"I can help!" The cat girl said, "I- I know how to fight with magic! My name is Kaga, Kaga Whitetail!"

"Thanks," Tyrier smiled at the cat girl who barely reached his chest height and looked like eighteen or sixteen, "Then I will like you to help protect the women and children."

"But... I know magic!" Kaga protested, "I can help kill the Empire soldiers!"

Tyrier shook his head, wondering what is happening to his world were women and children have to fight and kill just to live. "It's all good," He assured the cat girl, "I am sure your magic powers are very strong, but I rather need you to protect the rest."

Hitsu came up at this time and cleared his throat, "Boss, I got about 40 men and women here who knows how to use a sword."

"Ok, gather them together," Tyrier stood up and rubbed the head of the cat girl who frowned, "Go look after the rest." Just as Loke yelled from his vantage point.

"Contacts!" Loke yelled down from the tree he was in, he spotted more blue coats moving among the trees. "They are about five, ten minutes away!"

"Go!" Tyrier gestured Kaga towards the rest and headed to where Hitsu is gathered with the slaves that knew how to handle a sword. "Protect the rest for me ok?" He left Kage who stood there staring at him with tears forming in her eyes.

"Come on! It is a good day to die!"

145 - Rearguard

Clashes of steel and iron rang out among the trees where two groups were fighting. On one side were men and woman dressed in simple woven tunics and trousers while the other group was soldiers in blue coats and plate mail. Grunts and curses accompanied each swing and stab of the sword as both sides fought to overwhelm each other.

Tyrier flung a ball of fire into a group of soldiers who raised their shields to block only to get their shields shattered away and bones breaking from the explosion. He parried a swing from another blue coated soldier and hammered his dull blade onto the armored pauldron of his opponent, barely denting it. But it made his opponent curse in pain and Tyrier smashed the half helm of the soldier with a reverse slash, sending the shocked soldier tumbling over the forest undergrowth.

"Goddammit it!" Tyrier dropped his blunt and bent blade and quickly drew his Glock out and fired at the fallen soldier. He stepped back from the fight and took a quick check around his surroundings, taking note of his own guys and he fired at the blue coated soldiers who were overwhelming the armed slaves.

Tyrier took a quick breather, and reholstered his pistol before grabbing an abandoned ax spear from the ground and charged at one of the enemies who was engaged with a couple of slaves. He rammed the spear with all his body weight into the side of the unaware soldier, the edged tip punching through the side plate mail leather covers and into the guts, citing a dying scream from the soldier.

He pulled out and swiped the spear around, giving some breathing space for the two clearly exhausted and wounded slaves. The fighting had been brutal and dirty, the trees had forced the fighting into pockets of small conflicts. The remaining two Empire soldiers stared out with hate-filled eyes from the eye slits of their helms at Tyrier as he kept the spear between them.

Tyrier sighed and suddenly reversed the spear and stabbing it into the ground before whipping out his pistol and gave each of the surprised soldiers a shot each before picking up his spear again. "Grab their shields and replace any swords or weapons with dulled edges!" He instructed the two slaves behind him, "Quickly now!"

The two winded slaves quickly dashed forward and grabbed the fallen weapons and equipment on the ground, while Tyrier kept a watch around them. "GET DOWN!" He suddenly yelled when he felt goosebumps rising on his skin and he dropped flat.

The two slaves were slower and they paused, turning to see what was the problem when a dozen bolts of energy blew up the area around them. Tyrier rolled away to the side until he reached the cover of a tree root while the area he was before was smoking and bits of bark and flesh rained down.

As the smoke cleared, both the slaves were down, parts of their body missing and smoldering from the effect of the spells. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!" A childish girlish voice was heard laughing, "Die you, evil man! Know the power of I, Liz the greatest mage ever!" A petite sized girl appeared several meters away, perched on top of a tree root. She waved her staff and posed, all the while laughing to herself.

"What the... fark?" Tyrier peeked over the side and saw the scene, "Damn kid is crazy!"

He turned back into cover and unslung his M2, and slowly leaned out while prone, placing his rifle sights at the crazy girl who had started chanting and preparing to cast spells. He lined up the rear and front sights directly at the center of mass and squeezed the trigger twice. The painful slam of the rifle butt against his shoulder felt comforting, like an old friend.

Both bullets slammed into the girl mage, the impacts barely shattered her magic shields but was enough to break her concentration of her spells and also it knocked her off the tree. "Ahhhhhhh!"

"Crazy bitch!" Tyrier spat, "Eat lead!" He quickly rosed from his position and weaved through the trees, "Fall back. fall back!" The Hero's party members have started to show their powers, it would mean that the Hero will act soon. "Come on people! BACK!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"---more One, ----est re--for--ent unde- ---tack by her- and emp-- forc-s" A choppy transmission burst was broadcasted into the headphones of the radio operator. "Repea-, nee- sup---t now!"

"XO!" The radio operator yelled out, urgently waving for Commander Ford to come over. "I am picking up a transmission with Claymore One identifier. The signal is very gabbled up but it will appear that they are in trouble."

"Let me hear," Ford leaned over the comms panel and held the offered headset to his ear, listening to the playback. "Shit. Get me the Captain, Commander Tommy and Major Frank on the line now, put it on the command chair."

"Yes, sir!" The female operator quickly punched in the call to the Captain and the Airforce and Marine commanders to the command chair of the bridge which Ford quickly sat on.

"Captain!" Ford greeted Blake and gave a nod to Tommy and Frank when they all log in to the call. "Got a situation again. Claymore One appeared to be under attack, permission to engage retrieval protocols?"

Blake nodded, "Do it, I will be in my office in..." He glanced at the digital timer on the side, "10 minutes. Brief me what's going on there. Tommy prep the birds, Frank get your boys loaded and ready to move."

"Yes sir!" The men acknowledged the order and left the chat.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Airbase, Valkyrie Hanger One

The old support base was rebuilt and refurbished to be an Airbase for the planes, dragons, and Airforce. Inside the brightly lit hanger, a single boxy looking craft was nested on its four landing gears, and a large crew of technicians, elves, humans, and even a few goblins dress in a various color-coded vest over work overalls swarmed the craft.

"Come on!" Chief Gale yelled at his crew as they serviced the craft, "Move those asses of yours, load up the extra fuel canisters, remove all the external armor plating!" He stood over the crew as they labored with powered tools, unbolting huge plates of armor plating from the bird.

Two goblins wearing oversized ear mufflers, a black hockey like helmet, and a green vest over their kid-sized overalls, pushed a trolley ladened with a massive fuel tank pod. They both eagerly scampered across the hanger and parked the trolley at the color coded box drawn on the floor, handing over to the crew with a yellow vest.

Chief Gale kept a wary eye on the goblins as they scampered back happily to the elevators that lead to underground storage to pick up the second load of fuel tanks. Shaking his head, "Damn, never would I thought that I will have goblins under my watch."

"Chief!" Flight Lieutenant Peter walked into the hanger, with his flight helmet held roguishly at his side. "How's everything?"

"So far so good," Chief Gale replied, "Just that those goblins give me the creeps." He unconsciously patted his sidearm to make use it is there.

"But I heard they are pretty handy on maintenance," Peter said as he watched two goblins giggling away as they push a fuel pod out from the elevator. "They seem so happy and eager too."

"Yea, I just hope they don't turn on us," Chief Gale frowned. "Those creatures seemed to worship technology. They have been praying to the planes, calling it some kind of Machine God..." He rubbed his head as a headache sudden threaten to pop out. "Gods, I am getting too old for this shit."

"Hahahaha," Peter laughed cheerfully, "I still remember when they first saw the Valkyrie, they all bow down and prayed, and later they found out that your the 'Chief' of all the planes, they started to worship you as the chosen one of the Machine Gods! Hahahahahaha!"

"Not funny, Lieutenant," Chief Gale rolled his eyes, "Not funny at all."

"Great Chief Gale!" The two goblins skipped over and saluted, "We complete great mission! Need more mission?"

"Ahh..." Chief Gale sighed, "Once the fuel pods are loaded, return the trollies back."

"Yes! Great Chief!" They gave a salute again, and ran off happily, "Mission accepted!"

Peter laughed again and gave a salute to Gale as he half jogged to his bird while mimicking the voice of the goblins, "Great Chief Gale, I go for mission now!"

"Asshole..." Chief Gale cursed at the back of the laughing Peter. "Damn, I hate goblins..."

-----

Uncharted Forest, 469 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass

Kaga panted hard as she helped to support one of the injured slaves as they half ran in the forest. She kept her eyes on the back of the mercenary with his strange weapons and ignored the pain from healed blisters from opening again. Only two of the mercenaries were with them while the rest were at the rear selling their lives for them to escape.

Suddenly the mercenary at the front stopped in his tracks and raised a clenched fist. Kage was confused but she stopped as she watched the mercenary turned his head left and right as if he had sensed something. She was about to ask when the mercenary suddenly spun to the right and brought up his strange metal wand and thunder and fire erupted from the tip of it.

Despite witnessing the effects of the strange magic weapon they were carrying, the loudness and suddenness were still shocking to everyone, including Kaga. She flinched and instinctively ducked down, but her eyes never left the mercenary as he continued to cast spell after spell with the thunder stick of his.

-----

Doth jerked to the right just as he sensed an intense killing aura from his right. He smoothly raised his M2 and fired at the glow that was approaching, and saw sparks exploding off a magic shield. "Damn! Is that the Hero?" He cursed his luck but he held his ground. "Young! We got company!"

He tracked the inhumanly fast movement of the glowing Hero, firing at him as he weaved in and out of the trees for cover. Despite that Doth's majority of his shots managed to hit the Hero, forcing his speed to drop as the force of the bullets stunned him slightly.

"Son of a Bitch!" Doth yelled as he stepped back while firing at the rapidly closing Hero. Suddenly he felt a chill, a premonition of death behind him and his instincts told him to duck. He dropped to the side just as a silver slash came from behind. "Fark you!" He crashed down on to the undergrowth just as someone attempted to backstab him.

His left shoulder took the brunt of the attack and bleeding, but he ignored the pain and turned his M2 to the attacker and fired blank point.

-----

Stab cursed as his rapier missed his target, only managing to inflict a cut on the guard's shoulder. He was very curious of the weapons the guards were using and knew that these were the rebels that had signed some pact with demons to possess such powerful artifacts. He knew that they are very dangerous, that was why he and the Hero decided to attack from both sides.

With the glow of the Hero as a distraction, he would slip into the shadows and reappear behind the guards to backstab them while they are distracted by the Hero. But he did not expect to be noticed! He had erased all of his presence but how did he got found out?

Just as those thoughts were racing in his mind, the guard rolled over and pointed the thunder stick artifact at him, and the world turned into flames and thunder.

-----

Doth emptied his remaining magazine into the slim bony looking male, his shots unable to miss due to the very short distance. He saw the bloody body tumbled down as the protection spells on him failed and the bullets ripped through the assassin.

"How you like that? Bitch?"

146 - Yo Mama...

Sawtooth Mountain Airbase

Two military half-tracks rolled up to a stop next to the runway where two of the Valkyries were winding up their turbines on standby. The loaded troops at the rear hopped off one by one and formed up next to the birds for inspection. Newly minted First Lieutenant Joseph Tokin, formerly Lord General of the Kingdom of Goldrose, grinned in anticipation of upcoming mission and stood before the gathered platoon with a gleam of excitement in his eyes.

"Alright, men of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company Platoon 1! Most of you know me before you joined the Marines, now I am also part of the Marines like you," Joesph roared over the sound of the engines. "Now we got a problem!"

He pointed to the far distance over the mountains, "We got our buddies trapped beyond the Pass, and we are going to save them. Slaves escaping from the hands of the Empire are being slaughtered."

"We all got our duty to do," Joesph clenched his fist, "Goldrose might be destroyed but now we have a new role to play, as protectors of the weak!"

"HORAAAH!" The platoon echoed out loudly. "HORAAAH!"

"Mount up!" Joesph gestured towards the Valkyries, "Section One and Two onboard Valkyrie One and Three and Four, Valkyrie Two is your ride! Go go go!"

The heavily armed Marines split up and dashed towards the waiting Valkyries which rear cargo bay ramps were down, and what appeared to be a goblin wearing dark green airforce overalls in a helmet and aviator glasses was waving them onboard, much to the surprise of the boarding Marines.

"What the fark?" The Marines were confused as they looked at the goblin, who screamed at them in a high pitched voice to sit down and buckle up.

"Buckly up you dumb Mar-nees!" The single goblin flight crew cried, "Dumb Mar-nees wanna die in pieces in this flying bucket of godly bolts?"

The stunned Marines onboard Valkyrie One sat obediently onto the buckle seats lined on the walls of the aircraft. A massive pallet of supplies was secured on the middle of the deck, with what appeared to be a vehicle of some sorts.

"Greg! All clear?" The elven crew chief hopped in from the side hatch and sealed the side hatches. "Check all cargo are secured?"

"Checking!" The goblin named Greg bounced happily from one seated Marine to another, tugging at their constraints and grinning evilly as he pulled the straps tightly, making the Marines groan, "Nice and tight tight, wrapped up all nicely! Hehehehehe!"

"Oh my god," The Marines prayed as the rear cargo ramp closed up, "Are we going to fly with this crazy goblin?"

"Hey! Green skin!" Some Marine yelled, "You want to lick clean my boots?"

"Dumb Mar-nees! Believe I dump you out of plane without a chu chu?"

And Flight Lieutenant Tommy grinned as he heard the commotion in the rear over the comms, "Cargo all green!" His crew chief said before cutting off the tirade between the Marines and Airforce as his crew chief ended the comms.

"Valkyrie One to Mother," Tommy radioed the flight control tower, "One is all green, standing by for take off, over."

"Valkyrie Two to Mother, All green. Ready for take off, over."

"Mother to Valkyrie Flight, mission is go, Godspeed gentlemen!"

"One, Roger!" Tommy applied power to the turbines and the heavy aircraft slowly rose as the powerful rotor turbines form an air effect under the craft and he gently tilts the Valkyrie's nose towards the Pass and with Valkyrie Two behind, the two rotorcraft flew off from the airbase.

-----

Uncharted Forest, 468 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass

"Barrier Up!" Young barely managed to cast a magic protection spell just as the Hero slammed his sword just meters before him, causing an energy shockwave that slammed into his Barrier spell. He snapped fired his M2 at the glowing Hero who barely flinched from the impacts of the bullets as the aura of the Sun God melted the lead bullets before they impact him. "Fark!"

The Hero grinned and slashed down with his greatsword which smashed a crevice several meters long on the forest floor and splitting an ancient tree into two at the end of the slash. Each step of the Hero left the ground smoking and burning from the intense strength of his aura.

Young rolled flat on his tummy, managing to dodge the slash but the glancing force of the slash almost overloaded his magic protection spells. "Goddamnit! SOME HELP DOTH?"

Doth fired from the flanks, but the effects were the same, he barely dealt any damage to the Hero, "This son of a bitch is not taking damage!"

"Hahahaha, you dumb peasants," The Hero suddenly paused and smiled at the two men, "The first fight with your strange weapons, I have already known the secret behind them. So it is easy to counter it, as long as I encase myself with a burning aura strong enough to melt the stones that come out from your thundersticks."

"So why don't you stay still and die for me?" Dante gave a sunny smile at the two soldiers. He turned and look at the slumped body of Stab and sighed, "It's hard to find good help these days and you just have to go kill the good ones."

"Yeah, and yo mama so fat!" Doth sneered from behind the cover a tree as he reloaded. "That the monsters hide their food when they see her!"

Young quickly took the time to scampered away to a better position, "Seriously? Trash talk at this time?"

The aura from the Hero suddenly flared up, "What did you say?" The white glow turned pale blue, and the heat from his aura dropped.

"Well, it's working!" Doth yelled, "Hey, farker! Yo mama so stupid that I told her she lost her mind, she went on a quest looking for it!"

The temperature in the devastated forest dropped, and a sharp chill cut into both Doth and Young as the Hero glared at them. "You speak ill of my mother?"

"Damnit, now he's pissed," Young rolled his eyes and he readied a spell. "Well at least, its better than seeing that fake smile."

"YOU DARE SPEAK ILL OF MY MOTHER?!" The Hero roared and a shockwave burst out from his body, the force smashing away the remaining trees and soil, sending both the soldiers back into cover from the flying debris.

"Fire!" Young and Doth yelled at the same time and they both leaned out from their cover and fired and threw spells at the Hero, "Lightning bolt! Magic Missile!"

The bullets and spells slammed into the Hero causing him to step back and for a moment, Doth and Young thought they finally manage to get some damage in, but the Hero suddenly spun to the side, dodging the rest of the bullets and charged towards Doth's position.

"What the?" Doth yelled in fright as he saw the crazily fast speed the Hero was going, almost another level faster than before! He quickly dropped down on his back as a whitish blue beam slammed into where he was under cover. The tree exploded and he felt his tactical vest ripping apart from the force of the Hero's passage.

"RUN!" Young yelled as he fired at the fleeting figure of the Hero. He led his target and fired, casting smoke and sparks to erupt on the body of the Hero. "We can't solo him! Back!"

Young reached into his pouch and ripped out a flashbang. He jerked the pin out and tossed it underhand at the path of the Hero and turned tail and ran. The sharp crunch and sudden burst of light sent the Hero screaming as his senses were all dialed up to over three times a normal person's sensitivity.

"Yea! Take that bitch!" Doth panted as he ran, holding on to the chest. "Goddamnit!"

"You alright?" Young came up next to Doth and gave him an arm for support.

"No, think that farker got me some," Doth panted, "My insides feel like shit now and the radio's trashed."

Young did not say anything else but just supported Doth as much as he can, as they ran deeper into the forest, leaving behind the cries and screams of pain and anger.

-----

Loke cursed as he dodged just in time as an arrow slammed into the spot he was against just a second ago. That damn archer is good! He quickly leaned out and lined his scope onto the moving shadow in the trees and fired.

The archer dropped just as the bullet was about to hit her with such grace that Loke was impressed. "Damn!" Loke worked his bolt on his M1 and the two of them continued to exchange fire between each other.

-----

"Crazy bitch girl!" Hitsu yelled as he dived into cover for the fifth time as the area he was hiding exploded from multiple Magic Missiles strikes. "IM GONNA TO SPANK YOU!"

He leopard crawled his way out from the tree roots and fired at the pissed looking mage girl hovering over half the destroyed terrain. "Eat lead!"

The bullets slammed into the shield of the girl mage who yipped in pain and started to weave left and right trying to dodge his shots. Sparks and smoke trailed the crying girl mage as she tried to dodge all the bullets.

"Hahaha! How do you like that now?" Hitsu yelled as he fired from prone and suddenly his weapon locked. He did a quick tilt check and found his bolt had jammed, most likely from over fouling in the barrel from the black powder ammunition. "Oh... shit..."

The girl mage stopped and glared at him laying in the edge of the destroyed forest. She panted and said, "You... you... evil man! Even cute little girls like me, you dare to bully?"

"Ahahaha..." Hitsu slowly backed off, trying to find some cover. "Well, you didn't get hurt did you?"

"You... you... EVIL MAN!" The girl mage tear stained face cried out angrily, "I shall punish you!" She raised her staff and five magic circle started to manifest in front of her, aimed directly at Hitsu. "Magic.... Mi..."

"Oh, come on," Hitsu lamented, and he quickly sprinted off to the side and dived down the slight depression of the forest floor, just as the spell was completed.

"...issle times... three... HUNDRED!!!!!!"

And Hitsu hugged himself and screamed like a little girl as the world around him exploded.

-----

Tyrier jerked his head up as the ground suddenly shook and saw a mushroom-like cloud appearing, followed by a rumbling sound that grew louder and louder. "BRACE YOURSELVES!"

A shockwave and dustcloud suddenly slammed into them, sending the weaker Empire soldiers and slaves tumbling away. Tyrier and the rest quickly took the opportunity to dispatch away the downed soldiers. "What was that?"

"Who's missing?" Tyrier asked, as finally there were no more enemy soldiers that remain standing. "Where's Loke and Hitsu?"

"Think they were that way," Altied pointed to the west where the smoke cloud came from. "Shit."

"Tavel, take charge of the slaves and head to the rendezvous point," Tyrier quickly ordered, "Altied with me. Let's go!"

With that both Tyrier and Altied sprint off towards the direction of the explosion. After a short distance, they found a large fan-like portion of the forest missing, the tree trunks were blown away, leaving behind jagged remains of roots and dozens of large craters on the forest ground.

"Spread out and keep alert," Tyrier ordered as they approached the center of destruction carefully.

The only area unaffected stood the girl mage leaning against her staff, her shoulders heaving up and down as she panted. Tyrier gave a look at Altied who nodded and crept up to the unsuspecting girl and smacked the back of her neck, knocking her out easily.

"What the hell happened here," Tyrier asked, "Where the hell is Loke and Hitsu?"

Suddenly a crack of a piece of wood spun the men around with their weapons aimed at the direction of the sound. "Hey guys," Loke walked into the destroyed land with a figure slung over his back, "All good?"

"You look like shit," Altied commented as he gestured to the wound on Loke's shoulder. A stub of broken off arrow was struck there, which Loke just dropped the body of the female archer down without any care to the ground.

"Hurts like fark... now, where's Hitsu?"

147 - The Cavalry has Arrived!

Skies over Uncharted Forest

"Alright! Everyone listen up!" First Lieutenant Joesph spoke over the intercom linking to both Valkyries' passenger holds. "We will be dropped into the Uncharted Forest in support of the distress call from the Hundred and First. Our objective is to find and support their mission which is to escort a large group of freed slaves back to Hell's Gate."

"Intel has it that they are doing a fighting withdrawal with Empire forces and also the Hero and his party," Joesph announced, which the Marines started mumbling among themselves when they heard the Hero was involved.

"I know most of you had heard of the Hero's exploits, but this time the Hero is with the Empire side," Joesph added, "Our mission is to prevent the freed people from being captured or killed by the enemy, simple as that. There is no point thinking of why the Hero is helping the Empire or who is attacking. Just know one simple thing, that is to ensure the safety of the civilians!"

"Sir, yes sir!" The Marines cried out.

"Good!" Joseph grinned at the hotblooded Marines, "We will be dropping in at the nearest emergency rendezvous point and work our way towards their last known location. Following that, Eagle Company, Platoon 2, 3 and 4 will be dropping in at intervals with extra supplies depending on the local situation."

"Alright, ETA is 49 minutes to the LZ (landing zone), grab some shut-eye while you can, its gonna be a long walk home!"

-----

Uncharted Forest, 467 km from Sawtooth Mouth Pass

"Come on!" Young whispered to the faltering slave, reaching out and helping haul the weaken slave into a hollow in the tree. "Stay quiet," He passed out his last bottle of water and carefully climbed his way over the tree root.

"Boss," Young lowered himself down onto the ground, "We are running out of food and water, the survivors are all spent both physically and mentally." The food and water scavenged from the dead empire soldiers were mostly spent and the original supplies and wagons were mostly abandoned when they were attacked suddenly, while others were lost along the frantic escape.

Tyrier looked up from Doth's cold body and gently covered his face with a dirty cloth and sighed, "I know, we managed to keep ahead of the Hero so far, I think with our wards up, we should be able to hide from him for a while."

"We should be roughly two to three hours away from the rendezvous point," Altied said, as he kept the compass stone back into his pocket. Regular compass does not work properly in the Uncharted forest, requiring instead the use of a 'compass stone', a magic rune imprinted with a host location and it will point to the correct direction when magic is used on it.

"Young, gather some people that still have energy, see if you can find some water source to refill our water," Tyrier ordered, "Loke, take a few men with you too, go see if you can forage some food up."

Loke nodded, looking depressed as they couldn't even find any traces of Hitsu at the aftermath of the battlefield. He turned silently and Young followed behind, patting his shoulder as both of them went to gather volunteers.

Tyrier gave out a long breath and continued his task of wrapping Doth's body up securely. During his training, they were taught never to leave a man behind, and he wasn't going to left Doth's body behind. Finally finishing, what remained was a shrouded body wrapped in cloth and secured tightly with vines collected from the forest.

He looked up to see the two bound captives staring wide-eyed at him. The younger girl mage was glaring at him, if glaring could kill, those eyes will be stabbing him to death. She gave a muffled mmm! from her gagged mouth and struggled against the bounds that prevented her hands and legs from moving. Even her fingers were tied up to prevent her from drawing runes or magic seals.

The other female archer or huntress was similarily bounded and gagged. But she just sat there calmly and watching everything that was happening calmly and to Tyrier, he felt that she was just waiting for the Hero to come anytime. Her belief in the Hero was very strong, that she felt it was just a matter of time only.

Tyrier and Tavel had drawn a magic seal around the two girls, in case there was some magical tracking that the Hero can use to track them. So far, fighting the Hero has cost them two members of Claymore One. Doth had suffered serious internal injuries, that even healing spells, potions nor even the super magical technology of the hooman's could even save him, while Hitsu was MIA (missing in action) fighting the girl mage, but looking at the end results of the devastated battlefield, there was a very high chance Hitsu was dead, blown to pieces.

Capturing two of the Hero's party members in exchange for two deaths in the team, Tyrier clenched his fists angrily, wishing that he rather have two of his men back then having such an exchange. Now he plans to use the two girls as a hostage against the Hero. hoping to use them to force the Hero off their backs.

He gave a last pat on improvised bodybag and left, unwilling to spend another minute more in front of the people who cause the deaths of his men.

----

Uncharted Forest, Rendevous Point Red

The tilt rotors of Valkyrie One whined loudly as the craft hovered slightly off the riverbed, the rotor wash sending sprays of ice cold water into the air as the tail ramp splashed open. "Go kick butt, dumb Ma-nees!"

"It's kick ass!" The Marines hollered back at the goblin who rolled his eyes dramatically behind his aviator glasses. "Move move move!"

The men of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, Platoon 1, leaped down the ramp and fanned out, forming a security cordon as the goblin rolled the crates of supplies off the bird. A mightly splashed and a digital camo coated four-legged creature landed. It looked like a crab with only four legs and two stubby arms ending with a four finger claws and a tiny round head mounted at the area while a crab will have its 'head'.

Once all the Marines and supplied were offloaded, Greg yelled into the intercom, "Chief! Dumb Ma-nees all gone! Closing door!" And he slapped the big red button for the rear hatch closure. "Oooo big red buttons! Greg like much much! Hehehehehehehe!"

The spider tank swirled its head left and right, as it absorbed information of its surroundings as it noted the departure of the Valkyries. Its body was four meters long and two meters wide, standing at a meter tall. Armor plating made from the spider ants' shells covered all parts of its body, while wolf leather protected the joints areas. "Come here Asagi!" Private Onetooth aka Slow called out to the spider golem nicknamed Asagi due to the initials painted on the side of the golem, ASASG-01 which represented, Armored Support Autonomous Spider Golem.

The spider tank, hearing its name, turned around on its legs and came trotting over and stood before Slow who patted it and it stood on the side awaiting other instructions. The ASASGs were newly created by the pair working in Ordnance. A motherboard was installed with a 512 tetra byte silicon chip with millions of lines of code as a sort of pseudo-AI was fused together with a mana stone as its brain, its veins were lines of magic formations and its heart was powered by refined Dragonite ore, while its muscles were made of stone.

It worked autonomously but were coded to follow instructions of ranking Marines and its partner, which Slow drew the straw. He was at first confused and frightened by it but soon found it to be a faithful partner, and at times like a puppy wind wolf. The two hoomans who made it told him to think of it like a dog or puppy, as it was just 'born' and is still learning, just as he was learning about being a Marine.

Slow whistled to the rest of his platoon and they started to carry the crates of supplies over and stack them onto the back of the spider tank, who obediently lowered its joints to allow the Marines easier access to its back.

"Alright! Let's move out!" Lt Joesph ordered, once the men were ready, there were two of spiders tanks and two All Terrain Rovers, built specially for use in the forest. The men spread out as they headed into the forest with the Rovers follow in a slow pace behind while the spider tanks strolled causally along.

-----

Slow rolled up the long antenna of the radio set carefully to prevent it from tangling with the trees as the radio set was mounted on the side of Asagi. "Good girl, stay," He patted the side of the spider tank who seemed to enjoy it and tied the antenna up, once done, he grabbed the hang bars on the rear and stood on a ladder step. "Alright, let's go!"

The spider tank hearing his command, started to crab its way forward, easily climbing over tree roots, while Slow hang on tightly to the slightly rough ride. They have been traveling for almost an hour, trying to raise the Hundred and First on the radio, but there was no response, so they could only continue pushing forward, hoping to get in touch with the missing team.

Suddenly, echoes of gunfire rolled their way over to Slow's ears, and the forest burst into a frenzy of activity as bird wyverns called out angrily from the sudden loud thunders.

-----

Uncharted Forest, 467 km from Sawtooth Mountain Pass

"Go!" Tyrier yelled as the Hero suddenly appeared without any warning. His glowing body carrying his great sword slashed through anything in his ways, be it trees or the slaves, cutting them down without any distinction.

"Stop him! Buy time for the rest to run!" Tyrier yelled as he dragged the two bounded girls out. "Young and Altied, take point!"

Young nodded and help lifted the body bag up onto Altied's shoulder and they took off with the rest of the panicking slaves. Altied tossed out the last remaining few magazines before he left and Tyrier grabbed them, shoving them into his empty magazine pouches.

"Stop!" Tyrier yelled at the Hero as he dropped the two girls and ripped off their gags, "Or they die." He drew his Glock and aimed at the two sputtering girls.

"My Hero! Kill him!" The girl mage screamed and spat, "Evil man!"

The Hero stopped his attacks and stood half surrounded by the remaining members of Claymore One, their guns aimed at him, waiting for his responses.

Dante looked at the two girls laid bound on the feet of the ragged looking mercenary. "Where is the girl?"

"What girl?" Tyrier feigned ignorance, knowing full well who he was referring to, "Ani't both of them here?" He gave a kick at the loud-mouthed girl mage, making her curse his whole line of family to his neighbors.

"No, you know full well who I am referring to," Dante smiled charmingly, the glow of power around his body, lessened. "Leave the girl behind and you and your men and those slaves can walk away." He gestured to the rest of Claymore One.

"Don't know what you are talking about," Tyrier gave a shrug, "But if you don't retreat, your friends here will get it."

"Alright have it your way then," Dante tilted his head and the glow of his body grew brighter and he readied his greatsword, taking a step forward towards Tyrier.

"If that's the way you want to play it," Tyrier looked down at the two girls, "Sorry no offense," And he casually pointed at the girl mage and fired.

BAAM!

148 - Eye of the Sun

Liz jumped as the 5mm round punched through her calve like paper, the bullet ripping her tendons and muscles and exited out to drill into the soft wet dirt ground in a spatter of bright red blood. She stared dumbfounded at the tiny red hole where blood was starting to flow out of her wound, and slowly her mind caught up with the situation.

She looked so shocked that Tyrier felt bad shooting her, and turned his attention back to the Hero who paused and had a curious expression on his face. "What is that artifact?" The hero asked.

"This? None of your business," Tyrier kept his pistol trained on the two girls. "Leave and you and your party can walk away when we are in a safe distance."

"I am really curious about those wands you have," The Hero narrowed his eyes, his normal smile no longer shown, and instead his face bore an expression of emptiness. "Well, if you don't wish to tell me, I just force it out of you then." And he charged.

"Keep dreaming asshole!" Tyrier knew that the Hero doesn't care about the lives of his party and dropped the signal for the rest to fire at the Hero. Clouds of gun smoke, thunder and fire erupted in the forest as the rest fired at the Hero who swung his greatsword up, ignoring the bullet impacts.

"FLASH OUT!" Tavel yelled a warning and tossed a flashbang at the charging hero, who brought the flat of his greatsword up, shielding his face from the burst of sudden light and eardrums bursting blast.

"Petty tricks! Let me show you the power of a real light!" Dante screamed as his ears rang from the after-effects of the flashbang, "Hear my words, thy God of the Sun! Show the might of the Sun!" And his body burst into a blinding light that was like a mini second sun in the forest.

"Ahh!" The men of Claymore One and the two girls cried out in pain as the light flare from the Hero blinded them. Loke covered his eyes with his hands and still found that he could see through his flesh to see the bones in his hand from the light of the hero!

"Back!" Tyrier kept his eyes closed, yet a light spot stayed in his vision that almost made him tear. He followed the sounds of the screaming girls and reached down as his leg kicked a thrashing body. He reached down and grabbed the person and started to drag the kicking body along. "Grab the other one!" He yelled.

A sudden force slammed against him and sent him flying and smashing into a tree trunk, cracking the wood. His magic shield flickered wildly as the damage taken overloaded his shield. Tyrier's vision slowly recovered and he saw a brightly glowing figure standing before him, with a blurry long object raised up overhead. "Ahh, fark..."

-----

The forest in front of the advancing Marines suddenly lit up, and the Marines froze before Lt Joesph yelled, "That way! Double time! Go, go, go!"

The Marines quickly ran through the foliage, ignoring the danger of tripping over a tree root or breaking an ankle in their mad rush to the scene.

-----

Dante smiled, "I just take your legs, so be good and stay there for me ok?" And just as he swung his greatsword down, someone tackled him from the side, sending both of them rolling over the undergrowth. He looked at who was it and found one of those mercenaries had wrapped his arms around him and shoved him away. He slammed his elbow down sharply at the mercenary, causing the person to give out a yell of pain and his hold loosen.

Bunching up his knee, he lashed out and send the cursed mercenary flying away, smashing through trees with bone-crunching cracks. He smiled and stood up, and felt something with his foot. He looked down and saw two dark olive green spheric objects rolling on his feet. And the ground exploded into flames and smoke.

-----

Tavel coughed up blood as his laid in the ruins of the tree he was stuck in, his left arm and leg dangling in a weird angle that a body shouldn't be doing. He smiled at stuck a middle finger up weakly as the two grenades he dropped at the Hero blew up, before fading away to the darkness.

-----

"Tavel!" Loke yelled as he saw his teammate broken body. The twin explosions of the grenades jerked his attention back to the Hero, only to see the Hero stood there remaining almost unscathed, "Son of a bitch!" He raised his M1 and fired round after round at the Hero.

To his surprise, he saw his rounds sending the Hero jerking back, and realized that the grenades must have deleted his magic shields or something. He keeping his fire up, emptying all shots in his rifle, and dropped his rifle to its sling and quickly drew his Glock, pumping all 30 rounds in the pistol's magazine into the barely standing Hero.

"Is that all?" The Hero suddenly spoke, his clothing in tatters, several bruises could be seen and his ears and nose were leaking a small trail of blood. His usual cheerful mood was gone, replaced with a chilling aura, the golden glow turning bluish as he stood up and wiped the blood off his nose.

He looked down at his mithril greatsword which had several cracks on its blade, and cracked his knuckles, as he stared down at the lone man with the thunder wand in his hands. "Die!"

He punched out, sending a shockwave that ripped the soil up and blew away the trees in its path. His opponent rolled away at the last instinct, barely dodging his attack. He threw another two punches out and charged forward, closing the distance to the madly dodging mercenary who sent several spells his way which he slapped away with ease.

Suddenly at his side, more thunder and fire rain on him, Dante glanced to the side and saw the leader of the mercenaries throwing spells with his thunderstick at him, and a wave of anger grew in him. Can't they die already?" He thought angrily. "AHHHHHHHH"

He roared out, send out a shockwave of pure energy, that sent both the mercenaries tumbling down and the girls crying in fear. He saw the leader of the mercenaries crumbled down, coughing and vomiting blood as his magic shields were unable to tank the damage he dealt out. Dante quickly turned to the last opponent who still looked back at him with defiance in his eyes.

"I will gorge those eyes out, pretty boy!" Dante sneered and leaped forward, each step sending him several meters forward, his right arm raised back, and his two fingers hooked back, ready to claw out Loke'e eyes as he kneeled down the ground.

"Fark you!" A voice suddenly came from behind and thunder roared, making Dante jerked as bullets impact against his back. He rolled to the side to avoid the spells and glared at the newcomer.

"Hitsu!" Loke cried out as he half crawled to cover, dragging his suddenly heavy rifle along. "You lucky son of a bitch is still alive!"

"Lucky?" Dante cocked his head, "I don't think so. For he will die soon."

"Yeah, tell that to that crazy bitch who tried with over 500 magic missiles," Hitsu laughed.

"Liz? Baah, useless!" Dante spat out a gobble of blood from his mouth. "Enough talk, time to die!"

"Okay!" Hitsu shrugged, "You first!" And fired his M2 at the wildly dodging Hero charging at him. "Here have a present!" He lobbed a grenade before the Hero and hopped down the tree root he was on and quickly scrambled away.

Dante's eyes grew wide as he recognized the olive green colored ball and he quickly swerved out of its way, as the cursed spell ignited, his already badly weaken shields catching some of the blasts and flickered wilding.

"You will pay for that!" Dante gave a curse and threw a punch through the tree where he guessed that guy was hiding, causing the tree to explode.

"Missed me!" Hitsu cried as he ran to another tree for cover, taking a knee and popping a few shots at the Hero. "Damn, how do we stop this crazy asshole!"

"ENOUGH!" Dante screamed, "SUN GOD BLESS ME WITH ALL YOUR POWERS! FOR SCUM DEFILE YOUR BLESSINGS AND SCORN YOUR LIGHT!"

"GIVE ME THE STRENGTH THE SMITE ALL DARKNESS IN THE LAND! FOR ETERNAL LIGHT!"

"EYE OF THE SUN!"

The land shook, the mountains rumbled as a presence as ancient as the mountains suddenly bore down on top of the Hero. A golden outline of an eye manifested over the skies and a warm glow covered the land. Dante laughed as the glow recovered his wounds and mana, "ALL HAIL THE SUN GOD!"

"Uh, that is bad, right?" Hitsu said as he cast a recovery spell on Loke, "We are so screwed..."

"Mortals! I, Dante the Hero is the chosen of the Sun God! I have lived for over 200 years!" Dante half floated in the air as power from the divinity filled his body. "Be proud that this is the second time, I used this spell on a mortal, and I will wipe you out, and I will find the girl and kill her and you can't stop me!"

"ONE ROUND AWAY!" A sudden loud crack and a wooooosh screamed out, and a Dante was suddenly covered in an explosion. Loke and Hitsu turned in surprise and suddenly saw dozens of camouflaged figures emerging from the undergrowth, and laughed madly to themselves. The Marines has come!

-----

"Hit that wisecracking ass hole again!" Lt Joesph commanded, "All RPG-1 teams to mark target!"

And the RPG-1 tottling teams shouldered the bazookas and waited till the smoke cleared, exposing an indignant Hero who was coughing and waving away the at the smoke. "ONE ROUND AWAY!"

And the RPG blast rocked the forest, followed by another and another. The glowing manifestation of the Eye of the Sun slowly diminished and disappeared as the Hero was hit by at least seven bazookas.

"ENOUGH!" The Hero Dante roared, sending a shockwave out, and sent most of the nearby Marines flying away from the force of his powers. "I AM A GOD!" Only to be answered with another rocket in his face, sending him tumbling down. "Noo!"

Dante felt his powers reclining and he looked up and found the spell he cast had disappeared, "How could divine powers be matched by ants!?" He gathered all his energy into his right fist and punched out, sending a golden beam of energy directly at a team of strange clothed soldiers who confounded his eyes as they seemed to blend in and out of the forest.

"You will not defeat me!" He raised his hands to gather energy again. "I WILL CRUSH YOU ALL LIKE ANTS!"

"Hit it with the MGs!" Lt Joesph ordered next, and the gunners armed with the new MG-1 Magebreakers fired up, sending lines of tracers at the madly dodging Hero, "HIT IT WITH EVERYTHING! Kill that son of a bitch!"

"HORAAH!" The Marines let it rip, rifles, machine guns, and even an occasional RPG slammed at the frantic looking Hero. Sparks and smoke erupted all around the Hero, the force of the concentrated barrage of four machine guns, and at least 20 rifles, forced him to be able to focus on defending only.

Dante growled as the strange thunder spells were seriously draining his recovered magic, his previously recovered wounds started to hurt again and those strange but deadly powerful spells had further weakened his body and magic a lot. "STOP THIS NONSENSE! I AM A GOD!"

"Orcs smash god!" Private Onetooth had braced his MG-1 at on the head of Asagi, the spider tank and fired in a controlled burst, guiding his tracers into the path of the retreating Hero. "Wahahahahaaa!"

"Run you puny god! Run!"

149 - The Long Walk Home

"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Lt Joesph yelled as the Hero retreated from sight, "Check your weapons! Medics! Get to work! We got wounded here!" He quickly directed the men into action, "Section Three and Four set up a defensive perimeter! Here and here! Sergeants! Take charge of your men! Move!"

Lt Joesph walked up to the two operators that were in a sorry state but still standing Claymore One members. "Report soldier!"

Hitsu and Loke both straightened up and replied, "Sir! Specialist Corporal Hitsu and Specialist Private Loke reporting Sir!"

"What happened, son?" Lt Joesph gestured them to sit down as medics arrived to check on their wounds, "Take it easy, and tell me what happened."

Loke and Hitsu then gave out their own accounts of the situation from the time they left the town to till just now's fight. By the time their story was told, the rest of the heavily injured members were all stabilized and strapped onto stretchers, waiting to be transported.

"Damn, that was a hell of a fight!" Lt Joesph said, nodding in admiration of their capabilities. "Alright, get some ammo, food, and water, we will move out and head to the rendezvous point and hopefully round up all those that were scattered."

Lt Joesph stood up and glanced around the destroyed land, an artificial clearing roughly the size of a small marshaling field with stumps of broken trees and roots sticking out from the gorged out soil, and large pieces of wet wood littering everywhere that gave off a sweet and sickly smelling sap.

He looked at his Platoon Seargent who wordless handed him a note and read the contents. "Seven wounded, One critical from Platoon 4. Claymore One has two walking wounded, the team leader and one more in critical condition. And we have two prisoners, both slightly shaken up, one of them had a gunshot wound in the leg but she will survive." Lt Joesph raised his eyebrows as his Seargent gave his report.

"Secure the prisoners," Lt Joesph said, "Give them all the courtesy but if they try anything funny, shoot them."

"NCOs (Non-commissioned officers) gather up!" Lt Joesph yelled, clapping his gloved hands together. Soon all the Sergeants arrived before him, and he said, "We will move out in 10 minutes, prepare your men to move. I want section 4 at the rear covering our asses! We do not know if the Hero will come back for round two, so tell your boys to keep their eyes and ears open, their mouths and asses shut tight!"

"Yes sir!" The NCOs chorused, grinning at the prospect of kicking the Hero's ass again if he comes back for round two."

"Ensure your men have adequate ammo, water, and food," Lt Joesph continued, "I did not bring along the supplies on the ASASGs just to look pretty out here, I expect them to be used up! Now before the fight, we had encountered some of the freed slaves, and we pointed them to the general direction of where to meet up later. Section 2 and 3 will do a sweeping patrol back to the rendezvous point, and keep your eyes out for any stragglers. Section 1, will transport the wounded. Questions? No?"

"Okay, get to work people! We got a long walk home!"

-----

Dante scrambled madly through the forest, ignoring the slaps of low hanging branches and suddenly appeared before a small river stream. He splashed into the icy cold water and the cold shook him awake from his flight and he stood there heaving in waist deep water, the river washing away the blood and mud from his body.

"AHHHH!" He slammed both his clenched fists down on the flowing water, causing two massive spouts of water to surge up. "Ants... dare to wound me?"

He let the falling spray of water wash over him and he dunked his head into the river for a short while before standing up again, and on his face was his usual smile, "Now I know why The Rock requested me to come here."

He turned back to look at where he ran out from, and his smile grew wider, "I will be back, and this time, I will crush you ants." And he vanished without a trace from the river.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Situation on the ground now?" Captain Blake asked as he settled into his chair, accepting a steaming mug of local tea from an aide.

Commander Ford turned around from the tactical plot table and replied, "Situation resolved, but unknown if the Hero will attempt a second attack."

Blake nodded and looked up at the UAV feed hovering over the area of operations. "Damn, they destroyed an area of a football field in the forest?"

"Yes, sir, but it is mostly done by the Hero himself only," Ford explained, "Also watch this," He switched the view to where the manifestation of divine power was recorded.

"What the hell?" Blake sat up in his chair as he looked at the golden eye in the sky. "What do we know about this?"

"Sadly, nothing," Ford replied, "Magister Thorn hasn't seen anything like that before and his explanation is that power is highly likely to do with the divinity in the Hero's possession."

"We tried all matters of spectrum analysis on it, and it showed up in every sensor we have out there, infrared, ultraviolet, x-ray, gamma," Ford continued, "Dr. Sharon appeared to be going crazy in her lab over this."

"She reports a dense amount of radiation was given off, but it did not belong to any of the three main types we know of," Ford said, "Not alpha, beta or gamma."

"But one thing we do know is that the Hero's radiation spiked and all the radiation is given off were like attracted to him like a magnet," Ford switched an image, showing a black an white image, a massive orange-red blob over the 'Eye' and the colorful blob was connected to the Hero at the bottom of the image. The Hero was displayed as an ink blob of orange and red in the picture.

"Dr. Sharon suggested that divinity powers or even magic powers are a form of radiation. Just what kind, how, why, or even the dangers of long-term exposure are all blanks at this point in time still." Ford said. "She is suggesting that if we can fine-tune our instruments to detect this unknown kind of radiation, we can use it to detect magic."

Blake nodded, "Do it, and tell Sharon to take a break, lately she doesn't seem to be herself, I do not want to order her to lay off her work, god knows how important it is, but she needs to pace herself and not overwork, we need her healthy and in one piece."

"Yes, sir," Ford nodded, "I will pass on your word."

"Good, what's the extraction plan for our forces on the ground?" Blake asked.

Ford switched the view to an overhead map and traced several lines. "They will march from this point all the way back."

"Why not have the Valkyries airlift them back?" Blake asked.

"We do not have the capacity for all that," Ford replied, "Each trip can take the most 60 people, and will require at least three hours before the next dust off. This will make the last two groups remaining on the ground highly vulnerable to attacks from monsters or the Hero."

"I see," Blake closed his eyes, "Make sure all available support is given to them. It's a long walk home..."

-----

Uncharted Forest, Rendevous Point Red

The tired slaves cried out in desperate fear and anger, as three massive owlbears stood before them and charged. They slammed into the single line of slaves who were armed with looted swords and shields of the Empire soldiers and a frenzied melee broke out.

Young's rifle and his pistol had long ran out of ammo, and he could only stab out with the bayonet attached rifle, scoring a thin gash on the flank of the bear-like creature.

Towering over three meters when on its hind legs, the owlbear had a head and face of an owl, and a body of a bear, with feathers growing out at certain parts of its front limbs. Its claws were tipped with 6" long razor-sharp talons, that can rip a man apart into two with a single swipe of its claws.

The desperate slaves could only stand and fight as they no longer had any strength to run, and running will only result in the owlbears hunting them down behind. "Shit! They must have smelled the scent of blood from our bodies!" Altied yelled as he fired his last remaining pistol magazine at the nearest owlbear, blowing out chunks of meat and hair from its chest. "FARK! I'm out!"

Young eyed the river at a short distance away, seeing a small mound of stones set in a pre-arranged manner. He knew that the Marines had landed and they had buried a small cache of supplies there. But the issue now is the remaining three owlbears blocking their way.

"Use your spells!" Young yelled as he summoned up his remaining mana reserves, barely drawing out a two circle magic spell and flung the lightning bolt at a charging owlbear who was cutting down the weaker slaves.

"My magic is as dry as your tits!" Altied yelled back as he rammed his bayonet into the back of an owlbear. The owlbear roared as the bayonet stabbed through its thick hide, and it spun around, sending Altied flying back, screaming. It reared up on its hind legs and hovered over the stunned soldier, ready to turn Altied into bloody meat paste.

Suddenly, a white shaped bird darted down and slashed at the face of the owlbear, sending it into a maddened frenzy. The white bird constantly harassed the face of the owlbear, make it retreat and trying to claw the bird down.

"Quickly run!" A girl's voice came from behind and Young and Altied turned and saw a white-haired cat girl carrying someone on her back gesturing them from behind a tree.

"We can't!" Young bitterly yelled back, "This is where we need to wait for the rest to come!"

"You want to die here?" Kaga angrily yelled back, "My magic won't last long! I don't the proper materials to make any proper talismans!'

"No shit," Altied said as he watched the owlbear take swipes at the paper bird. "If we run, they are gonna hunt us down, and running just makes you die tired."

"Can you make more of those things?" Young asked, "We need like, five.. no three minutes!"

"I don't have the materials!" Kaga yelled, wondering why this two would want to keep fighting, "I need parchments!"

"Will this do?" Young tossed out his slightly sweat soaked soggy notepad. "Its a bit wet but its paper."

"Paper?" Kaga looked at the almost perfect white rectangle notepad. "Yes... I think so!"

She quickly put the still unconscious Billy against the tree trunk and bit her own forefinger, breaking the skin and blood soon flowed out and she started to scribble some weird runes on the paper.

Young and Altied looked at each other and gave a shrug, unable to understand her magic. "Okay, once her spells distract the three owlbears, we go for the buried supplies. Clear?"

Altied looked over at where Young was pointing and gauged the distance, "about a hundred meters sprint, and to dig, three minutes? I think we need five!"

"Just do it!" Young said, "Come on," He gripped his empty rifle and charged out, angling towards the buried cache. The remaining slaves were still valiantly fighting off the owlbears who had smelled blood and were hungry for the juicy flesh running around in front of them.

"Done!" Kaga yelled only to look up to find both of the soldiers missing. "What? Wait! Arghh!"

She saw the two had already run up to the owlbears without waiting for her. She quickly held the three pieces of makeshift talismans and chanted, imbuing her spirit power into the pieces of paper and she tossed them out sharply.

"GO!"

150 - Chocolate

Three pieces of talisman burst into pale blue flames as they left Kaga's hand, and three white paper eagles dart out, each arrowing towards an owlbear. The paper eagles sharp edges drew paper-thin cuts on the faces and arms of the owlbears as they tried to block and swipe the flying inanimate eagles buzzing around them.

The slaves gave a tired cheer as they say the Owlbears were distracted by the paper eagles and quickly regroup and recover their strength. "Now! Let's go!" Young yelled as he saw the owlbears ignoring them.

Both Young and Altied dash past the owlbears, to the puzzlement of the slaves as they headed towards a small mound of stones near the river. Altied sprinted and slid to a halt on his knees directly next to the stones and quickly swept them away, his gloved hands started to dig at the loose soil together with Young.

One of the owlbears growled and with a lucky swipe, it managed to tear one of the paper eagles to shreds and its eyes glowing red with anger, landed on all fours and charged at the nearest creatures, which were the two Claymore One members.

"Oh shit! Here it comes!" Altied yelled in panic as he frantically, shoved a large handful of dirt away, "Which mother farker buried the cache so deep!"

Suddenly another paper eagle slashed across the path of the owlbear, its razor-sharp wings giving a paper cut at the left eye of the owlbear, slicing its pupils open and a clear fluid mixed with blood burst out. The owlbear screamed in pain and anger, blinded in one eye, it trashed madly, churning up the ground around it as it hammered and slashed its powerful claws wildly in pain.

"God bless that cat girl!" Young barely paused in his actions of shoving dirt, as he looked at the crazed owlbear just meters away, his stomach feeling like it had dropped somewhere as fear threatened to overwhelm him.

Just as this time, Altied's hand slammed on to something hard in the soil and he quickly swept the soil and dirt away, revealing an olive green wooden surface. "Got it! Quick, here!"

Digging up the edges of the crate, both of them tugged the long crate out and quickly opened it, revealing a couple of still factory fresh and greasy M1 Magelocks and cardboard boxes of ammunition covered in grease paper.

Ripping away the grease paper covering, the hooman's wording '6.5 x 75 mm - 50 Cartridges' could be seen printed on the side of the boxes of ammunition. They quickly tore the packaging away, and a started shoving the loose 6.5 mm rounds into the new rifles from the crates.

The owlbears had destroyed all the paper eagles by this time, and Kaga had run out of endurance, barely able to channel more of her spirit power into the talismans she was trying to draw. The slaves barely had recovered back a bit of breath, now faced two greatly pissed off owlbears covered in paper cuts.

The last half blinded owlbear's remaining eye gleamed with rage as it eyed the two two-legs and roared, ignoring the paper eagle as it decided to vent all its pent-up rage at the nearest thing it could kill. It roared again and its claws digging furrows into the soil as it bounced towards them.

"Here it comes!" Altied yelled, his fingers shaking slightly as he pressed down another 6.5 mm cartridge into the open chamber of the M1 Magelock. "Ahhh!"

"You shoot! I load!" Young yelled back, as he looked up at the looming owlbear charging at them at a pace that ate up the very short distance between them. The owlbear's wide beak opened up in a permanent growl as it ran on all fours, planning to use its beak to rend them to pieces.

Altied swiftly raised his half reloaded rifle and slammed the bolt forward in one deft move, and fired. The thunderous bark of the rifle and a dense dirty cloud of gunsmoke erupted out from the muzzle of the Magelock, the rifle butt slammed painfully into his already bruised shoulder felt comforting to him. He deftly worked the bolt, and fired again, not waiting for the gunsmoke to clear, as the huge shadowy figure loomed up in front of him, barely needing him to aim.

"Ahhhh!" Young scrambled out of the way of the crashing owlbear, spilling loose cartridges all over the ground, as the owlbear's limbs suddenly lost all strength and tumbled forward, its momentum carrying it forward directly at where Young was a moment ago. "That thing nearly crushed me to death!"

Young gave a cursed and yelled at Altied, "Here catch!" He tossed the fully loaded rifle over to Altied who caught it one-handed and tossed back the other rifle which Young grabbed and started to reload using the spilled ammo on the ground.

Altied went on a half crouch and started firing at the other owlbears, "Its bear season now!"

-----

Uncharted Forest, Rendevous Point Red

Lt Joesph stepped out from the darkening forest and the first thing that greeted him was a small bonfire where a large group of ragged looking slaves has gathered around and roasting meat. He shook his head and turned to look at the advance party, who gave a helpless shrug, "We found them just like that too, Sir!"

"Well, whatever," Lt Joesph sighed, "Signal the rest to join us, and do a roll call."

"Yes, Sir!" The advance party replied and headed back into the forest.

"Sir?" Lt Joesph turned and saw two banged up looking individuals wearing leather armor with a tactical vest over it. "Specialist Young and Altied reporting, Sir!"

"What's this? A picnic?" Lt Joesph raised an eyebrow at the two soldiers.

"No, Sir!" Young reported, "We were attacked by owlbears, Sir! And the people had nothing to eat since yesterday, and the meat will just spoil if we just left it there..."

"At ease, soldier," Lt Joesph suddenly gave a grin. "I was joking, but is the area secured?"

"We did the best we could to mask the area with non-detection magic," Altied said, "But it might not work with the Hero since they found us the last time."

"We have few of the slaves walking the perimeter," Young added.

"Pfft," Lt Joesph snorted, "My Marines sneaked past them, and they didn't notice us till they announced their arrival."

Both Young and Altied just shrugged, "It's the best we could do with what we have, sir."

"For that, good work," Lt Joesph admitted, "Alright the rest of the men, and your guys will be joining us soon. Any more meat left?"

-----

Kaga sat with her back against a tree holding a steaming piece of meat and watched the strange and similarly clothed men with paint over their faces, wondering where did these group of barbarians come from. The mercenaries that protected them were acting very friendly to these barbarians and even seemed to defer to one of them, wearing a sort of dark blue hat, that looked like a flatten slime on his head.

She also saw the leader of the mercenaries being carried in, his face pale and breathing laboriously. She wondered if he will be able to survive the travel through the forest. What had happened when they stayed behind to fight the Hero and the pursuing soldiers, she wondered.

Kaga bit into the cooled meat and oil and juices dripped out, filling her mouth with a strong gamey taste. She quickly swallowed the meat, not knowing when will they have another chance to eat.

"Hello," Kaga startled as suddenly someone spoke to her. She looked up from her half-eaten meat and saw the leader of the barbarians standing in front of her. She quickly got up and was able to give a greeting bow, and was stopped by the barbarian. "Relax, continuing eating, I just want to ask some questions."

Kaga nodded timidly, taking the opportunity to observe the barbarian in front of her. She noticed that his clothes appeared to be finely made, the color and patterns that seemed to turn them invisible to the eye in the forest, upon seeing the material closer, she realized that they just made out of perfect little boxes and long boxes!

Even the strange belt, with its many pouches, the material and workmanship was amazing, and suddenly the realization hit her, she saw the same gear worn by the mercenaries! And also, almost all the barbarians were equipped with the same items! Who in the spirit world was so rich to be able to make perfectly similar equipment of such scale and quality?

The barbarian gave a pearly white smile, giving a sharp contrast to his dark painted face, making him look like some sort of living plant with a smile, sending shivers down Kaga's spine.

"First of all, I want to thank you for helping them with your powers," Lt Joesph jerked a thumb towards the Claymore One members sleeping at one of the campfires. "My name is Joesph Tokin, I am a Lieutenant, in charge of this merry band of misfits."

Kaga nodded, "I was just doing what must be done at that time only..." She nibbled her meat nervously, her ears flattened on her head.

"Haha, don't be so nervous," Joesph said as he sat down before the girl, removing his beret and took out his water bottle and started to wash his face paint off.

Kaga gave a poke at the slime hat, wondering who would wear something like that but found the texture of the hat was actually some kind of cloth. She quickly tucked her hands away when Joesph wiped his face clean with a cloth. She then realized that Joesph was actually older than she assumed at first, as a weather hardened face soon appeared behind the cleaned war paint.

"Now, where was I," Lt Joesph kept the towel and water bottle away, "Ahh, yes, your powers."

"If I am correct, you should be a priestess of the Beast Clan, yes?" Joseph asked.

Kaga nodded again, wondering what he wanted to know.

"Well, it's very rare to find a priestess of the Beast Clan," Joseph continued, "May I know your name?"

"Kaga..." She replied after some consideration, "Tosa..."

"Ms. Kaga, if you don't mind, can you share how you came to be... a slave?" Joseph asked. "I know that priestess in the Beast Clans are considered leaders and elders and are quite respected in their communities."

Kaga nodded, she uses her powers had already attracted a few of the beast kin slaves who had earlier came and paid their respects to her already, treating her like royalty. "The capital had fell..."

"What?" Joseph looked shocked, "You mean the Beast City had fallen to the Empire? When and how? I remembered that the Beast City has a guardian that is able to raise a city protection spell!"

"Ahh..." Kaga looked down, guilty feelings resurfacing as she remembered how she failed her people trust in protecting the city. "It... fell... three or four months ago... I don't remember the exact timing..." Her ears drooped sadly over her silver-white hair, her tail laid lifelessly and tears started to form at the edges of her eyes.

"I... see..." Joseph noticing her distress, quickly changed the subject. "You earlier efforts today had saved everyone here." He dug into his pouches and removed a piece of chocolate and offered it to her.

"Eat it," Joseph said, "Don't think of the past, we live now and for the future."

Kaga took the offered item and pondered awhile before unwrapping the chocolate and gave a lick, before turning away and nibbling at it furiously.

Joseph gave a relieved sigh as he watched Kaga's actions, that piece of chocolate was given to him by the Princess when he departed for this mission and he knew it was her favorite hooman food ever since she had some during the first meeting with the hoomans.

"What is it with girls and chocolate?"

151 - Far Harbor

South of Seacliff Mining Complex, Goblin Coast

Two jeeps rumbled down the grassland, following a path made by worn down by dozens of vehicular traffic over the week. Captain Blake sat on the rear seat, facing a rosy-cheeked Princess Sherene who had her face to the wind, her eyes half closed in bliss as she enjoyed the ride in the uncovered top jeep.

Blake had to admit that the view in the grassland around them was beautiful in a wild untamed way. With the mountains as the backdrop, the ever blue forest in the distance and the majestic ocean spreading across their view, surrounded by gently waving stalks of yellow grass. This was something rare to see on Earth these days, only in frontier or rim worlds could such a wild beauty be seen.

The Jeep rolled up a small grass dune and they saw a sprawling complex under construction in the distance. As the vehicles drove closer, details start to appear, trucks with construction materials were being unloaded, cement was being poured, and cranes looming over the water were dangling massive concrete supports into the sea as the skeleton of a deep water pier was being constructed.

Teams of security personnel patrolled the perimeter next to freshly elected steel fences while other construction went on. Storage sheds, hangers, fuel bunkers, housing, offices and even helipads were all in the process of being built. Sherene eyed all the ongoing with a sparkle in her eyes, turning to Blake and commenting loudly over the wind, "Your hooman 'tech-no-logee' is still amazing even after seeing it again and again."

"If it was the old us trying to build a harbor city here, it would take many years and tens and thousands of workers to build, yet all these took only weeks to be laid out." She shouted over the roaring wind.

"It will still take some months before the harbor is fully constructed," Blake yelled back, "But as long as the pier is ready, we can start using it first to meet the ship that the Isles is sending over in a couple of weeks time!"

Sherene nodded, her pinkish hair tied in a long ponytail, whipping in the wind. "And what are those?" She pointed to a huge rectangular area that had been dug up, easily the size of a soccer ball field that was in the City where the hoomans had her people going crazy over the game called 'soccer'.

"Those will be the dry docks for ships to be constructed in the future," Blake replied, "Provided R&D comes out with a workable hull."

The jeeps were waved through a heavily fortified checkpoint where teams of security in black-clad leather armor with shotguns, rifles, and bayonet swords manned the bunkers. The jeeps drove on, passing by pallets and pallets of construction materials and finally rolled to a stop before the inner gate to the single almost completed pier.

Sherene took the offered hand of Blake and hopped down, she was dressed in a white blouse made from muffalo fur and tucked into a pair of khaki trousers and ending in a pair of black combat boots which would be scandalous to the court ladies in the old days. She looked up at a towering crane where it creaked as it hoisted a massive block of prefabricated concrete piece swinging it over their heads and hovered over teams of workers wearing yellow helmets and bright orange jackets.

The seeming weak looking arms of the crane were reinforced with strengthening magic runes and tethered to the ground with Earth magic, to prevent the crane from toppling over from the massive blocks of concrete weight over several tons.

The crane lowered the block gently into the arms of the workers who maneuvered it into position like a piece of a puzzle, fitting it perfectly into place and the men like ants, started to remove the cables tied to the block rapidly. A potty looking human wearing a white hard hat came jogging over as Sherene and Blake watched the ongoing work with their escorts.

"Captain! Princess!" Petty Officer Letts waved as he stopped before them and wiped the sweat off his safety helmet. "Gods, Captain, stop throwing me projects! The mining facilities are already taking up all my time already!"

Blake grinned and shook Letts hand, "Well, who asked you to be the boss of a construction company before getting drafted?"

"Yea, but a man needs some time off and not having impossible construction projects one on top of another!" Letts complained good-heartedly. "Well, enough of whining, welcome to Far Harbor!"

-----

Falledge, Town Garrison

Dante lounged leisurely over a pillow filled chair, with his mud-stained boots hitched over the glossy wooden table. The Garrison Commander face was pale with a forced smile as he grimaced inwardly as mud had stained onto the rich dark wood of his table. "Sir Hero... Let me get this straight. You want me to muster all available fighting men of the garrison to go after some runaway slaves and rebels?"

Dante nodded cheerfully, taking a swirl of a goblet of purple wine. "Yes, all your men and dragons."

"Wait, before we go into that," The Commander asked, "What happened to the two hundred soldiers and one hundred dragon cavalry I dispatched to your aid under your party member?"

"Dead?" Dante gave a nonchalant shrug, "The rebels are pretty strong."

"What? Three hundred soldiers all dead?" The blushy mustache of the Garrison Commander twitched in agitation. "Care to explain it?" The Commander's grey eyes narrowed in suppressed angry at the attitude of the Hero.

"Well, we ambushed them as they were about to set up camp," Dante explained, ignoring the glare thrown to him by the Commander, "But turns out that the small number of rebels were more than enough to fight off three hundred of your... soldiers..." Dante gave another shrug as he returned the Commander's glare with a smile.

A nerve twitched from the forehead of the Commander as he caught Dante's hidden meaning, that his troops were weak and it's their fault that they died. He suppressed the anger boiling inside. "What about the town? You destroy half of it just the other night and injured many civilians and the town's watchmen!"

"Oh, that wasn't really my fault," Dante flashed a smile, "I was flushing the rebels out, and those people just did not move away fast enough. But don't worry, their souls will be taken good care of by the Sun God!"

The Commander slammed both his clenched fisted on his table in fury, "That is not acceptable! You wantonly killed people and ran amok in the town and also wasted three hundred of his Majesty soldiers! You will not have a single more soldier from me to go on some wild goose chase!"

"Oh, you sure?" Dante did not even bat an eyebrow at the display of aggression from the Commander, "I do have the Letter from the Rock that you are to grant me all demands and requests that I make, you know?"

"I will take it up with the Emperor, but no! I will not move the troops on your word," The Commander firmly stated his stance, "Get out of my office now! You are not welcome, and you can be certain the Emperor will hear the word of this!"

"Oh, sure..." Dante stood up and turned to the door, "That is a nice sword..."

He gestured at a pair of crossed swords over a shield with a motif of a griffin hang on the side of the wall. He turned and smiled at the Commander who had his guard up and winked, before with a speed faster than the eye could follow, he snatched one of the swords off the wall and slashed horizontally at the barely reacting Commander.

"Nah, my bad, this sword is actually a piece of junk," Dante gave a flick of his finger against the blade of the sword which made it rang and he tossed it away to the side and opened the door of the office.

"Hey you," He called one of the guards stationed outside, "Who is the next in charge after the Commander?"

The guard was surprised at the question and blabbed something out, which Dante just shrugged it away, "Call him here now, it's urgent."

"Eh..." The guards looked at each other in confusion, wondering what is going on.

"Come on hurry up!" Dante gave a clap, and finally, one of the guards nodded and ran off, his armor clanging loudly down the stone hall.

"Good boy!" And Dante returned into the room, closing the door behind and sat back at the pillow lined chair, and gave a toast to the headless Commander still seated in his chair. "Cheers!"

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor

"We used prefabrication techniques here," Letts explained as he led the Captain and the Princess on a tour through the harbor. "Basically we model out how we what the buildings and structures to look like in a 3D software, and we built it out in pieces, like a puzzle before putting them together."

He gestured to an open area where massive blocks of various shapes were laid out in the sun, "Those are all part of the pier that is currently going up. The workers just have to follow the numbers of the parts and put them together, really simple!"

Sherene made an impressed sound, "So you mean you just made these 'pre-fa-bee-cake-tion' here and then put them together later?"

"Yes," Letts grinned at the pronunciation, "It cuts down the workload and vastly speeds up the construction time." He pointed out to the pier, "We don't even need to hammer the supports into the seabed, we just stack tons and tons of concrete into the sea as the foundation, short of a tsunami, or a god's power, those concrete blocks won't even move. And to top it off, all of the blocks have anti-corrosion runes installed into them, so weathering from the waves will be drastically reduced at the same time!"

"Very nice!" Blake nodded, just as impressed as Sherene was with the speed and way of constructing the harbor. "What's the timeline like?"

"If the weather holds for the next week," Letts replied with a small frown, "We can finish casting all the major blocks for the pier and it will take another week to finish up installing all. Say two and a half weeks tops for the pier to commerce operations."

"For the rest of the harbor, I said, end of summer, at least three months for all necessities to be installed, and another two months to go into full operations," Letts said.

Blake nodded, "How about the construction slips? When can we start ship constructions?"

"Well, I still say three months minimum, at least," Letts replied, "But we did set up a workshop down the pier for prototyping the new wet water vessels you wanted. It should be sufficient for your needs now, as long as it's not a mass production or anything larger than a Corvette. Your team can start work on it in about a week."

Blake nodded, "I will transfer the R and D team and work crew over in a week's time then. Housing?"

"Very basic quarters, but there are hot showers and flush toilets, all solar and wind powered until we can get the new Dragonite powerplants installed," Lett reported.

"Survey teams are also mapping out the terrain from here to Seacliff Mining Complex, once most of the work here is done, we can start the next phase of construction," Letts added, "A rail line from here linking to the Mining Complex and back to the Colony."

"In the meantime, a superhighway is the only other means of transportation to Far Harbor from the Mines," Letts said.

Blake nodded, "In the future, all our manufactories and refining industries will be all sited down the south, while the agricultural industries will be along the northern quarter of the Colony." He disclosed part of his plans to Sherene who nodded.

"Alright, Letts, make sure Far Harbor is enough to be up and running within two weeks time," Blake said. "We have guests from afar coming soon..."

152 - Wings of War

The Isles, Anchor Island Fleet Docks

The creaking of wooden planks and cries of sea wyverns were mixed together with the chorus and clamor of voices and raucous yells of sailors and porters as the ships in the Fleet Docks were being loaded up with supplies and being prepared for sea, making the whole Port busy and bustling.

Wagons carrying supplies of grounded up flour, and barrels of salted meat were unloaded by porters who carried the cargo down the slippery and wet wooden planks of the docks nimbly, while coopers at the dock workshops labored to make barrels and casks to store water and rations.

Dozens and dozens of long boats ladened with supplies were rowed out further into the sea, where other three-masted ships were anchored, transferring supplies onboard. Crews onboard the ships spent their time, manning the pumps, coating and painting the wood hull and making repairs to areas were rot had seeped into the planks. Rigging was being coated with tar and spliced and replaced as the crew ensured that the rigging was all ship shape.

Others patched and replaced the sails while cabin boys polished brass fixtures and chipped away at rusted iron parts and painting them over. The decks were swabbed and cleaned and supplies were tallied and carefully stored into the ships' holds. The deck and under deck ballistas were checked and the iron-tipped bolts were polished and painted while the mechanisms of the ballistas were oiled carefully.

Third Fleet Master Dijon stood next to a pair of heavy ballistas that were sited facing the entrance into the Fleet Docks of Anchor Island, his sea dragon leather boot braced on top of one of the stone battlements as he observed the bustling scene from the stone fort protecting the anchorage.

"Fleet Master," A white coated sailor with lesser braiding on his coat stood respectfully several steps behind Dijon, and in his arms held a silver tray with several scrolls stacked neatly tied with different colored ribbons, "The daily fleet report is here."

Dijon watched the activity going on down in the harbor for a while more before stepping down and picking up the topmost scroll. His gold braided long coat flapped in the wind as he slung it over his shoulders while wearing a dark blue pea coat with a white cravat and loose white pants and high boots. He unfurled the scroll after ripping off the red ribbon and quickly glanced through the report and snorted.

"The Fearless, Outrunner, and Ironwill had sprung a leak?" He tossed the scroll back onto the pile, "They need three days to fix those leaks? Those idiots, I should remove their captains for not properly maintaining their ships!"

"Fleet Master, it will not be wise to change the captains with the date of departure so soon," His aide advised, "If we reallocate the other ship carpenters over to help out, we can complete repairs faster and still be within the schedule to depart."

"Do it," Dijon growled and gave a dismissal glance at the remaining reports, "Give a summarized rundown of the rest of the reports." He turned back to watch the ongoing fleet preparations.

"Ship of the line, Boar, Talon, and your flagship Fury, all reports their ships are ship shape and ready to sail once supplies have all being loaded," The aide summarized as he read the reports. "They estimate to be ready within the day."

"Escorts Falcon, Justice, Striker, and Dauntless reports the same, ready to sail once supplies are loaded," The aide continued. "Other than the three escorts ships reported a leak, the transport Fastwind is also awaiting supplies."

"All ship's Captains have reported that the chandlers supplying food and water to the ships appeared to be dragging their feet," The aide rerolled the last scroll, and tying it up with a blue ribbon. "Supplies were supposed to be delivered were either late or lacking in quantity or quality."

"What?" Dijon turned his head, "Light a fire under the quartermasters, make sure the chandlers are not shortchanging us!"

"My Lord, the chandlers appeared to be prioritizing the merchants' ships first," The aide raised his eyebrow as he gave a word of warning.

"To the thirteen hells with the merchants, Fleet comes first!" Dijon spun around and glared angrily, "They know better than to push this point! Send the quartermasters with armed sailors, and see what those chandlers have to say!"

"Yes, my Lord," His aide bowed, "I will advise the men to put in a few good words and it should ease the problems of the supplies."

"Good!" Dijon grinned, "Show those money loving grubbers what it means to play the fool with me!"

-----

Sawtooth Mountain Airbase, Dragon Pen One

Blue Thunder stretched his serpentine body out, his hindquarters pointed towards the sky with his tail erect like how a dog stretched its back. As several loud bone poppings cracks could be heard. "Ahhh..." He ended the stretch with a large yawn, showing off his impressive array of sword length teeth.

"Ewww," The ground crew coughed, "Blue, you need to properly wash your mouth and brush your teeth! It stinks like a cesspool!"

Blue Thunder gave a toothed grinned and a wink, "Will you do the honors for me?"

"Hell no!" The ground crew wearing a yellow jacket backed off, shaking his head. "Your teeth are gonna decay if you not gonna do anything about it at the rate you eat those sugary snacks!"

"Hehehe," Blue Thunder just laughed, "Snacks yummy! Especially fried potatoes with ketchup and cheeeeeze!"

"Yeah, yeah, ok now hold still!" The yellow jacket ground crew stood in front of him and raised both arms holding a light wand in each hand. "Alright, bring it up!" He yelled and waved the light wands.

Blue Thunder laid still with his limbs folded underneath his body and closed his eyes as a loading crane hovered over his back and lowered pallets of equipment and supplies down onto his back, and a small team of yellow jackets started to swarm over his harness and started to secure the items onto his back.

"All good?" The ground crew officer yelled at the rest who raised a thumbs up from their positions and scrambled off Blue Thunder's back after releasing the cables to the crane. The ground crew officer pointed his light wand at the crane operator who nodded and backed the crane away, and another crew at the back raised his thumb up when the crane reached the safety zone.

"Alright Blue, you're up!" The ground crew officer yelled, waving his wands at Blue Thunder who cracked open his eyes and stood up, "Check left!"

Blue Thunder obediently shook his left limbs out and flared out his left wing. "Good! Check right!" He repeated the same steps but with the right side of his body, rattling the supplies on his back. "All secured! Blue! You are good!"

Blue Thunder nodded and craned his head over to see a small crew of four aviators suited up in fully covered cold weather gear started to climb up onto his back, and secured themselves on top of his back, trying to settle down as comfortable as they could while more yellow jackets double checked their rigging and harnesses. "All green!" Good to go!"

"Roger that!" Blue Thunder replied and started to crawl out of the dragon pen, following the yellow markings on the ground.

The loudspeaker secured next to his harness near his ears blared out, "Comms check, comms check!"

"I hear you!" Blue Thunder replied and the crude looking jury-rigged throat mike on his harness transmitted his draconic voiceover to his flight crew and to the control tower. "Loud and clear!"

"Mother to Dragon One, read you loud and clear too! Proceed to Runway Two, the wind is currently heading in from the North-East-East direction, at 30 knots per hour. Weather is clear with a spot of clouds and zero chances of rain." The loudspeaker blared out with the information.

Blue Thunder bobbed his head, feeling that the hoomans take things too detailed, which of course to him made him feel assured that they care for his safety, unlike the Empire who only cared for his fighting strength. "Copy that! Mission to resupply and support the Marines at Rendevous Point Yellow will proceed as planned. Over."

"Mother copies, godspeed Dragon One. You are cleared for launch."

"Dragon One taking off!" Blue Thunder bunched up his wing muscles and took off at a run, while keeping his wings flat out, and he flapped their strongly, filling his wings with air and he leaped off the ground with a mighty leap, his limbs kept straight pointing to the rear while flapping his wings furiously, and the wind carried him up into the air.

The crew secured at the back of Blue Thunder yelled and cheered wildly as they were jostled around during the takeoff, watched the ground dropped away from their feet and they soared into the air. "Heee haaw!"

"Alright, its gonna be a long flight," The crew chief yelled over the wind, "Navigator! Check the heading of Blue, give him directions as usual!"

The rest of the crew unbuckled out from the harness and attached a movable safety line to Blue Thunder's harness and started to check on the tied down supplies, double checking if any of the items had come loose from the take off, while the Navigator opened up his maps and compass, and started to plot their course and giving instructions and directions to Blue.

The crew consisted of a Crew Chief who is in charge of the rest of the crew, a Navigator who plots the course, a radio operator who handles the communications and a single flight crew who provides support to everyone else and also works on the riggings.

Blue Thunder gently tilted his massive body to face North East, and flapped his wings, giving a constant speed as they headed towards the Rendevous Point Yellow where the Marines of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, Platoon 1 and members of the 101st Arcane Tactics and Intervention, Claymore One escorting over 200 freed slaves were heading to.

-----

Falledge, Town Garrison

Vice Knight Captain Utho stood pale faced before the smiling face of the Hero, trying his best to keep his legs from showing their trembling. "Y-yes my L-Lord! The m-men has been g-gathered!"

"Good! See? That was so easy!" Dante smiled as he sat on the desk of the previous commander, the blood dried to a sticky paste on its surface and the headless body of the commander still sat on the chair while the second body of Sub Commander Month laid headless on the side, his blood turning the rich thick carpet dark red mixing together with the blood of the dead commander.

"Now let's go hunt ourselves some rebels and runaway slaves, shall we?" Dante cordially invited Vice Knight Captain Utho who swallowed back his fear and nodded hurriedly and quickly left the room with Dante following behind.

As they exit the keep, the mustering grounds were filled with soldiers grumbling among themselves, wondering why they had been mustered. Six medium weight dragons and a single heavy weight dragon sat on their hindquarters with their crews gathered before the dragons, turned their attention to Utho and Dante as they stood before everyone at the mustering field.

"Form up men!" Utho yelled in his best parade voice, thankful that his voice did not sound funny under the pressure of the Hero. "U-Under the order of our great Emperor, we have been called to our oath to serve the Emperor's command! We are to move out in pursuit of a band of dangerous rebels and runaway slaves who had ambushed and k-killed three hundred of our brothers in arms just the day before!"

Hearing that news, the men growled as anger grew against the rebels and slaves rose. "But fear not, our great Emperor has sent us the Hero, Dante to lead us to victory!"

The men roared and yelled out after hearing the Hero was here, "DANTE! DANTE! DANTE!" They chanted, their fighting spirits raised by the fact the Hero was leading them. "DANTE! DANTE! DANTE!"

Dante smiled and stood forward, "Let's the Sun show us the way to victory!"

"DANTE! DANTE! DANTE!"

153 - Rendezvous Point Yellow

UNS Singapore, R&D Laboratory

Senior Spaceman Mason scratched his head as he looked at the wooden model made by the ship carpenter, Amar, whom they rescued months ago. He turned the model around and frowned, "Is this how the long boats were built?"

Amar nodded, "Yes, it is the simplest and fastest way to build them that I know of." The model has a wide shallow draft and double banked open deck for rowers to be seated side by side.

"No, for the speeds we are looking at, this design will rip the whole boat into pieces!" Mason shook his head, he had a fast boat handling license back on Earth and while most of the naval personnel had some basic training and time on a fast craft on the sea, he had the most experience out of them all.

He pointed to the monitor displaying an image he had of a speedboat he used to own, "See the bottom hull? Its a sharp 'V' at the bow softening to a flat bottom at the stern, it gives it the ability to plane the boat at high speeds."

"Plane?" Amar looked confused, "I am not very familiar with this hooman word."

"Alright, let me explain as best as I can," Mason said, "While the boat is at rest, the boat's weight is borne entirely by the buoyant force. At low speeds every hull acts as a displacement hull, meaning that the buoyant force is mainly responsible for supporting the craft. You understand so far?"

"Roughly," Amar nodded as his years of as a sailor gave him a rough idea of what Mason was trying to explain. "The 'buoyant force' is what keeping the boat afloat right?"

Mason nodded, "That is correct, now as speed increases, hydrodynamic lift increases as well. Eh... What hydrodynamic means is the motion of water and effects on the water and in movement." He gave the best simplest explanation he could think of.

Amar nodded, gesturing Mason to go on.

"Ok, as speed increases, the hydrodynamic lift will push the hull upwards," Mason demonstrates by placing the wooden model of the longboat on the table and moving it while tilting the bow of the model upwards. "This is called plane, you might want to ask Dr. Sharon to explain more on it, but as speed goes up, the bow also lifts up due to hydrodynamic lift. "

"How fast must the boat go to have this ... 'hi-row-die-namic' lift?" Amar asked, "4 cables? 6 cables?" He had never seen such an extraordinary thing happen before in his many years at sea.

"Eh 1 cable is roughly 1 Terran knot which is one nautical mile per hour which is roughly 1.85 km..." Mason mumbled as he calculated the speed the elves used for measuring sea travel which was by cables instead of knots.

"I say roughly 10 or 11 knots," Mason answered, "about 18 to 20 km per hour."

"10 cables of speed?" Amar's eyes went wide, "The fastest flying clipper is only at 16 cables! And it is more than 10 times the size of a longboat... and the number of sails needed for that speed!"

"Well, they are using the power of wind and magic," Mason grinned, "We are using motors to power the boats."

"Now, we gonna need to build a prototype out," He smiled and hooked his arm over Amar's shoulder, "Come on, trust me! This boat is gonna be the fastest ever you have ever seen! It will have at least a sustainable speed of 38 knots per hour and a max speed of 44 knots!"

"38 and 44 cables?" Amar felt like he was dreaming, or that Mason is pulling the wool over his eyes, "Are you sure such a thing is possible?"

"Oh come on! You have seen our airplanes," Mason tsked, "You think we can't make ships go that fast in the sea?"

Amar felt a sudden thrill going up his spine, "Re-really?" He had never felt so excited for a long time, maybe since the first time he built his own boat when he finished his apprenticeship at the shipyards in the Isles, "Let's do it! YES!"

"Hahahaha," Mason laughed at the joy and excitement shown on Amar's facial expressions, "Alright, I don't have any shipbuilding experience, and that I have to leave it to your knowledge, but I do know some of the modern concepts of boat craft, and that I will try my best to teach you and let's see what we can come out together!"

"Yes... yes... you were saying about the bow being a 'V' shape?"

-----

Skies over the Uncharted Forest

Third Sergeant Stamford formerly Petty Officer of the UNS Singapore had transferred over to the newly formed Airforce and his naval ranked switched to an air force rank. Riding on the back of Blue Thunder, he was the only human and the Crew Chief of the other three members of his flight crew.

With the strong bone-chilling wind whipping his thickly insulated body with a full face mask, he grinned at the endless seas of blue-green trees underneath him with the jagged peaks of the mountains to the left of his view. "Damn, this is a view to die for."

"What is it, chief?" Corporal Barkley the navigator yelled, as he looked up from his maps that were velcroed to his thigh. He was seated in a bucket chair that was part of Blue Thunder's harness. Most of the others were also seated in the twin rows of chairs and were either dozing off or admiring the view.

"Nothing! Just thinking how beautiful this view is!" Stamford yelled back. When the Airforce was just formed, he volunteered immediately, hoping that he could serve alongside a dragon, and his wish was granted. Having grown up in Sout West England, Cornwall and hearing stories of knights and dragons from his great-grandfather since young, seeing real dragons brought him back to the stories of chivalry in the old days of man.

"I always wanted to ride a dragon!" Stamford yelled again, "Damn, this is awesome!"

"10 minutes to Rendevous Point Yellow!" Barkley yelled back, "Blue? You got that?"

"Yes, I hear you, Barkley, I see the river!" Blue Thunder's voice came in crisply on their headsets.

"Alright, people, brace yourselves!" Stamford yelled into the radio, "LZ in sight, 10 minutes!"

The rest of the crew quickly checked their buckles and ensured that they are secured before gripping onto the holding bars at set at the side of their seats and braced as Blue Thunder made a gently dive towards the ground.

The snaking river came into sight, parts of it sparkling under the sun where the forest canopy exposed the river to the skies and Blue Thunder flared his wings, dropping his air speed as he glided in, to land at the only area that was not covered by the trees which were on the river itself.

He beat his wings rapidly as he came to a slow hover and his hind legs sank into the cool clear running water, reach up to his hind calves and mindful of his passengers he gently lowered his front body and forward limbs into the river, barely shaking his crew.

"Touch down!" Blue Thunder gave a loud tired puff, "Phew, I need some sleep... and meat!"

"Alright, you big lizard, get us off the river and let us unload the gear, then you can go sleep and eat!" Stamford yelled.

"Yes, Sarge..." Blue Thunder rumbled and climbed up the banks of the river and flopped on all fours, flat on the rocky river bank. "Done!" He folded his wing in and rested half his head onto the river, letting the water run over his chin and he stuck his tongue out, licking the water lazily.

"Alright! Let's unload the cargo and wait for the Marines to come!" Stamford ordered and the rest of the crew started to unclip the restraints holding the cargo and move them off Blue Thunder's back.

It took them an hour to fully unload everything off Blue Thunder's back, by then, the midday sun was blazing away at them. And all of them were hot and sweaty from the work.

"Dek, you're on watch! Setup the MG and radio in to HQ that we have landed, on schedule! And see if you can raise the Marines." Stamford said. "The rest cover up the cargo with the ground sheets, then get some rest and food. We rotate the watch every two hours."

The tired men nodded and went on their work, and everyone went for a quick wash up in the cooling river before settling down into the shade of the trees, nibbling at dried rations or having a shut eye.

Private Dek, climbed back up the back of the snoring Blue Thunder and attached the MG support into the harness at the right shoulder of the sleeping dragon. He locked the bolts of the support into place and hefted the MG-1 out from its storage container, carefully locking it into place, followed by attaching the roll magazine in and worked the action of the machine gun, before putting it on safe.

Next he sat down on the bucket seat behind the machine gun and unslung his radio out, "Dragon One calling Mother, do you copy over?"

'-ther, receiving you, over."

"Dragon One has landed, standing by to receive Marine force over."

"Mother, roger that."

It wasn't even an hour when a whistle was blown from the forest edge and two camouflaged Marines walked out waving, and Dek waved back, "Hey guys, the Marines are here!"

Soon the rest of the Marines and ragged looking slaves appeared, and the slaves were frightened by the large yawning mouth of Blue Thunder who was woken up by the sudden bustle around him, and he sleepy rumbled, "I am hungry..."

"Go hunt something!" Stamford shooed him away angrily when he poked his massive snort and blew hot rancid air at Stamford. "Bring home dinner!"

Dek quickly secured the MG away and scrambled down the back of Blue Thunder who quickly bounced off into the sky, looking for prey.

"Sir!" Stamford greeted Lt Joesph and the Claymore One team leader, as they gathered for a quick talk. "Supplies here will be enough to last you guys to the next rendezvous point. Which is Point Blue."

Lt Joesph nodded, "Can you medivac some of the more seriously wounded?"

"I can take roughly six to eight stretchers on the back of Blue, but his landings and takeoffs are not exactly gentle," Stamford advised, "It might not be safe for those that can't be moved."

"How about the Valkyries?" Tyrier asked, "Can't they come in to take the wounded off?"

"There are too many trees in the vicinity," Stamford replied, "We can't land those birds. We are using the river to drop in, but it is still too risky to get a Valkyrie over the such a small opening in the canopy."

"And HQ doesn't want to risk such a valuable asset," Lt Joesph sighed. "Alright, let's see how we can rig up a medivac on the dragon. I got a couple of serious cases and a high profile target that the Hero wants."

"CHIEF!" Stamford comms suddenly crackled alive, "ENEMY DRAGONS! I GOT THREE ON MY TAIL! ALL MEDIUM WEIGHT!" Blue Thunder's voice roared over the comms.

"What?" Everyone froze and quickly headed out to the break in the canopy over the river and stared out at the sky.

"STAND TO! STAND TO!" Lt Joesph roared out, startling the nearby Marines and slaves, "Incoming aerial dragons! Move it!"

The men, quickly sprung into action, scrambling away from the open areas and directing the frightened slave to take shelter among the trees keeping out of sight, while they manned their weapons and kept watch of the surrounding area and skies.

Suddenly a shadow darted over the river, followed by a few more, and Blue Thunder was seen flapping his wings as he led three other smaller but faster dragons with blue rigging and trappings of the Empire away from the rendezvous point.

"Oh shit! The Empire found us!"

154 - Dog Fight

Blue Thunder dipped his wing and did a sharp swerve in mid-air, dodging the raking claws of the smaller Empire dragon that dove down from above. He retaliated with a sweep of his tail as he turned away, his barbed end scored a small gash along the back of the squeaking dragon.

A couple of crossbow bolts slammed against his flanks from his blind spot, his hard scales managed to deflect the bolts away, the pinpricks irritating Blue Thunder more than damaging him.

"Evade! Evade! Coming from under you!" The loudspeakers crackled to life and Blue Thunder came to a sudden hover, and a shadowy shape darted up before him, missing him by meters. "Get to safety!"

Blue Thunder growled as the attack that nearly gutted him and glared at the insolent dragon that circled back for another attack. He stayed hovering on the spot and sucked in the air into his lungs, filling it up and his chest glowed slightly.

The Empire Dragons and their riders seeing him starting to glow, yelled out in warning, and they started to split, making themselves as small as a target as possible.

Blue Thunder spat out a ball of fire at the nearest Empire dragon and dove downwards, aiming for the small clearing over the river where the rest of the Marines had gathered. His fireball barely touched any of the dodging dragons but it distracted them long enough for him to disappear into the canopy of the forest.

-----

Lt Joesph peered out from the cover of the trees, seeing the Empire dragons circling in the sky and cursed. "How did they find us?"

Crew Chief Stamford frowned, "They must have spotted Blue Thunder while he was hunting and coming within sight, his harness must have given him away since there is no one else here that uses gear like that."

A crash came from the undergrowth and the men all spun around, aiming their weapons at the source of the noises and a draconic snort soon poked out from the trees and rumbled, "It's is me..."

"Blue!" Stamford ran out, gesturing at the Marines to hold their fire. "Are you okay?" He came up next to the panting dragon.

"Am okay..." Blue Thunder replied, "Just slightly tired and... hungry!"

Stamford looked worriedly at the condition of Blue Thunder. He had burnt up a lot of calories just flying over and also in the short combat in the skies. They have some food for Blue Thunder, but the plan was supposed for Blue Dragon to forage his own food, while the rations for Blue Thunder were to be used in an emergency, like now.

"Alright, we are gonna feed you," Stamford said, "Any injuries?"

"Not sure," Blue Thunder replied, as he craned his neck over his own body trying to see if he was wounded, "But there is a bad itch at my back..."

Stamford nodded, waving for the rest of the crew over. "Get his rations, and give him a once over, check if there are any injuries on him."

The men nodded and went off to work, Stamford climbed onto Blue Thunder's harness and started to inspect the harness's condition and also for signs of injury. As he stood on his back, he could felt waves of heat emitting out from Blue Thunder's body.

"You wanna go lay down at the river there?" Stamford asked, "The trees should provide some cover for you."

"Sure!" Blue Thunder nodded and started to make his way over to the river where it was covered by the trees. He half sank himself into the water and moaned in bliss, "Much better!"

"Chief!" Dek yelled, gesturing him over to the rear of Blue Thunder's back.

"What is it?" Stamford came over and saw what Dek was pointing at. A stubby crossbow bolt had stuck deep between two overlapping scales. "Damn. Get the first aid kit over!"

"Blue! You got a crossbow bolt in your ass!" Stamford yelled, and Blue snaked his head back to try to see. "You just hang tight there, we will get it out!"

"Oooo, no wonder it itches!" Blue grumbled. "Get it out quick!"

"Hold on buddy," Dek said, as he came back with a first aid kit that looked more like a toolbox. He removed a large pair of pliers and clamped the jaws onto the bolt. "On three... two... one... and... Ahhh!"

He pulled the bloody bolt out in a long pull, the wound sucking at the glittering arm length long bolt. "Annnd... It's out!" Making Blue Thunder gave a grunt of pain.

Thick glistering dark red blood started to flow out from the wound. Stamford took the bucket of water from Barkley and poured over the wound, washing the blood away and with a flashlight, he peered into the wound. "Looks clean, not poisoned."

He took the package of clotting powder and dumped all into the wound, before stuffing a wad of gauze on top of the wound, underneath the scales. He took the offered roll of duct tape and started taping the gauze against Blue Thunder's scales, making sure it was tight.

"How are you feeling?" Stamford asked, as he hopped down to the riverside, and started to wash his arms thick with dragon blood.

"Hungry..." Blue Thunder grumbled. "Butt is not so itchy now."

"Good," Stamford climbed up the river banks, "Here eat some rations first."

Blue Thunder looked at the small pile of blocky cardboard colored ration bars and made a face, "I want meat!"

"Eat this, for now, you big baby!" Stamford shook his head and smiled, "Its high in calories, chock full of whole grains, honey, fats, and all the vitamins a growing boy like you needs!"

Blue Thunder sighed and started munching away at the blocks of ration bars sadly.

Leaving Blue Thunder to his meal, Stamford went back to find Lt Joesph with Sergeant Tyrier in a discussion. They both waved him over, and said, "We need to move soon and fast. One of the dragons have gone back to report, I am not sure if they spotted us in the forest."

"Dragons have great eyesight for hunting," Stamford said, "They can spot a goblin hiding in the bushes at 100 meters away, so I am certain they must have spotted us already."

"Than all the more reason for us to move out now," Tyrier said. "Delaying longer will only allow the enemy to come closer."

Lt Joesph nodded, "Yes, but we need to do something about them." He pointed to the sky, "If they keep following us, the enemy will still know where we are."

"HQ says, at least two hours or more for any aerial support," The Marine radio operator said. "The wind is against the planes, that is why it takes longer to come here."

"Damn, two hours?" Tyrier cursed, "A lot can happen in two hours!"

"Well, we can rig up Blue for aerial combat," Stamford suddenly spoke out. "He does have mounting points for machine guns. We can take down those medium weights before the Empire returns here."

Both Joesph and Tyrier looked at Stamford, "You are confident to take down those medium weights? Not to mention if the enemy reinforcements come, you guys got to take the risk of fighting more than two dragons!"

"Well, Sir, isn't this why we signed on?" Stamford grinned, "The risk and the fight!"

"Well said," Lt Joesph nodded, "What do you need?"

"It's all good, I will get my crew to load up and secured for combat," Stamford replied, "Head towards Point Blue while we are distracting the dragons, so even if we fail, at least you guys can get away, just that we can't medivac any wounded now."

Joesph and Tyrier nodded, "Godspeed!"

-----

Dek attached the machine gun support into place at the back of Blue Dragon's harness near the tail of his spine, snapping the MG-1 into place and loading the drum magazine in. He ensured that the spare ammunition secured against the harness was properly stored and settled down into the bucket seat, with the machine gun aiming at the aft, or the tail of Blue Thunder.

Stamford double checked the rest of his crew making sure everyone is secured and ready. Three machine guns all manned, one on each side of the shoulder of Blue Thunder and the remaining gun at the tail. He checked his shotgun, making sure it was fully loaded and properly strapped against his body and yelled, "All green! Clear for launch!"

Blue Thunder gave a grunt and made a run towards the open canopy, the Marines yelling their support as Blue Thunder bounced off into the open air, and with several flaps of his massive wings disappeared from the view of the Marines.

-----

"Contact left!" Barkley manning the left shoulder gun yelled into the comms, and Blue Thunder banked left, and head towards the two dark specks in the skies, going for the kill.

'Here they come!" Stamford yelled, "Watch your arcs of fire! I want no one to shoot up Blue! Especially his wings! Make sure your guns are arc locked!"

"Roger!"
"Yes, Chief!"
"Got it!"

Blue Thunder sucked in air and spat out a ball of fire directly at one of the Empire Dragon which weaved right, dodging the fire ball and Private Luth manning the right gun opened up with the MG-1, spewing 8.5 mm tracers directly in the path of the surprised Empire dragon.

The new 8.5 mm rounds traveling at 807 meters per second missed the flying dragon, but Luth using the bright tracers as a guide managed to correct his aim, firing in the path of the dragon. The 19 grams bullet hammered into the body of the dragon, ignoring the tough scales and torn through muscles, bones, and flesh like paper.

The whole engagement lasted four seconds before the Empire dragon flew past and out from the arc of fire of Luth's gun. But that four seconds had sent 34 rounds fired from the machine gun into the Empire dragon, which over 20 had stricken the dragon.

A stream of dark liquid could be seen trailing the dragon, as it flopped over to the side and spiraled down to smash into the canopy with a mighty crash, sending wyverns flapping away in flight from the trees.

"SCRATCH ONE DRAGON!" Luth yelled excitedly as he leaned his body over, watching the downed dragon doing a cartwheel among the thick canopy before disappearing into the forest. "Woooo hoooo!"

"Good kill!" Stamford yelled back, as he kept his eye on the other Empire dragon who seemed to hesitate after seeing the death of its brood. "Go for the last one while it is still confused!"

Blue Thunder growled happily and flapped his wings harder before keeping his wings in and stooped down towards the startled Empire dragon, with his claws out. The men onboard yelled and whooped as gravity seemed to disappear and they went diving down like a roller coaster ride.

The Empire dragon tried to get out of the way back was just a second too slow. Blue Thunder's full body weight of 33 tons slammed onto the left wing of the panicking Empire dragon, snapping the shoulder off, while the T-Rex sized talons of Blue Thunder gouged against the flank of the screaming dragon, its rider, and small crew staring in wide-eyed horror visible even in their dopey looking crystal goggles.

The screaming Empire dragon tried desperately to flapped its wings, but only its right wing function, its left dangled uselessly and with its life-blood pouring out like a tap, it folded inwards and fell from the sky, together with the screams of its crew.

Blue Thunder did a slow circle over the area, as the Empire dragon slammed into the Uncharted Forest, the canopy barely able to soften its death fall, and a small hole appeared in the sea of trees and small flying wyverns burst out angrily from their nests.

"Good kill!" Stamford yelled again, to which Blue Thunder gave a pleased grunt. "Wait, what is that?" He pointed to the horizon in the distance as he narrowed his eyes, and quickly pulled out his field glasses, and saw several specks approaching them in the air.

"Oh, noes!" Blue Thunder mumbled, "More Empire!"

155 - First Air to Air Dragon Combat

Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as he lined his body straight at the approaching Empire dragons, "They are splitting up!" He roared over the wind as he noted the dragons had split into two groups.

"Yes! I see them!" Stamford yelled. "Two of the mid-weights are holding together with the single heavy and the other three are vectoring in for an attack!"

The single heavyweight dragon with silver trimmed blue banners and streamers beat its wings rapidly as it sought to gain altitude, together with its two escorts. Blue Thunder could just barely see dark figures clinging onto its back as it rose higher.

"They are going for a pincher attack!" Blue Thunder growled, "The heavy looks like its going for height advantage, while the other three distract and harass us!"

"Ignore the heavy, we take out the trio first!" Stamford yelled as he gauged the distance and speed between the enemy. "We do a high-speed fly pass, followed by a turn circle port side! All guns to fire as they bear!"

"We let the heavy come up from our aft, most likely they will do a swooping dive down at our tail," Stamford twisted in his seat as he looked to the rear, "Dek, make sure you give that heavy a good dose of lead!"

"With pleasure, chief!"

"Alright! Let's do it!" Stamford yelled, "Let's show them ground pounders what the Airforce can do!"

Blue Thunder accelerated, pulling his wings strongly, forcing more wind against its serpentine body and gliding through the air like a fish in the sea. The dotted figures in front of them quickly resolved into three silver-black scaled Razorback dragons with streamers tied to their legs and wing tips, boldly displaying the Empire colors.

They broke their formation and aimed for Blue Thunder in three different directions, aiming to rake their claws against his flanks with the lead Razorback distracted him head-on. "Dive down now!" Stamford yelled as he clutched his shotgun tightly against his chest.

A sense of gravity disappearing sent the men whooping, as Blue Thunder dived under the reaches of the dragons who tried to box him in, and the machine guns fired, raking the underside of the confused Razorbacks.

Stamford gave a wordless yell as he pumped shot after shot at the underbelly of the lead dragon who cried out in anger at the missed ploy and the rear machine gun fired, and Stamford caught sight of a line of tracers sparking off the underbelly of the dragon before it vanished from view.

"Did we get them?" Stamford yelled, checking left and right making sure everyone was still in place while digging into his pouches for shotgun shells.

"I think so?" Someone yelled back.

Blue Thunder craned his neck back as he turned a loop back towards the action, "I can't see the heavy and its escorts!" He yelled as he looked around in panic.

"7 o'clock high! Coming in fast!" Dek yelled as he spotted a shadow against the sun. "It's coming from the sun!"

"BREAK LEFT! BREAK BREAK BREAK!" Stamford yelled urgently, and Blue Thunder did a sharp tilt left, and a swooping shadow burst out from the skies, barely missing Blue Thunder, the force of its passage sent Blue Thunder struggling to keep balanced. "HOLY FUCK!"

"GOT NO LINE OF FIRE!"
"CAN'T SEE SHIT!"

"INCOMING LEFT FLANK!" Barkley yelled as he spotted a silvery shape darting in from the left side. He twisted his body, trying to bring his MG-1 to bear on the target, but the Razorwing cunningly stayed out of his line of sight, using the flapping wings of Blue Thunder as cover as it inched closer.

"I GOT HIM!" Dek yelled as he swung his gun over, his wire sights hovered over the dragon where three of its crew could be seen firing and loading crossbow bolts at them. He angled the gun slightly forward and fired, bright tracers ripping out from the barrel and into the path of the dragon making it swerved away in panic. But before it disappeared from sight underneath Blue Thunder, Dek saw his shots landing on the crew members, their body turning limp as the dragon dived away. "I got its crew!"

Stamford leaned over the back of Blue Thunder to peer at the disengaged dragon, "Damn, we need some guns at the bottom!"

Blue Thunder gave a dismissive snort and Stamford felt its body bellowing up, followed by a roar and a smoking ball of fire rained down towards the diving dragon, and surprisingly hitting it square on its back. "Ha! Take that!"

"What a lucky shot..." Stamford shooked his head, to which Blue Thunder snorted again.

"There is no such thing as luck!" Blue tilted his head up proudly. "I just good!"

"Watch your front you dumb beast!" Stamford yelled, "Praise yourself later, but we still got five dragons to go!"

"Make it three!" Dek yelled from the back, "I just saw one crashing into the trees, and another limping away at five o'clock!"

Stamford grabbed his field glasses hanging on over his neck and quickly scanned the horizon, seeing a dragon laboring its way across the sky, with what appeared to be large drops of blood raining off its body. "That dragon won't make it, gauging by the amount of blood it's leaking!"

"Tally ho!" Luth yelled and pointed. "3 o'clock high!"

"Blue get us some attitude!" Stamford commanded as he turned his glasses over to the direction Luth yelled seeing the remaining dragons have regrouped and were coming back for another pass.

"Roger!" Blue Thunder flapped his wings mightily and swung his body towards the approaching Empire dragons, "Come get some!" He roared and spat out another fireball at the approaching group as the distance closed. The Empire heavy also spat a fireball out, which Blue Thunder dodged and the guns opened up.

-----

Dante stood on the crown of an ever blue tree watching the aerial dogfight in interest. He smiled and leaped off the tree easily and used the branches of the trees to navigate his way towards the battle. "I found you~"

-----

Blue Thunder gave a yelp of pain as a bolt of lightning gouged his flank, melting his dark blue scales and fusing them against his flesh. He roared and spat a ball of fire at the Empire heavy as it flew past him, missing the dragon as it bent its body away agilely from the fireball.

"RAWR! I AM PISSED OFF!" Blue Thunder roared as he chased the other heavy through the skies. "Stop running!"

Luth cursed as Blue Thunder's motions made him drop the fully loaded 75 rounds drum magazine off the side and into the sea of trees, he braced himself properly and dug another drum out and hugged on to it tightly as Blue Thunder went into another bout of aerobatics. "I am gonna be sick!" as he was thrown left and right in the sky.

"Watch your 4 o'clock!" Stamford yelled, as an enraged Razorback, which he recognized as the one with its crew decimated, swooped in with its jaws wide opened and its claws stretched out. Stamford raised his shotgun up and fired, while Dek swung the MG-1 around and fired, the short distance making it hard to miss, and the combined fire pounded the dragon into bloody meat.

Blue Thunder tried to swerve out of the falling dead dragon's way but was just a little too slow and the dead dragon clipped part of Blue's wing tip, making him scream as his wing tip bone fractured from the impact.

Also immediately, they went into a spiral, the men screaming as Blue Thunder fought back the pain and tears. He barely managed to recover from the spiraling dive but in the process, he had lost too much speed and attitude, desperately trying to limp his way in the skies above the canopy.

Seeing his weakened state, the remaining Razorback screamed in triumphant, and darted down from the skies, going for the kill. It swooped down, ready to latch onto the back of Blue Thunder and rake its claws into its spine, only to meet another barrage of machine gun and shotgun fire, its bullet riddled body crashing into the sea of trees behind Blue Thunder.

Stamford wiped the vomit stains off his side of his face, and with wobbly fingers, shoved shell after shell into his shotgun as he reloaded. "Oh my god, I thought we were dead there."

"There's still one more!" Blue Thunder growled, his right wing barely able to move, as they glided gently along the treetops. "I can't find any place to land!"

"Incoming!" Dek yelled as he saw a streaking ball of fire coming down from the Empire heavy. He swung his machine gun up and fired off a long stream of tracers, which the dragon dodged away, and the glow of a magic shield could be seen as a few lucky bullets impacted.

Blue Thunder tilted his body away from the fireball, which exploded, sending a small cloud of smoke upwards. He quickly leaned his body towards the explosion and used the hot air current to gain a bit of attitude, knowing that if he crashed into the trees, his crew will most likely die or suffer from serious injuries, even himself won't be spare. And landing on a hover into the trees will only trap him in the canopy, making him an open target as he needs time to break through the thick branches and into the cover of the trees.

Soon another fireball rained down on them and a bolt of lightning torn into his tail, making tears form on his eyes.

"Dragon One, come in over. This is Gold Leader!" The radio suddenly burst into life and Dek quickly reached to its receiver.

"This is Dragon One! We receive you, over!" Dek yelled excited as he craned his neck left and right looking into the horizon.

"Gold Leader, standby, I believe a big bad bully is on your tail," The welcoming voice sounded so sweet to the crew that they and even Blue Thunder gave a loud cheer.

Suddenly black dots dropped out of the sun, right on top of the unsuspecting Empire heavyweight. Four A/F - 1 Cobra appeared and the twin pylon mounted 20 mm autocannon gun pods fired, sending 129 grams projectiles at 670 meters per second screaming down at a rate of 520 rounds per minute. The 20 mm autocannon ammunition configuration was two high explosives shells followed by two armor-piercing shells and the fifth shell was a tracer.

The magic shield barely held for three seconds when the explosives and armor-piercing shells detonated against the magic defenses of the unsuspecting Empire dragon. It shattered, and the magical backlash slammed into the mage who cast and maintained the spell. He jerked back and coughed out blood before the remaining shells that encountered no more resistance, turned the crew into steaming pieces of unidentified meat, and blowing large chunks of flesh off the screaming dragon.

As the Cobras pulled up from their attack, what was left of the dragon, rained over a large section of Uncharted Forest in bloody chunks of gore and blood.

"YESSSS!" Blue Thunder and his crew cheered as they saw the Empire Dragon literally exploded into pieces. "Airforce for the win!"

"Gold Leader to Dragon One, your wing doesn't look too good," The lead Cobra radioed over as they regroup and buzzed over Blue Thunder, checking them out.

"Dragon One, we took a beating! Need to touch down immediately!" Dek radioed back under Stamford's directions.

"Roger that Dragon One, divert to bearing 223 degrees, there's a river clearing approximately two kilometers away, over," Gold Leader radioed back, "Think Blue can make it?"

"Roger! Standby!" Dek replied, "Blue! You heard that?"

Blue panted heavily and barely gave a grunt in reply, his eyes half closed in pain. "Just... tell.. me... where... to... fly..."

"Got it!" Barkley checking his instruments yelled, "Blue turn to your left, 8 o'clock heading! You can do it!"

Blue grunted and beat his wings weakly, trying his best to keep afloat in the air, and soon the glitter of a snaking river could be seen among the sea of trees.

"We survived the first air to air dragon combat!"

156 - I FOUND YOU~!

Uncharted Forest - 292 km from Sawtooth Mountain Pass

Lt Joesph looked up as he heard a muffled rippling echo from the skies, but the thick canopy barely allowed any view into the sky. Even sound was muffled and suppressed by the thick cover, making it hard to gauge where it was coming from.

"Come on, move it guys," Lt Joesph encouraged the tired slaves as they pushed through the forest. "Tyrier!"

He gestured the Claymore One leader over, "Think you can lay some false trails and cover our movements?"

Tyrier paused and glanced around the forest before nodding, "Got it, you got any claymores or explosives?"

Lt Joesph nodded and pointed, "Get it from the Asagi," He gestured to a small quad pedial walker, climbing over a tree root with large baggage on its back, following a hulking Oerkin wearing a barely fitting helmet and a sleeveless uniform with a couple of ammo belts crisscrossed over his barrel chest. In his large muscular arms, he cradled a large machine gun that looked almost too small for him. "I will assign you some guys for support."

"Got it," Tyrier gave a low whistle, signaling the rest of Claymore One over, "Alright guys, got a shit job." He said to the rest of the team as they gathered around him.

"We gonna lay some surprises for any chance of pursuit at our rear and also spells to cover and mislead the enemy," Tyrier gave a quick brief. "Whatever we need, explosives or mines, we get it from the golem's supplies. Questions?"

"Why the fark are we doing this shit?" Hitsu grumbled, "Can't the Marines handle it? Why is it always Claymore One got to do all the shit jobs?"

"Shut it!" Tyrier growled, "Will you trust a brunch of FNGs (*Fucking New Guys) to wipe your ass?"

"Now I know you guys are feeling pissed and sad with Doth's incident," Tyrier lowered his tone, "That Hero who killed our friend and buddy is out there, and he is coming again," He pointed to the rear.

"And we are gonna give him a surprise party when he comes," Tyrier said while looking in the eyes of each of his team, "Now what say you?"

"Time for round two!" Altied growled, "Let's kill that son of a bitch once and for all!"

"Hell yea!" Tavel nodded, rubbing his bandaged arm. "He's got to pay for Doth!"

The rest nodded in agreement, "Okay, we are gonna split into three sectors, left, center and right flank." Tyrier pointed to three directions.

"Altied and Young, you cover the left flank, Hitsu, and Loke, on the center and Tavel with me on the right,' Tyrier ordered, "Mine it, trap it, lay your magic formations, or whatever shit you want, but do it quickly. Questions?"

"How much time?" Loke asked.

"Maybe half a day? Or less?" Tyrier replied, "We have no idea, it could even be an hour."

"Won't it be a hazard in the long run if the traps and mines are not triggered?" Young asked in concern.

"We mark in on the maps if possible and have the Marines clear them in the future," Tyrier replied, "We don't have the luxury of worrying about hazards now. Any other questions?"

The men shook their heads as they pondered on what to set up on their assigned areas.

Tyrier nodded, "Good. Grab what you need, and who you need. The lieutenant had given us his okay on using his men."

"Sergeant Tyrier?" A Marine Sergeant appeared behind Tyrier, "The LT has sent us over to assist you."

Tyrier did a quick look and saw two sections worth of Marines had gathered up, half of what Lt Joesph had in his force. The golem called Asagi was curiously looking left and right at the ongoings as it stood at the edge of the crowd.

"Alright Sergeant... Emberstone," Tyrier read the nametag off his uniform, "Split the men up into three groups and also all the explosives and mines from the golem and do the same."

SGT Emberstone nodded and started directing the gathered Marines, pointing and gesturing at the golem while getting the men to form up in three groups. "Sergeant Tyrier? It's done."

"Good," Tyrier strolled up, "Alright, you guys are here to help us lay some surprises for the blue boys who is coming. We don't know how much time we have, it might be an hour or a day. So work fast and work safe!" He pointed to one group, "You guys follow Altied and Young. You with them and the rest with me. Now let's get to work!"

"OOO RAH!"

-----

Somewhere at the Uncharted Forest

Blue Thunder painfully stretched out his broken wing, allowing Luth and Dek to bind his broken wing bones with a piece of wood and duct tape. He chomped down on the unappetizing ration blocks and sighed, "I want meat..."

"Come on, Blue, soldier up!" Stamford patted Blue's ridged head. "Wait a while more, and I get the boys to hunt you something later."

"Promise?" Blue Thunder made a plate-sized puppies eyes at Stamford who shook his head at Blue Thunder's antics.

"Promise!" Stamford replied, "When it is all safe and clear!"

Blue Thunder gave a grunt, as Barkley pulled out another crossbow bolt stuck at Blue Thunder's left shoulder. "Damn, another few hands, and this would have skewered Luth."

"How is it?" Stamford climbed up next to Barkley who was stuffing the wound with anti clogging powder."

"Removed four crossbow bolts, applied burn cream on three lightning bolts strikes, patched several torn wing membranes on both wings with duct tape and..." Barkley gestured to the other two who were still splinting Blue Thunder broken wing bones. "that..."

Stamford nodded turned to watch Blue Thunder, swallowing the remaining ration blocks. "He should be fine with enough rest and calories," Barkley said, "But the wing at this condition, he might not be able to fly long distances and his speed will be greatly affected."

"Meat will heal me fast!" Blue Thunder snaked his serpentine head back to look at the both of them, "Meat makes it all good!"

"Yes yes, you glutton!" Stamford shooed his head away, "Go get some shut-eye, we might need you to move at any time!"

Blue Thunder gave a pout and lowered his head back on the ground and closed his eyes, and before long, a bubble appeared over his nostrils as he gave off a light snooze.

"The crew? And ammunition status?" Stamford asked as he watched the bubble of snort grew expand and contract following the rhythm of Blue Thunder's breathing.

"No injuries, just shaken," Barkley turned his attention to the other two who were packing up the first aid toolbox. "Ammunition is down a roughly 1.5 drum magazine per gun."

"Gold Squadron is providing as much cover for us as possible," Dek yelled, as he stowed away the first kit toolbox. "But they only have enough fuel to stay in the AO (Area of Operations) for roughly another two hours or less."

Stamford nodded, "Let's wash up and take a break for now, with Blue in this state, we can't do much either. But at least we cleared the skies."

"Oh, yea! I got puke all over my body!" Luth said, as he started stripping his uniform off and ran towards the river with Dek to wash up.

"I keep watch for now," Stamford said, "later we might need to do some hunting for Blue and our dinner before it gets dark."

"Got it."

-----

The Hero paused in his movements in the trees and he cocked his head, listening to the sounds in the forest. "Now, now, what do we have here?"

He closed his eyes and from his body, covering him in a warm yellow-white glow manifested, granting him an increase in his abilities. He could hear the clanking and clashes of metal against metal in his rear, where the rest of the Empire forces following him were making their clumsy way through the forest.

For the past day, they had airlifted every soldier into the forest closest to where the enemy is at as Dante's mental link with Evelyn was still unsevered. Dante himself personally destroyed a large swath of forest, enabling the dragons to land the men, before making return trips to pick up more. Only when the dragons had transported everyone, did he send them out to look for any traces of the rebels and the strange barbarians with the demonic thundersticks in the direction where he sensed Evelyn's lifeforce.

He judged that they were roughly half a day or less away when one of the dragons returned bearing news of discovering an unaffiliated dragon but matching the description of an Empire heavyweight dragon that was said to have turn traitor.

Dante left the soldiers behind to push forward, his mental link with Evelyn was telling him she was roughly in this direction. Now crouched in the trees, he closed his eyes and opened up his inner eye, groping for a sense of where Eveyln's lifeforce was at.

He opened his eyes with a smile, feeling the strength of the mental tug, knowing himself to be very close and he kicked off from the tree branch, the force of his leap shattering the branch as he flew for meters onto another tree branch, his magic barrier around him, negating the whipping branches and trees.

"Time for vengeance, mortals!"

-----

Private Slow grunted as he stretched his strained back, after spending half an hour digging around the forest floor and planting claymore mines and rigging them up to trip wires. He pointed harshly at Asagi who peered from next to him at the barely visible wire he set at knee length across two tree roots. "No no! Back! Dangerous!"

He shooed the curious spider golem away, "Danger! KA BOOM!" He gestured with his fingers opening up like an explosion and pointed to a corner of a tree. "Stay!"

Asagi seems downcasted as it lowered its head and trotted sadly to stand at where Slow pointed. Slow gave a sigh and gave it a pat, "Wait here, Me done soon!"

Asagi gave a sort of wag with its armored plated stone body and settled down at the tree, waiting patiently for Slow to finish up.

"Sarge! I am done here!" Slow yelled after he covered up the claymore aimed between the two ever blue trees with trunks wider than he could hug with his two hands. "Come on, Asagi, let's go!"

Suddenly a tree branch snapped loudly from above and a small shower of leaves fluttered down. Slow jerked his head up in surprise and saw a slightly glowing elf half kneeling on a tree branch that was snapped in half with one part dangling in the air.

"WHAT?" Slow roared out, "CONTACT!"

-----

Dante landed hard on to a tree branch and looked down, seeing a strange monster with bags and boxes on its back next to an Oerkin dressed in a strange manner. He gave a grinned at the Oerkin who yelled out an unknown language and seemed to fumbled for something on the body of the strange four legged creature.

Dante's eyes narrowed and his grin grew wider as he recognized the weapon the strange Oerkin was lifting up, it looked like one of those cursed thundersticks! "Found you!"

-----

Slow grabbed his MG-1 which he stacked on the back of Asagi, cursing at himself for leaving his weapon, and for a brief moment, his drill sergeant words came crashing into his mind, "NEVER LEAVE YOUR WEAPON FROM YOUR SIDE AT ALL TIMES!"

"Oh, I am gonna get drilled out!" Slow yelped as he remembered the painful memories of basic training. "CONTACT! HERO SIGHTED!" He roared again, and swung his MG-1 in hip fire stance, snapping off the safety and fired, sending a meter long muzzle flashing into the forest, and spent empty cartridges flying off into the forest ground.

-----

Dante smiled widely as he watched the slow-motion movements of the Oerkin and he leaped down, his arms reaching to the back of his waist where a pair of swords hung in their own scabbard sat.

A twin gleam of silvery light flashed out, and the Oerkin yelled in pain and rage, as twin fountain of blood erupted out from its body in an 'X' shape. It dropped the roaring thunderstick and fell against the weird looking four-legged creature which appeared to have arms that gripped onto the falling Oerkin and started to drag it away into the trees.

Dante laughed as he watched the antics of the creature seemingly trying to save the Oerkin. He took a step forward and slashed down at the Oerkin, wanting to finish it off as he knew the Oerkin were very tough and hard to kill. But to his amazement, the strange creature blocked his sword slash, sending a numbing sensation down his arm as a loud, "CLANK!!" reverberated from the body of the creature when his sword hit it.

"Huh? What manner of creature is this?"

157 - Cobra Down

Skies over Uncharted Forest

Gold Group leader Flight Sergeant Legos Waver, glanced at his flight instruments, giving a hard rap against the fuel gauge, and noted down the fuel level and flight time with a pencil stub against a notepad velcroed to his right trousers tight.

"Alright Gold Group," He triggered his throat mike, "Check your fuel levels, and report in, over."

"Gold Two, fuel at 47%, over."
"Gold Four, fuel down to 48%, over."
"Five here, fuel at 45%, over."

"Roger, Gold Group!" Legos did a quick calculation and keyed the mike again, "Alright, report in when fuel is at 35%, out." He gauged that they had roughly less than an hour of flight time in the area.

Commander Peter had ordered the flight of F/A- 1 Cobras off the runaway and positioned them to patrol around Rendevous Point Blue. They barely started their patrol when the word came in that an enemy flight of dragons had ambushed Dragon One, and Legos directed his men to make all haste over to provide support.

Two planes had to fall back and return to base after they developed engine problems, leaving four of them to come to support Dragon One, but as they arrived, they found that Dragon One had shot down six of the Empire Dragons and were under attack from the last dragon.

Using the sun as cover, and the element of surprise, he had two of his planes engage the unaware dragon, each making a high-side gun pass, their new 20 mm autocannons proofing very effective in tearing the shielded dragon to shreds.

"Gold Lead, Gold Four! Red Smoke spotted!" Suddenly his comms crackled, "Repeat, Red!"

"Shit," Legos craned his head around his cockpit, peering out from the glass, looking around for the smoke and cursed as he saw thin tendrils of red smoke drifting out from a patch in the sea of trees. Red smoke meant that the ground forces had encountered the hero while blue smoke indicated enemy troops.

"All Gold units, vector in over to the marked location and standby to provide close in air support!" Legos ordered as he tilted his flight stick, turning his A/F - 1 Cobra towards the red colored smoke drifting out from the sea of trees.

-----

Lt Joesph watched the red smoke from the smoke grenade clustered at the top of the forest canopy, wondering if the air support up there will be able to see it. Their comms were unable to get through the forest canopy and the bloody Hero had turned up while they were in the middle of setting up traps for him.

Barks of M1 Magelocks erupted all around him, as the platoon fired at the glowing target. The sheer amount of firepower kept the Hero at bay, as he raised his magic power to the maximum, making the surrounding trees and plant life smoking from the heat of his aura.

Out of the corner of his eye, Lt Joesph noted one of the two ASASG were dragging a wounded Marine back away into cover. He turned and yelled, "Medic! Tend to that wounded Marine!"

"RPG teams! Load thermobaric rockets!" Lt Joesph yelled, "Give that son of bitch hell!"

The rocket teams quickly reloaded with thermobaric rockets into their launchers, swapping out the HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) rockets with rockets coded with a red band on the warhead.

The Hero tossed a few high energy beams, which scorched the trees and any exposed flesh, making the Marines cry out in pain and anger. The tracers from the MG-1s were like lasers, following the Hero's frantic movements as he weaved in and out from the trees, using them as cover. But when the Hero exposed himself to attack, several lines of tracers converged on him, sending him tumbling backward as the force of the .338 (8.5 mm) rounds hammered him silly.

-----

Dante dodged another line of sparking thunderstones that were thrown his way. He panted and raised both his sore arms, seeing bruises forming, turning his arms blue-black. "What kind of demon sorcery is that?"

He sneaked a quick peek from behind the battered tree he was at, trying to pick out the individual spellcasters hiding in the undergrowth, but the demon cursed casters were like forest sprites, their bodies blending into the surroundings almost perfectly!

"Cursed mortals, think your demonic powers are strong?" Dante's ever-present smile changed, to an expression of pure seriousness. "Let me show you the difference between a god's power and a demon's!"

-----

"There! 100! Enemy behind the tree!" An RPG team crouched down, while the assistant pointed at where the Hero was hiding at. "Clear!"

"ONE ROUND AWAY!" The Marine with the RPG fired, sending a smoking dart flaming its way over to the tree where the Hero was behind and seconds later, a sharp crack resounded, and the tree tottered over, with smoke and splinters flying all over the place.

-----

Dante was praying to the Sun God when suddenly his heightened senses heard a WHOOOOOOSH, and the tree he was suddenly exploded, and a pressure wave slammed into him. His magic shield fluctuated and held, but he felt his insides were like a troll had hammered him. He rolled away and leaned against a massive tree root, and felt a raw sweetness in his throat and he vomited out a mouthful of dark blood.

"What?" He stared incredulously at the blood in his hand. "I was harmed by minor creatures?"

His aura changed as his temper changed, "Lowly lesser creatures dare to hurt my body?" He closed his eyes, ignoring the impacts of the thunderstones against the tree root he was under. "Sun God, hear me! Creatures bound to the dark arts have risen... Grant me the light to cast the darkness away!"

Almost immediately his the aura in his body glowed brighter, and the discomfort he felt in his body faded away and the pain in his arms disappeared. He turned both his arms and saw the bruises had all gone and he narrowed his eyes, "I shall not underestimate these lesser creature's power. Those thundersticks and stones of theirs are clearly way more powerful than I can imagine!"

"It is time to stop playing around!" Dante started praying again, calling upon the Sun God to grant him power, in exchange for offerings.
-----

Tyrier and the rest of Claymore One had moved up in a textbook flanking maneuver, using the cover fire provided by the Marines and they crouched next to a tree root, roughly a couple of trees away from the Hero. Tyrier looked his team and wordlessly mimicked pulling a grenade out and throwing it. The rest of the team nodded and each dug out a black powder egg shaped grenade and held it ready.

Tyrier gave a nod and raised up his fingers, counting down from three to one. And everyone on the count of one pulled the grenade pins and lobbed it hard towards the area where the Hero was hiding. Six grenades flew out, the safety spoon spun away from the fuse and the protective covering for the fire runes was removed and the twin rune waffles touched each other and flared up, sending a large spark out which ignited the measured fuse, setting it burning down the thin tube.

The six grenades bounced against the semi-soft dirt forest floor and rolled in different directions, but most of it landed next to the Hero who was praying away. The slow-burning fuse smoked and finally reached the main explosive filler in just 4.7 seconds and the grenade exploded in the confined body of the cast iron grenade and cracked the casing, turning the serrated cast iron shell into hundreds of fragments, sending them flying at a spherical blast, throwing lethal shrapnel in its immediate vicinity.

-----

Dante just finished his invocations when suddenly heard several soft thumps and he opened his eyes and they widen in surprise as he recognized the egg-shaped olive green colored artifacts rolling around him. "BASTARDS!"

And the world exploded.

-----

"GO GO GO!" Tyrier yelled a second after the grenades exploded. They burst out of cover and pushed in towards the blasts, in two teams of three, their weapons up and ready as they charged.

-----

Hearing the grenade explosions, Lt Joesph yelled, "CEASE FIRE, CEASE FIRE! Section Three and Four, advance!"

And the Marines of Section Three and Four climbed to their feet and fanned out, advancing to where the Hero was.

-----

Tyrier stepped over the root of a tree and swung his weapon around, expecting to see the Hero, but what was left was just some smoking holes, caused by the grenade and a dark wet patch, that looked suspiciously like blood.

"Check your area!" Tyrier ordered and the rest quickly spun around, their weapons scanning their surroundings. He crouched over the dark patch and touched it, feeling the warmth from the dark liquid on his fingers. He sniffled the substance and nodded, "Blood. He's wounded alright."

"He's wounded! That means he will be pissed!" Tyrier warned, "Be on alert!"

Rapid footsteps could be heard and Tyrier yelled, "Marines! Watch it! The Hero is wounded and is hiding somewhere! Keep your eyes open!"

"CONTACT!" Some Marine yelled and he fired, followed by the rest who saw a fleeting figure up in the trees. "Up on the trees! He's running!"

"Go!" Tyrier yelled, chasing after the shadow. "Kill that mother farker!"

-----

Dante growled as he hugged his sides, his Sun Aura had vanished after tanking all that damage from the cursed demonic weapons. Something from those weapons had hurt his side, and as he hopped from tree to tree, he felt warm wetness forming at his side. Looking down, he saw he was bleeding and he cursed again.

"Damn low lives!" Dante screamed as the trees around him exploded from thunderstones cast by the demon worshippers. "SUN GOD! GIVE ME STRENGTH!"

"EYE OF THE SUN!"

-----

Suddenly as Tyrier and the Marines were chasing the Hero, the Hero suddenly flashed with an intense glaring brightness that brought them all to a halt and forcing them to cover their eyes.

As the brightness faded, a sudden shockwave, followed by a heat wave that slammed everyone backward, and the troops yelled and cursed as they painfully rolled and tumbled back along the forest floor.

When Tyrier recovered, he noted in horror that a huge expanse of the forest had literally been scorched away, leaving behind a large circular clearing of charred ground.

"Shit! Sarge!" He yelled at the Marine Sergeant. "Check your men!"

"Claymore One! Report!" Tyrier yelled as he pushed to the edge of the newly formed clearing, feeling waves of superheated air coming from the ground. He saw a glowing figure floating in the middle of the clearing and huge floating manifestation of divine power in the air, where a glowing eye was looking down at him.

"MORTALS! YOU WILL PAY FOR DAMAGING THIS BOB-!?!?" Dante's yelled was cut short when suddenly several buzzing roars thundered from the sky and streaks of yellowish red tracers hammered into him.

-----

"GUNS GUNS GUNS!" Legos yelled as he squeezed his gun trigger, and his whole plane shook wildly from the heavy thumping of the 20 mm gun pods. Twin streaks of tracers roared out and intersected directly at the floating figure with a huge ass eye in the sky. His 20 mm rounds causing smoke and sparks on the figure as he broke off his engagement, allowing the second Cobra lined up to make it firing run.

-----

Tyrier yelled out in excitement as he saw the Cobras swooped in from above, each firing a long burst before breaking away, and allowing the next plane in line to fire, sending the Hero tumbling in the air. "KILL THAT SON OF A BITCH!"

-----

Legos looped his fighter around, watching his flight wing engaging the Hero in turns, but suddenly as the last plane broke away, the Hero seems to pulse brightly, and a beam of eye-searing light ripped out and cut the last plane's left wings, Gold Five into two, sending the plane spiraling down.

"Mayday Mayday! We got a Cobra down, repeat Cobra down!"

g down.

"Mayday Mayday! We got a Cobra down, repeat Cobra down!"

158 - How to kill a Hero

The radio squawked with yells of "Cobra down! Gold Five is down!" Flight Sergeant Stamford cursed as he stretched his head up, trying to see the action in the skies but the small opening in the canopy barely allowed him to see anything from the back of Blue Thunder.

"Damnit! They are getting hit hard up there!" Dek said as he looked up from the radio set. "What do we do now?"

"Pray..." Stamford whispered, "We can only pray for them to survive..."

-----

Uncharted Forest, Scorched Ground

"Light him up!" Lt Joesph yelled as he crouched next to a blackened piece of wood log. He had ordered Section One and Two to continue to head towards Rendevous Point Blue while Three and Four engaged the Hero hovering in the air, glowing with divine light.

The long RAATATATATATATAA burst of fire roared out from the sides and the Orc gunners braced their MG-1 against the fallen trees and fired in long controlled bursts. Bright tracers floated out towards the Hero, who raised his arm up, and a glowing shield appeared. The bullet impacts leaving behind sparks and red glowing molten lead on the shield's surface.

A WOOOOSSSSH screamed out from somewhere and the thermobaric rocket slammed into the back of the Hero. The thin wafers of fire runes at the nose of the rocket propelled grenade collapsed and sending a flaming spark into the explosive filler and ignited, throwing out a small cloud of hydrogen, fine aluminum and mana powder mixing into the air. In a split second, the second stage fuse ignited, the fuel air mix detonated, rising the immediate temperature to over 1.400 Degree Celcius, flash cooking the air. The sudden detonation caused a small vacuum in the atmosphere, and air rushed in to fill the void, causing a thunder crack and blast wave which radiated out in a small sphere.

The Hero screamed as the blast wave hammered him, his arched his back up, blood gushed out from his nose and ears, the bright red a startling contrast against his golden glow over his body. "I KILL YOU! I KILL YOOOOOUUU!"

His thunderous roar slammed into his surroundings, even over tens of meters away, the men on the ground screamed and yelled as the shock wave from his roar hammered into them, making their internal organs wobbled.

-----

Tyrier barely managed to defend against most of the shock wave made by the Hero due to his magic defenses, but he saw a couple of Marines rolling and moaning on the ash coated floor as they suffered some inner injuries.

"How do we farking kill that thing!" Tyrier yelled as he quickly cast a healing spell on the wounded Marines, "Minor Heal!"

"Grab that RPG-1!" Tyrier yelled at Hitsu who sat on the floor with a silly look on his face. "Wake the fark up!"

Hitsu coughed some specks of blood out into his hand and climbed to his feet unsteadily, groping around the fallen body of a Marine where an RPG-1 was strapped to his back. He unslung the rocket tube, giving the body of the Marine a pat on his part and flipped the sights open, and inserted the fire rune into place at the rear of the tube.

It was the first time Hitsu ever fired the RPG-1, in fact, the whole Claymore One team was not even trained on the weapon. It was introduced while they were still out on a mission at Falledge and during the trek home, the Marines helpfully taught them enough to operate and fire the rocket launcher.

He aimed the bazooka unsteadily at the rampaging Hero who was throwing sunbeams left and right, and squeezed the trigger, igniting the simple rocket motors, flinging the rocket out on its way to meet the Hero. Hitsu grinned weakly as he watched a small black explosive cloud blanketed the Hero and dropped the spent rocket tube down, before slipping into darkness.

-----

Flight Sergeant Legos twisted his fighter into a low swooping loop, and lowered the throttle, reducing speed as he lined up his gun sights for a fly pass. "GUNS! GUNS! GUNS!" He roared, his whole plane jerking as the dual 20 mm autocannon gun pods mounted under each wing blasted away, the spent cartridges almost twice the length of his forefinger got recycled into an ammunition hopper.

The bright tracers chased the Hero who raised his shield to block, and the view changed as Legos, yanked his stick up and to the side, pushing his throttle up, as he came out of the attack run, pulling away from the Hero. He looked up at the rear view mirror. keeping his eye on the enraged Hero and saw him starting to pulse brightly. "OH FARK!"

Legos yanked his stick to the left, forcing the agile plane into a barrel roll, as the Hero spat a beam of superheated light energy at him. He clenched his teeth and leg muscles hard, as the G force pressed down on him, barely dodging the Hero's attack.

"That was close!" Legos puffed out as his fighter lengthened the distance away from the Hero. "How tough is that asshole?"

"Gold Two to Gold Lead! Fuel is at 34% and dropping!" The radio crackled. Legos quickly glanced at his own fuel gauge and cursed. His fuel has hit 36% and they have to return if not, they will not have enough fuel to land.

"Gold Group! All birds to make one last attack run and regroup at sector four, niner, three, three, copy?" Legos read out the coordinates from the map on his left thigh.

"Roger, Gold Lead!"
"Lining up for attack run!"

Lego turned his plane back, seeing the sun reflecting off his other two wing mate fighters as they dived down one last time with guns blazing.

-----

Lt Joesph cursed as he heard the voice comms from the radioman. "Shit, the flyboys are out of fuel and will do a last attack before returning to base!"

He looked at the medics working on the gathered wounded laying low behind a cover of sloping terrain. "Sarge? How many still combat capable?"

His platoon Sergeant rubbed a smudge of blood off his nose and spat out a gobble of blood spit to the side and said, "Three, not including you and me and the two medics. But all have some form of injuries."

"Shit!" His first Marine command and he got half the platoon in the shits. "Stay and fight or run?"

"Sorry Sir, most of the wounded can't move," His platoon sergeant shook his head, "And I doubt we can outrun that bastard." Jerking his head towards the Hero fighting with the remnants of his men and Claymore One.

"Radioman!" Lt Joesph called out and reached out for the 'C' shaped receiver. "Eagle One to Thunderchief, come in over?"

With the destruction of the forest, several opening in the canopy had opened up, thus allowing some radio signals to get out and not long, HQ replied. "-derchief, send."

"Eagle One, taking heavy casualties! Requesting support, over!"

"-underch- stan- -y."

"Shit!" Lt Joesph tossed the receiver back to the radioman and looked out from cover the maddened Hero. "What does it takes to kill that son of a bitch?!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake faced turned darker and darker as he watched and listened to the reports coming in from the battle with the Hero. He looked up at the live streaming UAV video over the battlefield, seeing the eye-catching divine Eye of the Hero, brightly glaring at everyone beneath it.

"Captain! Eagle One requesting immediate support, they are reporting heavy casualties!" The communication officer reported from his station. "Orders?"

"Tell them to fall back if they can," Blake ordered. "What's the status of the Valkyries?"

"They are roughly 30 minutes out with 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, platoon 2," Commander Ford replied from the tactical plot table. "Gold Group is disengaging from the Hero and is RTB (Return to Base).

"Hmmm... that's still too long," Blake replied. "Status of the main guns?"

Ford turned and looked at Blake with a surprised expression on his face. "Sir, I don't think that is a good idea. We can launch a missile strike instead."

"You saw what 20 mm and RPGs can do to that... thing!" Blake countered. "Now status?"

"As of last maintenance reports, Engineering and Armament cleared it for active duties," Ford replied as he pulled up the records. "It can be fired, but not advisable."

"Bring it up online," Blake said instead, "warn the city."

"Aye, aye Captain!" Ford replied reluctantly. "Weapons officer! Power up the main guns!"

"Aye! Powering main guns!" The weapons officer of the day yelled back excitedly. "Sounding main guns alert!"

-----

A sudden harsh blare rang out three times, signaling and warning the ship for the firing of the main guns. Gunners supposed to be on duty manning the main guns jerked up in shock as they heard the blare and the intercom rang out, "Prep the main guns! This is not a drill! Repeat this is not a drill!"

The gun captain yelled, "ON TO IT! MOVE MOVE!" He hustled the gun crew into action, and they dashed up from the ready room and into the main gun control room. "Check all systems!"

"Aye! Power systems are green!
"Reactor holding good!"
"Loader is green!"
"Targeting online!

The gun captain nodded as the reports came in, "Weapons! Gun One systems all green!"

-----

Out in the city, it was already late afternoon, and most of the inhabitants were preparing to wind down for the day. Children that had finished their afternoon classes were playing around the fountains and green parks when suddenly a siren rolled out. "Attention citizens, attention citizens! The main gun will be firing! All citizens are to take shelter and keep calm! Repeat the main gun will be firing! All citizens are to take shelter and keep calm!"

Police and security officers dashed around the streets warning the citizens to stay indoors and cover their ears as the public broadcast system continued to broadcast warning messages in both English and Common Tongue.

The citizens were confused and frightened but they followed the advice and warnings as best as they could, hunkering down under tables or beds and covering their ears as they wondered what is going on.

-----

"Captain, systems all green!" The weapons officer replied.

"Target! That... thing!" Blake ordered.

"Aye! Target locked on!"

Using the unique radiation given off by the Hero's powers, the UAV hovered above the battlefield helped triangulated targetting data back to UNS Singapore's fire control computers, measuring distance, wind, atmospheric density, pressure and projectile drop.

The servo motors of whined as the massive 108,000 kg main gun turret rotated, to face the direction of the target. A single rectangular railgun barrel hummed and tilted upwards as it aimed itself.

"Sir! Distance 527.8 kilometers away! Minimum impact from the planet's earth curvature and gravity!" The weapon officer reported.

"Do we have a clear line of fire to the target?" Ford asked.

"Negative! The mountains are blocking!" The weapons officer replied.

"Give me a double shot," Blake ordered, "Blow the mountain away for the second fire."

Ford looked at Blake in shock, "Are you sure?"

"Do it XO*!" Blake spoke sharply. (XO* - Executive Officer, 2nd in command)

"Aye Captain!" Ford sighed inwardly. "Prep Gun One for firing solution!"

"Prepping Gun One for firing solution!" The weapons officer intoned. "Gun One loaded and standing by!"

-----

The energy crystals harvested from the dead mutant silver dragon were refined into a stable form of a liquid which was stored into a battery like canister. The gunners in Gun One, rammed the canister into a converted generator which hungrily sucked the refined crystals into pure electrical energy, charging up the capacitors.

As the firing solution was calculated and keyed in, both gun turrets tilt up to the same elevation and hummed, waiting to be fired.

-----

"Captain... You sure about this?" Ford asked, "Blowing up a mountain... you might cause some irreversible ecological consequences..."

"Hell with that," Blake replied, shaking his head. "We need to stop that thing right now!"

"Fire the main guns!"

159 - Dante's Inferno

UNS Singapore, Gun One

The Huawei Lei Shen series 9 dual 155 mm rail cannon hummed as energy flowed into its rectangular conductive rails. Built and designed by the weapon tech department of one of China's top hi-tech firms, the older ships like UNS Singapore were armed with the Huawei Lei Shen series 9 railgun which was state of the art during the ship's commissioning. Now the latest frigates and cruisers in United Nations of Mankind mounted the latest Lei Shen series 14 and above models. But that does not mean that the series 9 model was any weaker than its more recently developed counterparts.

Heat dispensing radiators shields popped out on the armored turret body as the weapon readied itself for the command to be fired. Inside the turret, autoloaders rotated the ready ammunition stores and selected two streamlined armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot projectiles each weighing over 3 kg. They dropped onto a loading hoist which carried the shell into the rear breach of each of the railguns and an automatic rammer shoved both projectiles into their respective guns.

A clamp gripped the armature covering the projectiles in place as the rammer rotated and locked the gun breech securing the weapon. All these took less than five seconds to be completed while the gun crew doubled checked their consoles and switches that everything was operational.

-----

"Fire the main guns!"

The weapons officer jabbed the firing key, and a split second later, the left barrel of the Gun One roared. The projectile was tossed out by the magnetic fields hit Mach 18 within a second, causing a vacuum tear in the very fabric of the atmosphere. The sonic boom scoured off all loose particles off the exposed hull of the UNS Singapore, and as the shock blast hit the Colony seconds later, it was like a 7.5 on the Richter scale magnitude earthquake.

Roofs rattled, windows broke, and any loose items fell and shattered throughout the Colony. The people hurdle under cover screamed while the unlucky ones had their eardrums ruptured.

Those onboard the UNS Singapore barely felt the shockwave, only hearing a massive thumping, as the ship's internal sound and shockwave proofing held.

The armor-piercing fin-stabilized discarding sabot projectile screamed through the atmosphere, taking 0.19 seconds to bury its self against one of the snow covered peaks of Sawtooth Mountain and exploded. The peak vanished, and collapsed, raining tons of rock and snow down the slopes. Seconds later, the roar of the explosion swept over the Colony, creating more screams of fear and terror among the civilians.

The public broadcast system blared again, warning the population for a second imminent firing of the main guns and the people panicked more as they quickly hid and took shelter again.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Holy mother of god!" The bridge crew looked stunned at the destruction wrought by the main gun fire.

"Back at your stations!" Ford barked. "Status?"

"Stan-stand by!" The weapon officer looked slightly pale as his fingers trembled slightly while he checked with the gun crew. "A-all systems normal! Heat levels still within tolerance levels! Gun One auto heat dispensers are functioning normally."

Ford turned and gave Blake a disapproving look. He knew the effects of firing the main gun in an atmospheric environment as he had done a live firing exercise on a barren planet before.

Blake stared back unflinchingly at Ford and said, "Ensure that the Eagle One knows we are firing at his vicinity, make sure they take all the cover and precautions they could."

"Aye, Captain," Ford sighed and turned to the slack-jawed communications officer. "Contact Eagle One, make sure they are prepared and under cover for main gun impact!"

"Aye XO!" the comms officer jolted back to life and started messing around with her comms control, raising Eagle One on the radio. "Eagle One confirms danger close!"

"Warn the population again," Blake said and he waited for the comms officer to do her work and waited, looking at the main screen, watching clouds of snow and rock dust drifting down from the shattered mountain peak.

"Lock on that Hero..." Blake said finally after he mentally ensured that enough warning and time was given to everyone to take shelter. "FIRE!"

And another supersonic boom ripped across the skies.

-----

Uncharted Forest, 291 km away from Sawtooth Mountain Pass

Lt Joesph screamed at the men to take cover, "Danger close! DANGER CLOSE!"

"Get into cover!" His men yelled at each other, shouting to those still fighting the Hero.

The Hero hovered in place, smiling at the panicking and dying soldiers. His body was constantly recovering from the effects of the Sun God's Eye. He forcefully held onto his link to the Sun God's divine powers, protecting the link from the cursed demon explosive spells, and thunderstones.

He gloated at the creatures stumbling away from him in urgency, feeling the terror in their eyes and feeding on their fear of him. Is this what the Ancient Gods felt like? To easily dominate man and creatures? He gave out a bark of laughter, feeling the adrenaline rush as endorphins released from his brain made him high.

"HHAhaHAHAHAHaahahaahAHAHAHAHhahahaa...!" Dante laughed joyfully, "FEAR ME! BOW BEFORE ME! WORSHIP ME! FOR I AM A GO-!!!????!!!!!!!!????????????!!!"

-----

Something slammed into Dante, and the Sun God's Eye closed, vanishing from the mortal world as if it did not exist at all. A sharp crack of thunder, a hundred, no, a million times louder than the roar of a rifle lagged by 18 seconds behind the projectile that slammed directly into the unaware Hero.

The Marines and Claymore One hunkering down under cover both physically and magically. screamed and yelled as the blast wave overloaded their bodies, battering and tossing them like a ship in a storm. Weakened trees were torn up and uprooted, crashing down as the ground shook from the passing of the low flying projectile traveling at Mach 18.

-----

Dante screamed as his mind could not comprehend what was happening. The terror he has not felt so long since he first gotten his divine powers came rushing in. He felt his heart at the back of his throat and could barely feel any part of his body, only vaguely seeing something dark nesting on his belly.

He barely felt the heat caused by the friction of the air against his body as he suddenly traveled at 5,963 meters per second with a third of the projectile's head buried in his abdomen. His skin turned red, and peeled off, as the air scraped his remaining clothes and skin off and the heat burned his hair away and flash cooked his flesh off, exposing his bones.

Before his brain could process his dire situation as 0.45 second later, he and the projectile slammed deep into the side of the mountain range, sending a mushroom cloud up into the air and sent pieces of rock and stone flying hundreds of meters away.

-----

Blue Thunder roared in fright and tucked his head in under his wing together with his crew as they huddled together, using Blue Thunder's body as cover from the passing railgun projectile shockwave.

The men yelled and cried as the ground shook terribly and Blue Thunder felt true fear for the first time in his life. "I-I think I w-wet myself!"

-----

Gold leader, Sergeant Legos cursed as he fought against the sudden turbulence while the other planes in his flight rolled and dived in the air.

"Shit!" Legos cursed as he saw one of his planes impacted against the sea of trees and did a cartwheel before sinking into the leaves.

"Cobra down! We got another one down!"

-----

Valkyrie One and Two barely managed to stay in the air as the shockwave from the rail gun projectile passed by them several kilometers away, both ships hit air turbulence as the supersonic wave rolled over them.

Greg the goblin screamed and shrieked as he held on to his dear life in the holds of Valkyrie One. The stench of vomit and voided bowels reminded him of his times onboard the goblins raiding ships. "BAD MEMORIES! BAAAAAD MEMORIESSS! NOOOO STINKY MAAAA-NEEEEEEESSS NOOOOO~~~!!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"STATUS?" Blake roared out, as the UAV feed suddenly flickered and a <NO SIGNAL FOUND> error message popped up. "Get that back online!"

"Aye aye!" The frantic crew quickly jumped into action, trying ways to bring back the UAV.

"Captain, Gun One reports systems holding," Ford reported, "Energy crystal battery currently left 15% power. Temperature holding at yellow levels but heat sinks and dispensers are still functioning."

Blake nodded, "Load the guns and have the crews on stand by, I want to know what's happening on the ground!"

"Sir! No responses from Eagle One!" The comms officer yelled. "Valkyrie Flight reports mushroom cloud sighted in the vicinity of Eagle One, ETA 22 minutes!"

"Airforce Command reports Gold Squadron had lost one Cobra due to the shockwave!" The comms officer reported again as reports from each department started to flood in. "They are requesting a SAR (Search And Rescue) team!"

"Have Valkyrie Flight vector over for SAR duties once they dropped off the troops!" Blake ordered.

"Captain, upper decks 2A, 4B and 5A reporting warping from the after effects of main gun firing!" Ford looked up from his tablet. "I have ordered crews down to do structure checks and support bracing on the structure frames just in case."

"Got it," Blake nodded, "After this get Engineering to do a whole super structural sweep of the ship, check if there are any issues with the ship's structure."

"Aye Captain!" Ford replied. "Damage and casualty reports coming in from the city!"

"Bad?" Blake asked as he eyed a beeping light on his computer and ignored it as it appeared to be a call from the Princess.

"Very..." Ford sighed, "I did warn you, Captain... Your popularity ratings gonna drop."

"Who cares about popularity ratings?" Blake raised a frustrated eyebrow. "I care about making sure a threat like that rabid Hero gets put down once and for all!"

"Sirs! UAV back online!" the UAV operator yelled from his station. "Putting it back up on the main screen!"

The main screen flickered to life and the view started panning, showing a trail of destruction caused by the rail gun projectile tearing right over the canopy of the Uncharted Forest, leaving behind a straight line of broken trees.

The image panned towards the circular clearing before it showed a dust cloud still drifting over a mountain face, and the imagery switched to infra, showing a bright blob right at the bottom of the dust cloud. The view panned downwards again, showing figures in the forest, some moving around while most barely moved, laying in various poses on the floor.

"Think we got him?" Ford asked.

"What does the radiation sensor tells us?" Blake asked the UAV operator.

"Nothing except background radiation and very low levels of 'Mu' radiation around the surrounding areas. Mu radiation was the classification Dr. Sharon gave for the magic radiation given off by the Hero and all forms of magic, just that the amount of radiation the Hero gave off was hundreds and thousands of time higher compared to normal magic, making Dr. Sharon able to come up with a method of detection.

"Vector Valkyrie Two into the impact site," Blake said after a while. "I want visual confirmation of kill."

"Yes sir!" the comms officer spoke into her mike as she directed the flight of Marines to their new heading. "ETA 31 minutes, Sir!"

Blake nodded and looked at the blinking light flashing nonstop on his console and sighed, keying the accept key. "Yes?"

"Blake!" The princess's panicky voice could be heard loudly, making some of the crew look his way. "What is going on!?"

Blake hit the headset key and donned on the headset, cutting off the princess's voice from his console speakers. "Something we had to do."

"What is something we had to do? Do you know how many damages are in the city now?" Sherene yelled into his ear. It was the first time he ever heard her yell, oh no the second time, as he thought back to the time she invaded his bunk. "We got calls from many people about being wounded! Are we still required to be taking shelter?"

"Yes," Blake replied, "For at least one hour!"

"Do you know there are fires all over the city now?" Sherene said, her voice slightly cracked.

"Hmm, I can think of someone who probably is in an inferno right now..."

160 - End of a Hero

Uncharted Forest, Ground Zero

The sharp angular lines of a Valkyrie roared in, banking sharply as its tilt rotors swerved forward, slowing the heavy craft and bringing the Valkyrie to a hover over the blackened ground. Its undercarriage bays swung open on hydraulics and four stubby landing gears deployed.

The powerful wind from the dual rotors blew the green smoke away and kicked up a storm of ashes from the scorched forest. Before the Valkyrie's landing jacks touched the ground, the rear ramp dropped open, and the ship settled down gently. The Marines charged down the ramp, forming up a short distance away before a batten looking Officer wearing a beret and another person with visible wounds dressed in leather armor with a tactical vest.

The second Valkyrie did a single circuit around the destroyed forest and gave a wag of its wings before its tilt rotors swung to the rear and it flew off towards the dispersing mushroom cloud in the distance.

"Sir! Sergeant Arven of 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, Platoon 2 with two sections at your command sir!" A slightly ashen faced Marine with three stripes on his sleeve yelled over the slowing powered down rotor engines.

"Lt Joesph, this is Specialist Sergeant Tyrier of the Hundred and First." Lt Joesph gave his introduction and raised an eyebrow as a slight stench of sourness drifted over to him, "Are you, ok son?"

"Eh yes, sir!" Arven looked slightly embarrassed, "Air turbulence." He gave a simple explanation.

"Ahh," Joesph smiled, and gave a bark of laughter, "Well, it was pretty rough down here too! Relax, I am no longer the Lord General, just a simple Lieutenant."

"Yes, sir!" Arven grinned back, his nervous tension fading away, "I got medical supplies onboard and medics standing by."

"Good! I will have need of your medics!" Joesph's face turned grim, "There are a lot of wounded. This way."

"Medics! On me!" Arven turned and yelled at the gawking Marines fresh off the Valkyrie, "The rest unload the supplies off the bird!"

Joseph led them towards a small defile, where dozens of men laid in rows with dried blood staining their uniforms. "Most of them suffered internal injuries and broken bones! We need to medivac the more critical wounded out!"

"Eight dead, and seven badly wounded," Joesph said. "And I have no idea how is the rest with the slaves. Our radio is dead."

"We got radio contact with them earlier," Arven replied as he watched his medics rush to work on the wounded. "They had several casualties but thankfully no deaths, but there are broken bones and burst eardrums from the weaker ones."

Joseph nodded, "Well, that's one worry off my back. Any news on the Hero? Is he killed?"

Arven shrugged and turned towards the dust cloud, "If he's alive, he should be something in there, but I doubt anyone can even live through that, even if he is a god!"

Tyrier gave a snort, "Farker is harder to kill than a cockroach! And what the hell is that spell?"

"I am not too sure either," Arven gave a worried look, "The hoomans have such a powerful weapon hidden."

Joseph frowned, "I guess they have some secret cards kept hidden away after all."

The three soldiers turned and watched the dust cloud hovering over the distance, each in their minds wondering how much more hidden away powerful weapons the hooman has in their disposal that could wipe out an entire mountain or even a god.

-----

Uncharted Forest, Impact Zone

Valkyrie One dipped its nose down as it entered the dust cloud, its rotors causing the smoke and dust to swirl away as it came to a hover before a massive hole against the side of the mountain face, its powerful forward spotlight lighting up the insides of the dust cloud.

Flight Lt Peter struggled slightly with the controls as the rock dust interfered slightly with his rotors, making the Valkyrie sluggish as the filters tried their best to filter out the air in the turboprop engines. "Come on baby!"

He spun the Valkyrie on its axis and slowly and expertly landed, the rear ramps dropping open and Greg the goblin yelled angrily, "Stinky Maa-neess! You mess up my deck! Shoo shoo! Go kill yourselves!"

The sickened Marines ignored Greg's jibs and spread out from the rear of the Valkyrie, the dust cloud hovering in the air blocked some of the sunlight, making the late afternoon seemed like evening.

Lt Rathia looked around his surroundings with a sense of dread. The dust cloud had effectively blinded them as they could only see a short distance away while the air was chock full of rock dust, making his nose and throat itch.

Everyone buttoned up their uniforms and pulled up the collar to cover their nose, as they tried to breathe in as little as possible of the dust. Beams of light stabbed out as visibility dropped and the sky grew dark inside as the sun slowly started to set.

"Sir! Found the hole!" Someone yelled in front and Lt Rathia quick jogged over and a dark wall loomed up before him.

"Sir! Up there!" The Marine shone his torch up toward the surface of the cliff walls, and the beam barely reached the edge of an opening with cracks radiating out in all directions.

"That's what? 15, 20 meters?" Lt Rathia gauged, "I need rope and climbing gear!"

The men settled down around the wall, while those who were better at climbing scaled the walls, easily finding cracks and foot holes on the surface. Soon, a yelled came down from above and a rope was dropped down.

"Section One up, Two stays here," Lt Rathia ordered, "I want Section Two to be on alert, watch our backs and also keep an eye on our ride out of here."

With that, he started climbing the rope, and before long, he hoisted his body into the newly created cave, panting with the effect and from the dust. He took his bottle out and washed his mouth and nose before wetting his throat. "What do we have here?"

The men all gathered up and shone their lights into the gloomy darkness, their beams unable to penetrate that far deep into the hole. The lamps were made with flash runes, powered by mana stones and reflected by a simple reflector surrounding the flash rune.

"All ready? Let's go!" They advanced in loose two file formation, as the tunnel was large enough for up to four people to walk side by side. The rock tunnel had cracks all over its surfaces and continued for over 50 meters before the tunnel widened into a sort of circular room.

"Look!" The point men whispered, as their beams of light played over a shape laying against the walls. They advanced on alert, their weapons held ready as they spread out, giving room for the rest to enter the room. Their lights and weapons all focused on the only thing inside the area.

"It's the Hero!"
"No shit!"
"Farker still alive?"

"You!" Lt Rathia patted the nearest Marine, "Go check!"

"Eh, y-yes sir!" The unlucky Marine sighed at his luck and gathered his courage before stepping forward, to where the Hero was, while the others snickered at him. "Sir, he looks dead, if not he wished he's dead."

Lt Rathia went forward and observed the body. Upon closer inspection, the Hero was actually half buried in the wall, with parts of his body missing. What appeared to be the upper torso and what was left of the left arm with the right arm missing at the shoulder. The head portion looked like an over barbequed round ham, with a thick layer of char and pinkish meat underneath the cracked skin.

Most of his skin was gone, and his flesh was either stripped away or charred black with some greyish roasted bones sticking out. He was barely even recognized as a person, as what was left behind was just a vague black shape.

"It that even a person?" One of the Marines commented as he shone his light at the body with less than half its body barely intact. "Look what is that?"

A glint of light could be seen inside the body from the flashlights of the Marine as he played over the body. "Don't touch it with your bare hands!" Someone warned.

Lt Rathia removed his bayonet and poked around at the body where the glint was seen, "Could be just a piece of the projectile left?"

His sword bayonet suddenly poked something hard and with any hesitation, Lt Rathia stabbed in and jerked, ripping the charred flesh open and something fell out with a clink on the rock floor.

Suddenly the body gasped, its chest rosed up and down, and a pair of eyes with startling eye whites opened wide on the blackened and scarred charcoal lump. "UHHHHMMMM!" It suddenly gasped for air scared the shit out of the Marines as they all jumped in fright.

"FARK!" Everyone fired their weapons almost at the same time, cursing and swearing at the suddenly alive body! "DIE!! FARK!!"

The roars of gunfire in the enclosed area deafened the men, and Lt Rathia was yelling, "Cease fire! CEASE FIRE!"

The gunfire slowly died down, while one Marine gave a last shot at the spasming body. "Cease fire!" Lt Rathia glared at the Marine who gave an innocent blank look. "Goddamnit!"

He waved the smoke away while the men kept their weapons trained at the Hero, cursing at the Hero for scaring them and wondering how the hell is he still alive after all this. Rathia noticed the Hero seemed to be struggling desperately to move the remaining stub of his only hand with melted flesh towards the object on the floor.

He glanced down and with his gloved hands, he picked up the strange crescent shaped object and shone his light on it.

"OHHHHhNNNNNNNnnnnNNNnn..." The Hero moaned out, his vocal cords had burnt away, his left arm ending in a melted blackened stub waved desperately at Rathia.

Rathia frowned as he eyed the Hero before looking carefully at the object, and found that it was actually just a part of a large piece of something, only that it was broken into a crescent shape. Complex runes covered its surface coated with bits of overcooked Hero parts and blood.

Rathia grimaced at it before something clicked in his mind, he looked back at the Hero who appeared to be shriveling up as he tried to grasp the object in his hand with his handless arm. "Is this the divine artifact of the Sun God?"

He waved the artifact in front of the Hero who opened his lipless mouth, and a moan came out. "Well, Mr. Hero, no more artifact for you."

The body of the Hero suddenly seemed to sink in, and the eye whites of the Hero turned dull and yellow, and he soon stopped its desperate movements, his head resting down on his ruined chest with his arm stretching out towards Rathia.

"Is he dead?" Someone asked and using his muzzle, he gave the body a poke. "That's dead right?"

"Mine the place," Rathia said, as he held the artifact at arm's length. "Give me your rope pouch," He gestured one of the climbers and dropped the artifact into the sling bag. "Use all your explosives and bring this place down."

The men nodded as they checked their gear, removing claymore mines and grenades. They stacked the explosives against the tunnel walls, into the cracks and crevices. Once done, they unrolled the fuse lines and gathered at the edge of the cave.

"Alright let's get out of here and blow this place up!" Rathia said, and they climbed back down to the waiting men who were on alert due to the gunfire they heard. Once safely down, Rathia gave the command, "Set the fuses, we should have 30 to 40 seconds to get clear!"

"Blow it up! Let this be his tomb!"

161 - Regrets

Sawtooth Mountain Airbase, Hanger 4

Captain Blake stood silently inside a darkened hanger by himself. He stared at the dozen of wooden caskets laid out perfectly in rows each covered with a red, blue, white striped flag trimmed with at the edges. Eleven dead Marines and One Claymore One member laid peacefully within each coffin.

Soft footsteps echoed and Blake released out the breath he was holding in and turned, seeing Princess Sherene dressed in a black coat over a dark blue dress robe. She reached out her hand towards Blake who gave a small grim smile and took her warm hands into his palm.

"I am sorry," Blake whispered. "Your people died under my command."

"No, they are standing at the Gates of Heaven now," Sherene gave a smile back at the sad expression on Blake's face. "They fought to protect and defend us from the evil of this world."

"It is never easy when you lose men," Blake replied as he turned and looked at the cold silent coffins. "I had lost a lot of men over the years."

Sherene silently stood beside Blake as he kept vigil over the coffins, shyly reaching out and slipped her arm around Blake's waist, give him mental support.

"I lost my friends and families during the invasion with the bugs," Blake continued, seemingly unaware of Sherene's arm hugging him. "I lost my two thirds of my crew when my ship was boarded fighting the bugs over the gravity well of Mecatol Rex. I stayed behind and set my ship to self destruct while buying as much time for my crew to escape."

"I lost my leg then," Blake looked up at the ceiling of the hanger. "You should have seen that battle, dozens and dozens of Titan class battleships, Zeus class battle carriers, Ares class battlecruiser, Hera class cruisers, and Aegis class destroyers."

"A mighty fleet over 200 of the finest ships and brave souls of man gathered before one of the Swarms forward planets, which they used to launch attacks into the human space," Blake rumbled on, his eyes unfocused as he recalled the fleet action.

"I was the Captain of an Aegis class destroyer, the Guardian. My ship was part of the 4th Carrier Group, escorting the Zeus class battle carrier, Endurance with my other sister ships." Blake seemed to sink into himself, as he gripped his prosthetic leg. Sherene watched him pour out his pass quietly, not fully understand the words he spoke.

"Space was lit up by hundreds and hundreds of rail cannons, missiles, energy beams, plasma spores, and bug spores." Blake turned and look seriously at Sherene, his eyes haunted from the past.

"I and my sister ships fought their best, shooting down spores before they could reach the carrier Endurance, but a sudden appearance of a Parasite Mother, carefully hidden away in the void of space, dropped over 20 Swarm parasite cruisers and they swarm the 4th."

"It was an action worthy of the history books," Blake smiled, "12 destroyers, 5 escort cruisers, and 1 carrier against over 20 parasite cruisers and 1 Parasite Mothership..."

"We killed them as they neared, our guns pealing off their bio armor and reached deep into their guts, spilling their lifeblood out, but we fared no worst as them, as thousands and thousands of bug spores rained on us."

"We fought as hard as we could, till the barrels of the guns melted and the Endurance was targetted primarily by the bugs." Blake whispered, "Guardian ran out of missiles and railgun ammo, most of the point defense turrets melted and there was this huge wave of spore about to hit the carrier."

"And onboard the carrier, the number of lives onboard were over seven thousand men and women," Blake closed his eyes. "I made the decision to position my ship in the path of the spores, to save the Endurance. And that decision caused the deaths of over a hundred men and women."

Blake gave a small smile, as Sherene wiped a tear off his eye. "And I fell into depression later on but was given another chance, the Singapore. High Command couldn't let a war hero go to waste, even doth he's mentally unwell. So I was to be the chaperone for the kids, teaching them how to go and die."

"And die they did, I lost another 370 men and women again to the Swarm," Blake lowered his head, "I couldn't save them, and most of them were just kids, fresh out of school!"

"And we landed here, and there are more deaths," Blake whispered, "Everywhere I go, there are deaths. I do not think I am a good commander, every command I give. I will cause death..."

"Hush.." Sherene frowned worriedly and she enveloped Blake in a hug, "You are not a bad commander, we are at war, and war there are deaths."

"I am tired of seeing my people die," Blake buried his head onto Sherene's shoulder. "Too many deaths and I can't show any weakness to my crew."

"I know, I know," Sherene patted Blake gently as she continued to hug him, "Not all choices we make will lead to the results we want. We can only pray for those that passed on for they have left to a better place."

"Don't worry, you can always find me!" Sherene lifted Blake's head up and smiled. "I will also be there for you!"

Blake glazed at the deep mesmerizing blue eyes of Sherene, and he felt better after pouring out his sadness that he had kept away locked in his heart. Sherene blushed as she stared back at Blake and for some reason, she leaned forward slowly, her plump rosy lips widened slightly.

Blake gave a smile back and he held onto Sherene and kissed her gently on her lips and who melted in his arms and she kissed back fiercely.

-----

Human Colony, General Hospital

Dr. Sharon stripped away her bloody surgical gloves and dumped them into a biohazard bin before turning the tap at the sink and started scrubbing her hands with soap. She looked up at the tiny mirror, and gaunt looking face looked back. Dark eyebags covered her eyes, and her eyes were blood shot. Her cheeks had sunken in and she had a very pale complexion.

She splashed water over her face, the cold water shocking her system, making her feel slightly refreshed. "I need sleep!"

"tye maure sér-"

Dr. Sharon sighed as she heard the voice in her head, the damn voices were keeping her awake all night lately and she was at the operating theatre saving lives, as the Valkyries medivac in the wounded.

She exited the washroom and head towards the Intensive Care Unit, and stared at the health monitoring systems. The newly constructed hospital had most of the bare minimum equipment for healthcare and medical emergency with a massive helipad on the roof. It had a bed capacity for up to two hundred patients and four operating theatres.

Dr. Sharon had spent most of her time teaching and education trainee nurses and doctors on modern medical care. She also incorporated magic for healing and would mostly use magic to help recover wounds as it was more cost effective. Most of the ship's medical equipment had made their way over to the hospital while leaving behind one set for emergencies onboard the ship.

She nodded to a couple of trainee nurses who gave a short bow to her before they scurried off to wherever they were supposed to be. After she was satisfied with the health monitoring systems, she wandered off to her office.

Dr. Sharon dropped onto her sofa in her room. She appropriated the sofa from the recreational room from the ship and using her authority and now she flopped on it, closing her eyes as she worked over 7 hours non stop saving lives. She drifted away into a dreamless sleep as soon as her exhausted body hit the sofa.

"Lóre ehtelë..."

-----

The Colony, City

Groups of citizens sifted through the concrete rubble as they looked for survivors and personal possessions. The city had suffered two major quakes from the firing of the rail gun, and rescue workers and police officers worked all night to help provide first aid to the wounded and rescue people trapped under piles of rubble.

There had been a few deaths caused by falling debris and ruptured organs. Most of those wounded and died did not take shelter or ignored the warnings given by the Public Broadcast System and they paid with their lives.

Yells and shouts echoed through the city as everyone was out on the streets. Several Orcs were even sighted as they lifted heavy concretes slabs that broke off from buildings caused by the quakes. There were fear and despair in the air, yet also a strong community bond, as strangers and neighbors helped each other out during the crisis, ignoring each other's race or beliefs.

-----

UNS Singapore, Captain's Office

Blake sat on his chair as he mindlessly turned the item sealed in a plastic bag in his hand that was retrieved from the Hero's body. "So this came from the Hero?'

Commander Ford nodded, "We did all kinds of checks on it, even carbon dating."

"And the result?" Blake placed the artifact on the table.

"We do not what is it made out off," Ford answered, "It blocks x-ray scans, and carbon dating roughly tells us this thing is roughly 400 years old. Be noted that the carbon dating is not that accurate due to its exposure."

"But we estimated that it could be up to 6-700 hundred years old," Ford continued. "There are minute traces of Mu radiation given off constantly from its surface."

"Magister Thorn's conjecture is that this might be from the Age of Gods and that Dante had found it somehow and that is how he got his divine powers." Ford finished his report.

"So is it safe to touch?" Blake asked, "Can anyone just use it and gain powers like Dante?"

"Yes and maybe..." Ford replied. "To gain powers like Dante, Magister Thorn says that you might need to be chosen or acknowledged by the god."

"Also we have no idea what are the side effects of having such power," Ford added, "I don't really want another crazed hero rampaging around."

"Dr. Sharon thoughts?" Blake asked, "She be able to figure out something?"

"I did not disturb her for this," Ford said, "She's was busy in the hospital till this morning and I am letting her sleep first."

Blake nodded, "Have the families of the deceased Marines arrived?"

"Yes Sir," Ford sighed, "The funeral will be set next week."

Blake leaned back and asked, "Do you think I made the right choice?"

"You mean the main guns?" Ford asked back which Blake gave a confirmation nod.

"Yes," Ford replied simply. "Sometimes we need to sacrifice something for the greater good."

"But the price is it worth it in the end?" Blake asked.

Ford nodded, "Yes, if not the Hero would have killed everyone and march in here afterward."

"I thought you disagreed?" Blake asked again, "The main guns are too overpowered to be really suitable for atmospheric firing."

"I did," Ford replied, "It is my job to tell you the pros and cons, and the final decision is for you to make. And seeing how the Hero could actually still be alive after taking a 155 mm sabot projectile, I believe that you made the right choice in the end."

"We have deaths and wounded in the city due to the firing of the gun," Ford added, "But in the end, I think it was needed, if not the death toll caused by the Hero will be much much more higher."

"I see," Blake sighed, "Please provide all support to the civilian population and also make sure the rest of the Marines and slaves make it home. Also, we probably need to construct bomb shelters for the civilian population in the upcoming months."

"Yes, Captain!"

162 - Sunblock

Goblin Sea

A huge wave crested over the bow of the flagship Fury, as two-meter tall waves rose up and down. The dark skies lit up as a bolt of lightning flashed across the skies, like an erratic serpent crawling in the skies. Thunder rumbled and sheets of rain hammered the Isles' ships as they weathered the storm.

Fleet Master Dijon roared with laughter as the rain and seawater drenched him. He held on to his ship's steering wheel with both hands and his feet spread wide in perfect balance as the Fury crashed into a wave and rose up and down.

The crew hurdle against the mast and whatever shelter they could find, praying that the storm would end soon. "Fleet Master! We can't see the rest of the fleet!" His first mate yelled from his post at the poop deck.

"Don't worry about the rest, once the storm passes, we will be able to regroup," Dijon roared over the storm. "I trained the men myself, they know how to handle their ships."

Dijon peered out into the dark stormy night, trying to see ahead, "Navigator! What's our heading?"

"Holding firm! Three points to the star!" The oilskin clad navigator yelled next to him as he studied the lodestone in the bowl, being careful not lose the lodestone in the storm.

"Great! What great weather!" Dijon laughed wildly, as his muscles bulged, gripping the ship's wheel tightly, making sure his ship stayed on course.

It was hours later when the storm ebbed, and the seas returned to normal, the sun has risen up a couple of hours and the skies barely had a cloud in the clear blue skies. The crew of Fury were drained and barely had any rest, most of them had laid down and rested on the decks. "Ahoy sails!" The boy at the crow's nest yelled from the top of the main mast. He pointed to the rear where some white spots could be seen along the horizon.

Dijon pulled out his collapsable farseer, the telescope made by the finest glass masters on the Isles. He counted several white square sails in the distance, and gave an order, "Trim the sails! Bring us about!"

His first mate nodded and roared at the crew laying around the decks, "TRIM THE SAILS YOU LAZY DOGS!" and the crew jumped into action professionally.

Dijon folded his thick muscular arms and watched his crew work, despite their laid-back manner, his men were fiercely loyal to him, he smiled, turning to the navigator who was spinning the wheel to bring the ship around towards the sighted sails.

The missing ships of the fleet soon joined up and jolly boats were launched from the ships as the Captains gathered at the Fury. Each Captain dressed different, some were wearing a tri-cone hat, with colorful blouses and pants, others were bareheaded and dressed more formally, but all wear a white jacket with gold braids and trimmings, which identified their ranks.

They all gathered in the flagship Captain's Quarters where Dijon sat before a long table. His bed had been cleared away, leaving enough space for the nine Captains to settle down on chairs brought in by the crew.

As they settle down, crew members doubling up as stewards started serving breakfast, fresh eggs hard boiled with cold bread, smoked ham and fish, a wheel of hard cheese, jugs of honey and dried fruits were quickly spread out on the table. Jugs of watered down wine were also placed on the table for the Captains who quickly filled their mugs and gave a toast to Fleet Master Dijon.

"Everyone made it?" Dijon asked as he scanned his Captains,

"We are missing Ironwill's Captain," Someone spoke, "We did not see any signs of his ship since the storm."

Dijon nodded, "Keep a lookout for his ship later. Damage to your ships?"

His Captains gave a quick report of their damages and progress of repairs with the most serious was the loss of a mast while they dug into the food.

Dijon nodded as he chewed on a hard boiled egg, listening to his Captains' reports. "Good, we hold for repairs for Striker, once the repairs to the mast are done, we set sail again."

"My navigator tells me that we are roughly 2 days sail away from the rebel's harbor," Dijon said with his mouth full. "We are here to show off our might and show these rebels the power of our fleets. This will be a diplomacy meeting, I want no one to misbehave at the rebels harbor!"

The Captains looked at each other and an unsaid thought could be seen in their eyes. It's more like you the Fleet Master to start a brawl in drinking holes and pubs! But they all kept quiet and nodded.

"Good!" Dijon grinned, "Now we are also to pick up some slaves for transportation back, and also see if we can make some business deal with the rebels at the same time!"

"The Empire most likely will defeat them sooner or later," Dijon added, "So squeeze as much gold out of their pockets before it all ends up in the hands of the Empire! FOR GOLD!"

The Captains laughed, raising their mugs and goblets high, "GOLD GOLD GOLD!"

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor

The rumble of heavy machinery roared past Petty Officer Letts, and a heavy tractor powered by a nine-cylinder engine pulling a trailer loaded with massive pre fabricated reinforced concrete blocks kicked up a massive dust cloud in its wake.

Letts coughed and waved the dust away, quickly crossing the busy dirt path as another tractor ladened with more pre fabricated blocks roared up. He quickly entered the small office next to the busy construction site and shut the door, barely muting the loud noises outside.

"Phew! It's hot!" He removed his white safety helmet and hung it over a peg by the door and settle down on his desk where a simple rotary fan blew warm air.

"Of course it's hot!" A soft feminine voice replied to him, "Its almost the start of summer!"

"Yes yes I know," Letts started to unroll the sheets of architectural drawings on his desk. "At least the rain will stop and the ground will be easier for the construction crews to work on."

"Yes, the storm last night, was quite bad," The silver hair elf walked over to Letts's desk. "Last spring storm of the season."

"Yup... So Irisval, how was your civil engineering course?" Letts asked as he used a couple of rocks as a paperweight, placing them on the ends of the technical draft.

"It was... educating..." Irisval smiled, "I didn't know there were so much to consider in construction and buildings."

"Well, good for you! Come here and take a look," Letts absent mindedly gestured her over. "Look here, this is the pier section which we have completed construction. Now, here will be the dry docks and port for major ships to come in to load and unload cargo."

Irisval glanced through the design drawings and nodded.

"Now the seabed here is mostly sand and sediments," Letts continued, "But this area has no good natural deep harbor for deep-hulled ships. We need your expertise to harden the terrain so that we can construct a port out towards deep sea."

Irsival nodded as she rotated the drawings and took note of the location, "I need to go take a look and feel of the area first."

"Ok, by the way, the ships from the mysterious Isles will be arriving by tomorrow," Letts reminded her, "There's gonna be a big welcoming reception at the pier for them. If you are free, go join in the fun."

Irisval nodded and rolled up the blueprint drawings. "Got it boss!" and she exited the small office.

As she stepped out of the shade of the office, the hot sun blasted onto her. making her narrow her eyes as they slowly adjusted to the bright sunlight. She has worn a simple white blouse with pockets and a pair of khaki shorts displaying her long legs and combat boots with a toolbelt over her slim waist where she kept measuring tools and mana stones.

Shorts were like all the fashion rage now in the city due to the changing weather, she thought to herself and grinned, wondering how the people from the Isles will react when they saw the girls here all dressed up in short blouses and scandalous shorts.

Wearing her white helmet, she hopped across another rumbling tractor carrying more construction materials and headed towards the port area where a white painted 2 meter tall wooden wall fenced off the construction site.

Slogans and warning signs were nailed up against the wood wall, and strips of yellow and black markings lined the edges. She reached the gate where three security guards in black armor and equipped with swords and revolvers guarded the entrance.

They stopped her as she neared the gate, and she displayed her pass, which they carefully compared the picture on her pass with her face before nodding and allowing her entry. She stepped past the guard post and entered the still under construction port, skipping over water holes, with the roll of drawings under her arm.

Dozens of workers with yellow helmets were toiling under the sun. There were even a couple of Orcs carrying 'I' shaped steel beams and they stacked it on other beams, and teams of workers started welding the beams together.

She skipped past the dry docks and headed straight for a fenced off area by the beach and stood before the sea. She noted the beach had been paved over with concrete and she head right to the edge of the concrete platform and removed her boots before she climbed down into the water.

The surging waves pushed against her as the cooling seawater reached up to her lower thighs. Irisval felt the loose sand underneath her feet and admired the beautiful crystal clear waters.

Closing her eyes, she channeled her magical senses to the sand underneath her, probing the terrain with her powers. It was almost an hour before she suddenly opened her eyes, and gasped for air as she used almost two-thirds of her power.

She grimaced as she realized she got sunburnt, her smooth white skin had turned red from standing in the sun and she wondered if the hoomans have any medication for sunburn, if not she has to find a healer to cast some healing spell on her skin.

Climbing back up to the concrete platform, she spread the roll of paper out and started to jotting down notes, highlighting areas where the terrain was soft, or firm, and where reinforcements were required. Finally done, she felt like she was baked under the sun, and she quickly returned back to the shaded office.

"Here!" She dumped the roll of drawing onto Letts's table and turned the fan to blow her, taking out a bottle of lukewarm water from her desk to drink. "Phew, it's hot! I am cooked!"

Letts looked up from his paperwork and saw Irisval looking like a boiled lobster and laughed, "Didn't you apply sunblock?"

"Sun bob?" Irisval raised her pretty eyebrows in question.

"Sun-block, not bob or bored..." Letts laughed again, and dug into his drawers, removing a bottle of sunblock lotion. "Damn girl, your skin is gonna peel off at this rate, you better go find Doc, for some after sun cream or you gonna regret it tomorrow! Here, catch!"

He tossed the bottle of lotion to Irisval who caught it and stared in confusion at the English wordings. "You actually need to apply that over your exposed skin before you go out in the sun. Keep it."

Letts glanced through the notes written on the drawing while Irisval read the instructions on the bottle. "Wait! This blocks the sun?"

"Huh? yea!" Letts replied without looking up. "That's why it's called sunblock."

"Why didn't you give me this earlier!" Irisval cried as she glared at Letts.

"You didn't ask," came back the reply.

"ARGHH!! MEN!!!"

163 - Holidays and Festivals

Sawtooth Mountain Holding Camp

Kaga Whitetail yawned and stretched her body out in a very cat like manner on the simple bed she was lying on. It was just a simple metal frame with a piece of cloth stretched over it, the idea was ingenious to Kaga. In fact, ever since they arrived at this place, she was amazed and constantly surprised by many things.

After the fiasco with the Hero, Kaga and the rest of the slaves, escorted by the strangely dressed barbarians which she later found out that they were mostly from the Kingdom of Goldrose, which the Empire had labeled them as rebels, traveled a couple of days before encountering a caravan of dragon wagons which was hired by the rebels to transport the tired slaves to safety.

The caravan foreman, named Norman, seemed to have come from the same employer who bought and freed them. He appeared to be afraid of something as he kept twitching in fear throughout the journey until they reached an impressive stone castle built into the very surface of the mountains where he adamantly refused to enter, staying outside the castle and leaving as soon as the slaves were dropped off and even refusing an escort through the Uncharted Forest.

They rested half a day before setting off again, this time riding strange mechanical contraptions that appeared to run on magic without the use of any dragons! The speed which it traveled boggled Kaga's mind as the scenery outside the glass windows appeared to vanish as rapidly as it appeared!

They were then told to exit the magic wagons and a small army of white coated and similarly white costumed healers fussed over them before they taken to a place for a shower and fresh clothing were given after which they were fed. Once that was all settled, they were separated into males and females and were given a large tent which was shared by four persons each.

Kaga remembered the healers were saying something about diseases and virus and 'ma-nu-tree-tion' among the survivors, and they were needed to be 'qurr-ren-teen'?

She slipped on a pair of slippers that she was told were actually made out of slime parts. The sole came from the body of black slime, found in the swamps up north, the slime was gutted and its guts removed before the body was machine pressed into a shape of a sole and sun dried. A simple soft woven strap made of grass was secured to the sole.

The slippers felt soft and comforting to her feet as she exited the tent, and headed towards the canteen for food. She noted some of the womenfolk were washing their clothes at the washing areas where water gushed out from taps which she only has seen at either nobles, royalty or the filthy rich mansions.

Finding her way into the cook tents, she smelt the strong aroma of herbs, spices, and meat! Kaga grabbed a tray from the side and joined the queue where a cook was giving out food. As her turn came, she gave her most charming smile at the young man, who blushed and handed her a slightly larger portion. Today's menu was scrambled eggs with ham and two slices of white bread and slices of a red sweet and tart fruit that they called 'toe-ma-to'!

Finding an empty seat, she sat down and wolfed down the food. Ever since she came here, she felt she was gaining the weight she lost over the past few months. The food was just too good and exotic, like that 'bur-girl' she had the other day, two toasted bread buns with a juicy chunk of meat with cheese and more of that red tart fruit! It tasted heavenly and Kaga was looking forward to what is for lunch today.

As she was finishing her meal, she overheard a group of people who came together with her to this camp, discussing about what are they going to do next. "This all seems just too good to be true!" One of them was heard saying his voice low.

"But they fought and protected us from the Empire!" Another was saying also in a low voice, but Kaga hearing was sharp enough to hear their conversation.

"Yes, but look here! They are keeping us like prisoners!" The earlier male spoke, his eyes glancing over to a couple of guards at the end of the tent. "We are like slaves still to these people!"

Kaga's ears twitched as she held in her anger, her food forgotten. Did they know how much they sacrificed to save them?

"I heard that they will be asking us who wants to stay and who wants to leave to go to the Isles," Another person whispered, "I overheard some of the strangely dressed healers talking."

"Are you sure?" Another asked, "Could they be selling us off instead?"

"I just find all this all too good to be true!" The original speaker insisted. Kaga discretely observed the speaker, who had a sunken yellowish face and dark silvery hair and a thin body frame, most likely from being starved over a long period of time.

He glanced furtively around and gestured his group closer and whisper even softer, making Kaga strain her fluffy ears as she leaned closer to listen while pretending to eat her breakfast. "We should make a run for it!"

"But how? The camp is surrounded by those strange wire fences and there... guards!" Someone hissed. "You want to overpower the guards?"

"Shhh... lower your volume!" The yellow faced elf sharply whispered. "You want everyone to know?"

"No way," Another person said, "I'm out of this. this is way too much for me!" A few others also disagree and they picked up their trays and left.

"Cowards!" The yellow faced elf spat, "Ignore them, they can be slaves for all their lives!"

"But where can we go?" Those that remained asked.

"Simple! We know they are going to ship us off," The elf gave a nasty grin, "We just steal that ship!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Main Conference Room

"So what do we know of the Isles?" Captain Blake asked everyone gathered in the room.

"Virtually nothing, except information from some merchants who dealt with them in the past," Lueftuant Tavor of Fleet Intel, replied. "What we have is only second-hand information, which can't be verified."

"But we do know is that they are the strong naval force in this area, on par with the Goblins at least," He said next, "Also what we know is that they have a very strong presence in the finance world. Most likely controlling at least 50% or more of the trade within its sphere of influence."

"It should be comparable with old Earth Britain, an island nation, which its navy as its strongest military power and relying mainly on trade." Tavor pointed to the map highlighting the area where the Isles were reported to be located. "The map given to us by Goldrose is over a hundred years old and un-updated, so this is to be taken as a gauge."

"UAV recon flights had already spotted a large sailing fleet heading our way," Tavor switched the view on the screen to display a top down view of over ten ships with white sails in an inverted 'V' formation.

"Those looks like similar our old sailing frigates to brigs," Chief Matts spoke up as he looked at the image. "Just no cannons."

Tavor nodded, "Yes, from the images we managed to identify their main ship to ship weapons are mostly ballistas or catapults. Crew strength in the smaller brig like ships are calculated at around 200, while the larger frigates types are at around 350. Also, we found that they appeared to lost one ship after the storm the night before."

"At their rate of speed, they will arrive in another day or two." Tavor finished his report and sat down.

"Thank you," Blake said, "Alright, Far Harbor has informed me that the pier is ready to welcome our guests, so we be sending some representatives down. We will also isolate the visitors to only the area around Far Harbor, I don't want them to know our capabilities. All construction work and equipment will be pulled out and the workers will be given a holiday."

"I want security to be on full alert too," Blake added, "And also if possible, Princess, I will leave the negotiation of trade deals under your care."

Princess Sherene shyly nodded and blushed, keeping her eyes down on the note pad in front of her. Blake grinned and turned to Dr. Sharon. "How are the newcomers?"

"We have settled them down, and done a full medical and health check," Dr. Sharn replied, "So far, blood works on virus and diseases came back negative. But I still like to keep them in quarantine for a couple days more just to be sure."

"Got it," Blake nodded, "Major? How are you men doing?"

"Morale is actually pretty high, despite the memorial service the day before." Major Frank replied, "In fact, the men of Eagle Company are calling themselves Godslayer and are recovering well."

Blake gave a weak smile remembering the tears of families as they watched the coffins enter the ground. "Princess, how is the civilian population doing?"

Sherene jerked as if she just woke up, "A-ah, so far, repairs are still ongoing," she replied in a fluster, her face turning red. "City Hall has run a few public broadcasts on the radio explaining the situation, and we managed to appease the population, and with compensation given to the families that were affected, and with the amount of support given by the government, so far there weren't many complaints."

"A-also, I like to propose something," Sherene looked up at Blake, "It's almost summer and soon it will be harvest time, I like to propose we have a summer harvest festival for the people."

"A summer festival?" Blake turned and glanced at Ford who shrugged, "Is there any cultural background to it?"

Sherene nodded, "Traditionally during mid summer, after the time of harvest, everyone gathers to give thanks to the God of Harvest for providing food to the people. And I think we need something like this, it will help boost the morale of the citizens."

"Well, I think it is a good idea," Ford spoke up, "We did miss out on celebrating Christmas, New Year and other festivals."

"Yeah," The rest at the meeting room nodded and voiced their approval to the idea of having festivals and holidays. "Holidays!"

"Alright, alright, relax people!" Blake nodded and gestured for everyone to calm down, "Plan the date, budget and manpower needed. City Hall will handle all forms of festivals and holidays, ok?"

Sherene nodded eagerly and gave a small smile at Blake who gave a cough and turned to the look at the rest, "Now in regards to the Hero incident, we will need an SOP (Standard Operation Procedure) in dealing with entities like these. We can't keep firing the main gun unless it is a situation that threatens the whole of the colony, the main gun isn't a weapon for atmospheric usage. It is over powered in fact!"

"But Captain, 20 mm cannons and rockets barely deal any damage to the Hero," Major Frank pointed out, "We can't fight something like that on par."

"I know, so either we upgrade our weapons or we have someone where similar powers," Blake replied. "All black powder weapons will be turned in and returned to the factories to be modified for the new smokeless propellant ammunition. That will improve our firepower sufficiently at least."

"And so far the only force I know, managed to fight with the Hero almost on par is Claymore One using black powder weapons." Blake continued, "Therefore, I want you, Major, to scout for more talent among the Marines to join the ranks of the Hundred and First. We need more than one team of Claymores."

"Sometimes if guns don't work, we need to use magic, and if it doesn't work either... we use both guns and magic!"

164 - Friends from Afar

Goblin Coast

"Ahoy! I see something ahead!" The boy yelled down from the crow's nest, his hands forming a rectangular shape with his fingers as the air around was magically enhanced, giving the boy a blurry but zoomed in view of the coast.

A tall whitish stone structure loomed up from a long stretch of what appeared to be a pier or harbor of sorts. Waves crashed against the stone surface and figures could be seen moving around. Fleet Master Dijon frowned as he noted the length of the stone pier like a bridge into the sea with a round tower that he wondered if it works in the same function as their firelight towers back at the Isles.

"Sound the horns and raise the flags," Dijon ordered to his first mate, "Tell the rest of the ships to form up in a tight formation." He did not expect the rebels to have such awe looking structure and it would be more impressive as they neared.

His suspicions were true when his fleet came within eye distance, and he gauged the pier to be at least 10 times the length of his ship from land to the sea, while the width of the stone bridge to be at least as long as his ship from the beam to the aft. Such an impressive engineering feat, they must have a very powerful spellcaster or geomancer to mold and rise stones to make something like this!

He also knew that the last time, any Isles ships that passed by this area did not report any signs of construction, and it was just before the winter season. So that meant that the rebels had magically raised this in with two seasons? How much did they sacrifice to make something like this? Or were the rumors true that they sold their souls to the demons for power?

"Signal the rest of the ships," Dijon narrowed his eyes in thought. "with the red and yellow flag."

The boy in charge of raising signal flags and blowing the horns looked startled at the order and hesitated, but with a glare from Dijon, he quickly scrambled off to the main mast and started pulling colored flags out from the locker and attaching it to the signal lines and hoisting it up for the rest of the fleet to see.

The other ships' Captains seeing the colored flags frowned and their expressions turned serious. "Order the crew to make ready for combat, stay on the highest alert and be ready for an attack!"

The red flag meant "Make ready for possible battle" while the yellow flag meant "stay alert for an attack." The ship crews unlocked the weapon lockets, removed barrels of cutlasses soaked in oil of the fruit of cococane, and crossbows while gunners ready the ballistas and catapults.

The ships closed their formation, expertly forming up into two rows as they sailed towards the stone pier while making ready for battle.

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor, Pier One

Princess Sherene was dressed in a simple cream colored short sleeved long dress that reached till her ankles, tied with a golden ribbon around her slim waist, which she found that she appeared to be have gained weight making her slightly depressed as she thought of all the tasty food she had over the month. She wore a simple woven straw hat, that provided some shade from the summer sun, and had a pair of shades given to her by Blake and also a cream that Dr. Sharon insisted her to apply on her skin, saying if she does not want to look like a cooked spider ant, she better apply it.

The white washed concrete pier rosed up several meters higher than the ocean waves, barely sending any sea spray onto the broad expanse of the pier. She noted it could easily park over a dozen of the Jeeps without any issues, while still leaving space for people to walk. The sides of the pier waist height pillars spaced out evenly along the edge, where a simple rope was tied to rings embedded into the pillars, creating a fence like effect, most likely were to prevent people from walking over the edge and into the sea, Sherene thought to herself.

She held on to her fluttering dress tightly, as the sea breeze blew strongly and glanced out towards the clear sea, where she saw two lines of sailing ships with their white sails coming towards the pier. She glanced around, making sure everything was in order, the welcoming band, something she picked up from the hoomans, to the colorful banners and flags tied to the small pillars, making the whole area look festive.

Dozens of police, security and even a platoon of Marines stood at their posts while guests invited over by the City Hall and selected workers from the harbor construction and harbor staff crowded behind the guards as they chattered in the sun and sea breeze waiting for the ships to arrive in excitement.

Further down, behind a roped off area, were the freed slaves they escorted through the Uncharted Forest. All of them were invited to come to watch the ships arrive, and informed that they can have the choice of staying behind here and earning their citizenship or leaving with the strangers to the Isles.

-----

Lt Joseph removed his beret and rubbed the sweat off his regulation cropped hair. He replaced his beret and carefully pressed it down to the desired shape and turned to watch the coming ships. 2nd Battalion, Eagle Company, Platoon One were given this duty as a simple job for them, as most of the men that survived were still recuperating and HQ thought it will be good for them to have some sun, not to mention they were with the slaves for a better part of their journey, and it was better to have familiar faces than strangers posted to watch them.

Dressed in a starched dark grey uniform coat, with a polished leather belt and holster, gold buttons and a pair of marking trousers with red strips along the seams. He walked towards the Princess who was holding on to both her dress and a wide brimmed straw hat.

"Princess!" Joseph grinned, as she turned around in surprised and broke into a smile at the sight of him.

"Lord Joseph!" Sherene cried out in pleasant surprise. She last saw him was after the time he returned from the forest, covered in injuries. "Have you recovered? Shouldn't you be resting somewhere?"

"Hahaha," Joseph laughed warmly, "I'm all fine, Doc gave me a perfect bill of health just the day before."

"Are you sure?" Sherene looked at him worriedly, she treated him like family as he and Magister Thorn were the only people left in her life that she knew since young.

"Of course, of course!" Joseph waved her concerns away. "I'm here to help keep an eye on order, but it shouldn't be too hard, so it will be a relaxing job."

Sherene nodded, "If you are not well, remember don't push yourself ok?" she reminded him again.

"Relax, Princess!" Joseph grinned, "Look! The Isles ships are almost upon us! What we are missing is that old bugger, Thorn and it will be just like old days!"

Sherene laughed, "Well, I heard he is pretty busy at the new school of his, working on some project or teaching students. I did invite him along, but he said something about his old bones unable to ride in the Jeep for long hours." It was roughly a 3 hour drive from the City to Far Harbor.

"Heh, knowing him, he must be engrossed over the artifact we found from the Hero to be bothered with all this ceremony," Joseph gestured around them.

"Hehe," Sherene covered her mouth and giggled, "I guess you are right, he must be deep in his study trying to dig all the secrets he could out of that thing!"

"Look, here they are!" Joseph felt warm hearing the Princess's laughter and watched the large and imposing sight of a sailing ship slowly make it way to the pier.

-----

"Master Dijon!" The first mate yelled, "We are nearing the pier, depth at roughly a quarter less five and holding!" He stood over the anchor chains holding a weighted stone and line, measuring the depth of the ocean floor as they approached the bridge.

Dijon watched the figures at the pier suspiciously and looked behind his ship, where other Captains had formed up in a line. On the stone pier, a figure, most like the port master was blowing a shrill whistle, all the while waving a yellow colored flag.

"What is that man doing?" He asked curiously, wondering why is he waving a flag. "Is it some kind of warning or signal?"

"Master Dijon," His navigator holding on to the steering wheel spoke up, "I think he might be telling us to follow him to where to tie the ship up!"

"Really?" Dijon raised his eyebrows, as in the Isles, a boat will lead the ships to the docks to be tied up. "Well follow him and be on the alert for any signs of trickery!"

The massive two decker ship creaked as it rocked it way slowly, the navigator carefully steering the ship beside the stone pier, listening to the first mate calling out the depth and the crew threw ropes over to the men who gestured for the ropes on the pier as the port master blew his whistle and waved his flag madly at the ship, signaling them to hold. The port workers quickly secured the ship's ropes to the concrete pillar lining the edging of the dock and they removed the rope barriers to allow the ship to drop their gangplanks over to the pier.

Half of Dijon's fleet followed him in, the other fleet dropped anchor and held their position in a line, their catapults, and ballistas aimed towards land and the pier. The ships following Dijon's flagship were also directed to dock on both sides of the stone pier and soon the pier became crowded with ships for the first time.

Dijon gave a sight a relief when noted the friendly smiles and waves the dock workers gave the crew, but that did not ease the sense of unease in his heart. He glanced towards the land, seeing several large walled buildings and what appeared large blocks of stone of some kind laid neatly on the ground.

"Secure the lines!" Dijon bellowed at his excited crew, "The first watch with me, the rest be on alert!"

His crew from the first watch, gathered up at the gangplank, dressed in their best day dress, mostly a mix of color faded blouses, threadbare coats, and patched trousers. All were armed with a variety of weapons, from cutlasses to hooks, to cudgels and even knuckle knives, hidden daggers, and hand crossbows.

A small party of neatly and smartly dressed elves stood ramrod in a perfect row of two lines. They held what appeared to be a long metal rod with wood finishings, that looked like a mix of a spear with the lower body of a crossbow. A very pretty lass in long fluttering dress and holding a straw hat in one hand smiled at the front of the group together with a severe-looking male, in a weird flat hat on his head and also similarly dress like the two rows of elves.

"I am Fleet Master Dijon," He declared as he stepped down the gangplank, in his white and gold clustered coat, a flamboyant wide brimmed hat with a large golden tail feature of a griffin. Gold chains hung from his thick muscular neck while his fingers were adorned with more gold and precious stones. Yet all that wealth, he carried a simple and worn cutlass scabbard hooked on his rich leather belt.

"Humble greetings! Fleet Master Dijon," Sherene gave her best court curtsy and gave her best smile, dazing the crew. "I am Princess Sherene, previously of the Kingdom of Goldrose, now Assistant Governor to the Colony of Mankind."

"Welcome to Far Harbor, friends from afar!"

165 - Trade Talks

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake sat with one arm propped against his chin as he watched the live streaming videos displayed on multiple monitors. Commander Ford frowned and glanced at Blake who appeared to be dazing at his seat.

"Captain, don't you think we need like at least some of the other officers at least down at Far Harbour to be part of the welcoming committee?" Ford probed the Captain.

"Nah, didn't you heard what Lt Tavor has briefed us?" Blake lazily replied, "Those locals that did not interact with us before assumes that we are demons, and those that work with us have sold their souls to be granted great power."

"I don't think us being there will help diplomacy much!" Blake waved Ford's concerns away, "Besides, Sherene has a charming effect on other people, she will do well convincing the people from the Isles!"

"If you say so..." Ford sighed, "What about the Empire now?"

"Well, last we heard was that the Rock guy was supposed to be here, but Intel lost track of him and instead, the Hero came and made a huge mess..." Blake frowned, "I guess either that the Rock has gone to another front, or is gathering his strength before he comes down on us, seeing how we defeated Duke Sturm and the Hero."

"It should 'rock' the Empire back for a while, giving us some breathing space," Blake grinned. "Get it? The Rock get rocked back on his heels~"

"Please, Captain..." Ford shook his head, "Are you sure you are okay? Lately, you seemed to be... I don't know? Cheekier?" He did not know what word to use to describe Blake's actions.

"Hahaha," Blake grinned, "Well, I guess something has left my shoulders, and I feel... great!"

"Do you need a checkup? I will page Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn for a full medical both physical and magical right now..." Ford narrowed his eyes, "You are not acting yourself, Captain..."

"Hahahaa, relax!" Blake laughed at Ford's expression, "Truth be told..." Blake lowered his voice so only Ford could hear him in the crowded Command Bridge. "Me and the Princess, we... erm... I asked her out... and she agreed."

"HAHAHAHAHA," Ford burst out laughing, "OH MY GOD!" What are you, a twelve year old?" Ford hugged his sides as he laughed at the red faced Blake who grinned sheepishly back. "Hahahaha, I can't stop laughing!"

The crew turned and stared at the normally serious Commander and wondered what the Captain said to make the Commander laugh till he couldn't control himself. "Shhhhh!" Blake glared red faced at Ford, "Come on! Is it that funny?"

"Hahaha yes," Ford coughed and grinned, "Oh yes, I mean, everyone knows you guys are together you know?"

"Huh, what?" Blake scratched his head, "Everyone does?"

"Of course! Everyone can see the way the two of you look at each other, and how the Princess blushes when she makes eye contact with you..." Ford grinned wickedly, "And the list goes on, I can continue if you want..."

"Stop!" Blake raised his hands in surrender, "I gave up! You guys are like bored housewives!"

Ford kept his evil grin, "Seriously, I mean its good that you guys are official now, I mean, you shoulda seen the bets on you and her getting together! It is getting slightly a bit out of hand..."

"What? People are betting on us being together?" Blake jaw dropped in surprise. "Serious?"

"Oh yes. Which week of the month, who kissed who first..." Ford ticked off his fingers, "Well... I guess I can go collect my winnings! HAHAhahaha!"

"What?" Blake stared at Ford who winked back, "You..."

"Hahaha, don't worry I give you a good treat with the winning bet!" Ford laughed. "Anyway good job on netting the Princess!"

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbour

Princess Sherene tucked away her sunglasses carefully into a small pouch and her aide kept it away for her. She smiled at the tall muscular sailor with that large brim hat with a golden feather swaying in the sea breeze. "Please follow me, come and have some refreshments and shade."

Lt Joseph yelled a command, and the two rows of Marines snapped to attention and a second command had them forming up, facing each other, creating a way for the Princess and their guests to walk between them.

"Fleet Master, if you may?" Sherene gestured for the Islander to take the lead, while she stayed next to him, escorting him towards a row of buildings built just for this event.

-----

Fleet Master Dijon schooled his face into a pleasant expression, despite having feelings of unease at this place. He looked around his surroundings, noting the neat rows of men were their soldiers from the metal and wooden polearms with what appeared to be a short sword as the spearhead. He wondered why would they have such a strange looking weapon, that looks like a spear yet seems more complicated to make than a simple spear.

The naval commander in him took note of the pier, and his unease grew. Five of his ships had docked, including his flagship, Fury and selected crews had already disembarked fully armed and were gathered just behind him. He noticed that despite the five ships docked, and some more is docked parallel to the pier, it could easily accommodate his entire fleet while still having space for more ships.

He hid his frown, wondering why would the rebels built such a massive pier for what reason. Are they planning a fleet large enough to be utilized by this harbor? And what are those walled up areas dotting the beach further away?

Dijon decided to ask, and he lifted his burly arms and pointed to the distant shore, "Princess, what are those?"

"Oh? Those are warehouses and stores yet to be built or halfway constructed," The Princess answered with a small smile. "And those will be workshops and services to be provided to the ships once they have completed construction."

Dijon raised his eyebrows, looking at the small slender Princess, surprised at her words, "You mean all that is to be built?" He gestured the blocks of walled off areas, which were almost the size of a small town.

"Yes!" Sherene nodded happily, proud of her people's work, unaware of what Dijon was feeling. "We hope to have this area as a trading port in the future, and of course, we do hope you could be our trading partners!"

"Oh," Dijon kept his thoughts hidden, thinking that how were they able to afford all these construction work and how are they going to handle the wrath of the Empire? "Who built these?"

Sherene smiled sweetly and said, "It's all done by our earth elementalist!" She recited the script given to her by Blake, "She is a very valuable help to us in construction! All these were done by her! If not how do you think we managed to built so fast?" Sherene giggled, "People might mistake us for worshipping demons! Hehe!"

"I-I see," Dijon had the grace to appear embarrassed. "If talking about trade, what do you want to trade for?"

They had walked to the end of the pier and Dijon noted the ground was the same grey white stone material. Everything looked neat and tidy, with groups of people behind what appeared to be the town guards of sorts with roped barricades. "Let's talk inside," Sherene gracefully gestured Dijon into a building, that was made out of the same material but more ornate in design.

Several long steps led up to a facade with large round pillars and a large double door which guards dressed in all black with shiny leather belts and boots, wearing a strange looking cap opened the doors.

A soft velvet carpet covered the main hallway and ball of warm light lit the interior. Dijon looked up in surprise at the light chandelier, wondering what kind of magic is that. Another flight of stairs led them up and into one of the doors, a large room with comfortable looking chairs and a large table was arranged out in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Large windows were closed and bordered one side of the walls, which allowed natural light to brighten the room, yet the room remained cool.

A side table filled with refreshments and covered trays sat on the side, which the Princess gestured for Dijon to partake with his Captains. "Food and refreshments will be provided for the rest of your men. Also, supplies for your ships, please inform my port master here. He will arrange with your men to supply your ships."

Dijon nodded and spoke to one of his retainers who nodded and left the room, leaving to arrange for supplies for his ships. The rest of the Captains left their men behind and only followed by a couple of their own retainers or aides. settled themselves down on to the chairs.

-----

Kaga tiptoed from the middle of the crowd as she tried her best to get a view of the front. One of the nearby beastmen who had a body of a bear helpfully made some space for her, allowing her to squeeze her way to the front of the barricade.

She saw the colorfully looking sailors disembarking from the ships and the crowd cheered, as the sailors waved at them. Suddenly, she spotted a figure, she recognized. It was the same man that saved her and gave her that piece of a yummy treat!

Kaga waved and shouted, trying to get his attention, but the crowd was too loud and they were too far away. She tried her best to catch his attention but he passed by her without seeing her. Thinking fast, she ducked down under the barrier of rope, and dart out, followed by a cry of surprise from the 'po-lease man' in black uniform. "Hey!"

Arms reach out to grab her, stopping her from approaching the group. She barely made a few steps before she was caught. "You! Stop! In the name of the law!"

She yelped as she was brought down to the rough ground, "Noo! I need to talk to that man! That one in the funny hat!"

"Nice try, girl!" The guards holding her down, shook their heads, "Come on, girl, this isn't a place for you to be at." Despite the initial rough tackle, the guards held and spoke to her gently after seeing she was just a small cute fluffy thing, which made her tail stand up in anger.

"NO! I'm serious!" She tried to wriggle her way out but was held on too firmly by the two guards who shrugged and carried her away to the side. "Wait!!"

"Hold it!" A voice suddenly spoke out, and the two guards froze, while Kaga eyes widened in surprise.

"You!"

-----

"Metal ores? Grain? Skilled shipwrights?" Dijon took a sip from a crystal like goblet, holding the thin glass carefully with his coarse fingers, and savoring the sweet and tarty drink with a hint of alcohol, something called a fruit punch, which he wondered what does the punch meant.

"Yes, in return we can offer you pure alcohol, high-grade steel, copper or other metals." Sherene sat gracefully, on the sofa, nibbling away at a piece of chocolate brownie.

"Hmmm," Dijon frowned as he placed the goblet down, and picked up a bar of steel from the table, feeling the heft of it. "I will need to have the quality of this verified."

"But shipwrights?" Dijon raised his eyebrows, "We don't deal with slaves."

"No, we just want to hire them," Sherene replied. "We will pay for their food and lodging."

"You want to build more ships? Dijon asked.

"Yes, you do know that the goblin raiders are just out there right?" Sherene replied. "We do need some ships to patrol the straits and also for fishing and if possible direct trade with you."

"Interesting," Dijon smiled, "Does that means that you are not afraid of the Empire coming for you, Princess?"

"The Empire..." Sherene looked slightly downcast but she quickly covered it up with a smile, "They did try, three times in fact..."

"Three times?" Dijon frowned as he only heard about two attacks.

"Didn't you heard that they sent the Hero, Dante after us?" Sherene replied.

"And?" Dijon leaned forward, curious for the answer and news of the Sun Hero.

"Just say that the world has one lesser hypocrite who thinks he represents justice."

166 - Story Telling

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Magister Thorn hummed to Pachelbel's Canon in D Major as he carefully scribbled down notes and observations onto his notepad as he played around with the 8k ultra high resolution image of the Hero's artifact they recovered. He was frankly amazed by the level of detail of the image, as every nick and scratch was shown up clearly and sharply and he doesn't even need to squint his eyes nor wear what the hoomans called corrective glasses ...

He sighed and closed his eyes as Beethoven's Symphony no. 9 played next, letting his mind wander with the music for a while before he resumed his work. He tapped a few keys on the computer that the hoomans provided to him, which was as alien as it could be to him at first, but over time, it proved to be more useful in recording, retrieving and analyzing information rapidly.

"Hmmm?" Thorn suddenly straightened up, "What is this?" The computer dumped several matching runes and symbols to what was found on the surface of the artifact. He had all his books and scrolls carefully scanned into the computer and stored into the system with the help of his students. And the computer started beeping as its databased found similar runes or iconology.

Thorn frowned as he studied the information poured out on the screen, feeling confused and shocked at the same time. "My heavens! What is this?!"

-----

Far Harbor, Civic Center

Fleet Master Dijon stood facing the floor to ceiling windows, looking outside from the second floor down to the harbor where open topped wagons were being pushed by men, ladened with supplies towards the ships docked along side the pier. He gave a rapped against the clear glass and frowned, his merchant mind spinning rapidly. "This glass, is it done by your craftsmen?"

"Yes," The Princess replied while sipping some hot beverage. "All made here, by own our hands."

He turned back to the view outside, hiding his expression from the Princess view, as he digested the information. So far, all he saw was wealth and incredible workmanship everywhere, unlike the reports that they were defeated by the Empire and were on the run, before managing to fight off the persisting forces due to terrain constraints.

All these displays of wealth do not tally which them being on the back footing, it shows more like they are prospering instead of slowly being defeated. He looked at his ships, fully decked out and ready to intimidate and awe the rebels here, to force them into accepting whatever unfavorable deals or contracts with him, but instead the tables appeared to have been turned.

Or was all this just a ploy? To show that they are strong but actually, they are weak? He turned and observed the Princess, who sat upright, her long legs tucked under her dress, sipping from a delicate cup and saucer, seemingly at ease without any traces of worries or fear in her manner and deposition.

Dijon rubbed his stubble on his chin, and turned his attention around to the lavishly decorated room, taking in all the details, from the food, drinks to the decor. He could calculate roughly how much gold and silver was spent just to prepare all these for him and his Captains who were sampling and enjoying the food. Dijon grinned suddenly, well, let's put my sense of unease to a test, I shall delay as long as I can, and freeload with my men here, let's see how long the Princess can keep this pretense up!

"Ha!" Dijon gave out a sudden bark of laughter, making the Princess raise her fine looking eyebrows up. "Tell me how you defeated the Empire at the mountains! I am sure it is a tale worthy to tell and songs to be made!"

The Princess appeared lost for a minute before she nodded, and racket made by the rest of the Captains quietened down as they turned their attention to the Princess's words, hearing of their journey, chased by the Empire troops, and hounded by blood thirsty goblins and monsters in the Uncharted Forest and the brave battle they had at the Pass.

She purposely left out some details in regards to the hoomans abilities, and instead retold them as allies who helped saved them from the claws of the Empire. The Captains cheered as they heard how they won and cried when told how the dead were mourned and shuddered as they heard of the undead walking again.

They sat raptured by the tale, their drinks, and food in their plates forgotten as they listened to the strong soprano voice, lost in the wonder and action of her words. And when the story ended, the men wept for the lost souls who fought bravely against the Hero and gave a prayer to the gods to look after their souls in the afterlife.

Sherene wiped a tear away from her eyes, as she finished the story. Some parts of the story were left out, only those that were more common knowledge where told. She found her tea had turned cold and stood up to pour herself another cup only to find the whole group of rowdy Captains bawling their eyes out, and blowing their noses on napkins and sea scarfs.

"Eh... are all of you well?" She asked timidly, worried if it was the refreshments or the 'air-con' that had made them sick.

"Your story is so sad!" One of them cried, sobbing into his sleeves. "Your men are so brave!"

"Yes! That Dante! I knew he was no good!" Another yelled, "To think he would hunt and kill girls for their life energy!"

Even Dijon was affected by the story, as to them, being men who grew up sailing the rough seas, they were mostly out in the oceans for many months, and they know about the dangers and perils of life and death as it comes easily and swiftly out in the sea. And the sailors were quite romantic by nature and also view brotherhood and loyalty strongly, and when knowing that brave men sacrifice themselves against a godly foe despite the overwhelming odds, made their blood boil.

But he frowned, wondering how did they defeat the Hero in the end, "So how did the Hero lose?"

"It took the combined magic of all our mages to cast a level 9 spell that finally overwhelmed his shields," Sherene simply made something up, thinking that Blake is gonna to have to make up to her for a whole lot of lies and half-truths she spoke today.

Dijon nodded but did not push the issue, and Sherene mentally gave a sigh of relief. The other Captains refilled their plates and drinks and started to ask her more about the story she just told, asking about details on certain parts, and she did her best to answer.

Dijon took a bite out of the triangularly shaped bread with fillings and nodded to himself as the taste was better than he expected, and watched the Princess trying her best to answer all the questions asked by his Captains. There were several loopholes in the story she gave, but now is not the time to expose it all, let's see how long they can play this game, he smiled as he tried a piece of fried po-ta-to. "Hmm... Delicious!"

-----

Far Harbor, Police Station

Kaga sat with her back straight as she nervously twisted the hem of her skirt before the fierce looking soldier across the table from her. "That's all I heard..."

"So, there is a faction among the freed slaves that want to steal a ship from the Isles?" Lt Joseph asked to confirm again.

Kaga nodded, "Yes, I heard them talking about it the other day, and I wanted to find someone to report it to, but no one seems to take me seriously..."

Lt Joseph sighed, looking at the shy way Kaga was behaving. She looked like some kid around twelve years old, despite being way older than that. Her fluffy looking ears drooped downwards as she fidgeted in her seat. "Relax, I am not interrogating you, nor am I gonna arrest you..."

"If you say so..." Her soft reply came back, as she didn't dare look up.

"Come on," Lt Joseph sighed and opened the door, "You are free to go, I will investigate on what you had reported."

"Thank you..." Kaga gave a bow and left the room, led by one of the policemen out of the station.

"Sir?" One of the police officers asked, "Do you think she is telling the truth?"

"Yes, I believe her words," Lt Joseph nodded, "Go dig up on what you can on the description she gave us, and do it quietly!"

"Yes, Sir!" The officer saluted and left, leaving Joseph alone in the room.

"Damn," Joseph frowned and thought to himself, if those ex slaves tried to take over one of the Isles ships, it is gonna look bad to us, and the Isles might break all trade deals and relationships with us, which we desperately need the goods they can offer to us!

He stood up and walked out of the room and called his Platoon Sergeant over. "Spread the word, see who can find Sergeant Tyrier of the Hundred and First, if they see him, get him to come here to find me, I got something to talk to him with."

His sergeant nodded and saluted before leaving to spread the word among the troops while Joseph put on his beret and headed towards the Civic Center were the Princess and the delegates from the Isles were at.

-----

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Magister Thorn paced around his table as he waited for Dr. Sharon to arrive, while periodically glancing at the montior screen which the computer was still analyzing the artifact.

He clasped his hand worriedly and nervously, before noticing his own gestures and tucked them into his coat pockets, muttering, "Come on ... come on ... hurry please...."

Someone suddenly knocked on the door of his office, and he yelled, "Come in! come in!"

Dr. Sharon entered with a briefcase and stood over his desk, "What is it that is so urgent?" She stifled a yawn as she sat down on the lumpy chair in front of the desk.

"Look at this!" Thorn excitedly snatched up a piece of paper printed out with a jumble of text and pictures.

Dr. Sharon scanned through the paper and the notes scribbled on it and frowned, "Wait is this what I think it is?"

"Yes!" Thorn nodded, "The computer has found some matching text in the database and translated it out."

"Hummingbird on the Left?" Dr. Sharon rubbed her tired eyes as she re-read the notes. "What kind of name is that?"

"That's the best translation the computer gave!" Thorn said, "Also some of this I managed to find out." He started to click on some files on the computer and turned the screen to face Sharon. "Look!"

"Deity of war, sun and human sacrifice?" Dr. Sharon tiredness appeared to vanish as she read the scripts that Thorn had dug out in his research. "So this God that the Hero worshipped, isn't just the Sun god, but also of war and human sacrifice?"

"Yes!" Thorn said, "Remember what the little girl told us in the hospital? She said she saw how the Hero absorbed the female's life force he was in bed with!"

"So that was a form of sacrifice?" Dr. Sharon frowned. "But where did you get this from?"

"Now, that's where it gets more strange..." Thorn spoke in a low voice as he stared at Dr. Sharon in a very serious manner. "This data did not come from any of my books, scrolls or from my knowledge. Neither did it come from any other mages here."

"The inscriptions here that the computer translated as 'Hummingbird of the Left', came from an ancient language, and that is from you... hoomans..."

167 - The Things We Do for the Greater Good...

Far Harbor, Dockside Pier

Specialist Sergeant Tyrier with the rest of the Claymore One on tow looked at the two lines of colorful stalls, lining alongside the dockside, all filled with goods and different types of food. He adjusted his stiff uniform collar, feeling slightly uncomfortable in uniform as he hasn't worn it in months.

"Look!" Hitsu exclaimed while excitedly pointing at one of the stalls, "I heard that stall serves good 'bu-girls'! I'm hungry!"

"Yea, let's grab something to eat," Tavel agreed as he wiped the sweat off his cap, "Don't know why they sent us here for."

Tyrier looked around, seeing large groups of Islanders gawking at the wares displayed and sampling food offered from the stalls and nodded, "Alright," He looked at the large clock tower on the roof of the Civic Center and said, "Buy what you want to eat and drink and meet up here again in half an hour's time."

"Yes!" Hitsu grinned and looped his arm around Young's shoulder, dragging him along, "Come on! Let's go! FOOD!"

The stalls lining around the streets where specially set up for the Islander's visit, like a special bazaar with all manner of products and food currently being produced by the city. In a way, this allows the Islanders to see what goods are tradable and also allows the sailors from the Isles to unwind and spend some of their money.

Glassware, metalware, even what appeared to be toilet rolls were on display from various stalls. So far the most crowded stalls were those selling weapons, as large groups of Islander sailors, hanging around the stalls were the weapon and armor samples while anxious looking police officers hovered at the side, trying to act normal but were clearly worried that some fights might break out.

Hitsu ordered a few sticks of barbecued meat, and a couple of hot dogs from one of the barbecue food stands, adding a generous amount of ketchup and mustard sauce. He briefly wondered why buns with sausages were called hot dogs, does that means the hoomans use dog meat for the sausages? He gestured with his elbow to Young who had a cheeseburger and they went to join in the commotion at the weapon stalls.

The group of sailors was interested with a repeating crossbow, that uses a crank mechanism to load and reload, allowing a user to rapidly fire off dozens of crossbow bolts in a minute. They gathered around a fenced off area, where a straw dummy was the target, wearing a battered Empire chest plate and helmet. The sailor testing the crossbow looked slightly uncertain at the seller who gestured how to fire and load the crossbow before he pointed the crossbow at the straw target and worked the crank as instructed.

The first shot went wild, hitting the boarded up wall and the rest of the sailors jeered. The red faced sailor appeared to want to give up, but the seller encouraged him to try again and to hold on to the crossbow more firmly. The sailor gave a shrug and gripped the crossbow tightly, pointing at the dummy set at fifty meters away.

The second shot fared better and hit the 'leg' portion of the dummy, making the others laugh and cheer. Soon there was a bet ongoing on whether if the next shot would hit the chest plate. The embarrassed sailor looked like he was about to walk away, and suddenly someone pushed through the crowd, and everyone hushed up.

Hitsu swallowed a large mouthful of hot dog and saw a female sailor clad in tight leathers and silks. She yanked the repeating crossbow off from the other sailor and tilted the weapon left and right, admiring its workmanship and design. She suddenly snapped the crossbow against her shoulder and cranked it repeatedly, sending bolt after bolt towards the straw target till the bulky box magazine on the top of the crossbow ran dry.

She tossed the crossbow back to the seller who looked at her with awe on his face, and the crowd went wild. "ANNA! ANNA! ANNA!" They chanted as she swept her tri-cone hat off and a thick mop of luscious golden red locks spilled out over her shoulders and she gave a bow to the men who laughed and whooped before she walked up to the straw target and examined the results of her work.

Hitsu mouth remained wide open as he stared at the golden red hair sailor strut her way down the range. He suddenly choked when Young slapped his back, as he saw Hitsu glazing at the female and piece of a hot dog stuck in his throat making his cough.

"Hahaha," Young laughed as he watched Hitsu's antics. "Hey, I thought you have two girls already? Why are you ogling at another one here?"

"AAH.. wh-what?" Hitsu thumped his chest, forcing the piece of hot dog down his throat, "What girls?"

"Heh, that Billy and that crazy mage girl?" Young winked at Hitu.

"WHAT?" Hitsu nearly dropped all his food as he started to deny any involvement with those two girls. "Serious?"

"Hahaha," Young laughed as he finished his burger. "Everyone knows you like little girls.."

"..." Hitsu wiped the ketchup and mustard sauce from his mouth. "You got to be kidding me..."

"Hahahahhaa," Young laughed, "Anyway, that chick, she looks way out of your league."

Hitsu sighed and finished up his food but as they were about to leave, a clear and boisterous voice called out to them. Turning around, they saw the earlier female sailor standing there with her arms on her hips and walking towards them with a few other sailors in tow.

"You two!" The female sailor gestured to them both with a jerk of her head. "Your uniforms look different from the rest. Who are you?"

"M-me?" Hitsu stammered as he stared at the heart-shaped face covered by a golden red crown of hair. "Ah-hh.. I-I am H-Hitsu!"

Young on the other hand, nearly face palmed himself at the sad display Hitsu was giving. "We are part of the Hundred and First.

"Hundred and First?" The female sailor frowned and looked at the rest of her sailors with a confused expression. "You carry yourselves different from the rest of those black shirts and those grey shirts!"

Young looked down at his grey dress uniform, similar to the Marines, except their pants were trimmed in gold instead of red. He gave a shrug, "We are just simple soldiers."

"Soldiers, eh?" The female raised one of her eyebrows up, "Than care to explain how that 'repeating crossbow' works to this poor sailor?" The rest of the sailors laughed and giggle among themselves.

"Eh, you are?" Hitsu shyly asked.

"My name is Anna, Anna Boony. First mate of the Man 'o' war, Talon." She proudly raised her chin up, "So tell me, how does those crossbow work, soldier boy?"

"Erm," Young looked at Hitsu and scratched his head, "Well, you work the crank, it drops a bolt down from the box and at the same time, it pulls the string back and locks the arms into place. When you pull all the way to the back, the string is released and the bolt is thrown out and you crank it again to repeat."

"Hmmm, such an ingenious way of firing rapidly. It that how you defeated the Empire?" Anna asked, her eyes boring deep into Young who coughed uncomfortably.

"Yes, 20 men armed with a repeating crossbow is as powerful as a regiment of crossbowmen!" Young explained, "But of course, compared to a regular crossbow, it has a weaker penetrating strength and range."

"Interesting, soldier boy," Anna gave a wink and walked off, "Be seeing you again."

"Wow, did she wink at me?" Hitsu sighed, "My poor heart can't handle it!"

"You and your damn nonsense," Young shook his head, "Come on, we need to head back to find the rest."

"Damn, she is hot!" Hitsu sighed again, looking at the disappearing back of the first mate of the Talon.

-----

"Tyrier!" Lt Joseph quickened his steps as he spotted Tyrier near a food stall. "Just nice, I was looking for you!"

"Hey Lt, what's up?" Tyrier swallowed the sweet bread roll, that the stall owner called it a 'donut' and he finished it off with a gulp of 'Root beer', some drink made out from the essence of some root or bark of a tree.

"We need to talk, I need your help," Lt Joseph said, will pulling Tyrier to a quiet corner. "We might have a small security problem."

"Why me? Can't the police or the security guys handle it?" Tyrier frowned, "We are supposed to be on R and R now." (Rest and Recuperation)

"Well, it's those ex slaves," Lt Joseph said in a low voice, "Some of them wants to run and take over one of the Isles ships."

"What?" Tyrier cursed, "Are they stupid?"

"Well, since you guys actually had fought together and they trust you more," Joseph continued, "I like you to talk them down."

"Talk them down?" Tyrier asked, "I wanna beat them up! Who is coming up with such a silly idea?"

"So the guy's called, Cesar." Lt Joseph took out a note from his breast pocket. He hands it over to Tyrier to glanced at its content.

"Oh, this guy?" Tyrier frowned, "I remember him, quite the whiner."

"Think you can do something about this guy without hurting our relationship with the Islanders?" Lt Joseph asked as he watched a group of Islander sailors trying some hot dogs from the food stall.

"Well, depends on how you want me to fix it?" Tyrier asked, "Quietly or verbally."

"I'm guessing this guy will be trouble in the future," Lt Joseph said, seeing the sailors buying another round of food, this time cheeseburgers as they enjoyed the hot dog. "Quietly and out of sight."

Tyrier nodded, "Do you have his position?"

"He was last reported at the back of the hostels," Lt Joseph gestured towards the right, where rows of bungalow like houses were constructed for the Islander's stay. "I got a tail on them."

"It is official or...?" Tyrier narrowed his eyes as he asked his question.

"What do you think?" Lt Joseph turned and looked back at Tyrier in the eye.

Tyrier nodded, "Got it, I will send word once it is done."

"He should have one or two accomplices, deal with them and this problem goes away," Lt Joseph added as Tyrier walked off, waving.

Lt Joseph watched Tyrier disappear into the crowd and sighed, "The things we do for the greater good..."

-----

Far Harbor, Back alley of Bungalow Row

Four men were crouched behind some large empty wooden crates, one of them spoke while placing some items on the ground. "I managed to grab some of these while the stalls were busy and distracted."

The one speaking held up a couple of short straight tipped steel daggers. "There are too many guards around and I don't dare to steal more!"

"Good work, that's a start at least," A thin yellow faced elf grinned in the shadows, "Asther, What did you find out about our future ride?"

"Looks like we will be going on board the Ocean Dreamer," the man called Asther replied, as he played with one of the daggers. "Its a transport and there was word that the Islanders might stay at least for a week before leaving."

"A week?" Cesar looked surprised, "I thought they will only be here for three days?"

"Well, I overheard the sailors saying they will be staying about a week before leaving," Asther shrugged. "Everyone in the docks heard them."

"See my friends? These so-called rebels are tricking us, telling us to trust them but yet something as simple as departing from this lands, they can't even give us the truth!" Cesar shook his head in sadness.

"When we return, spread the word," Cesar smiled, "Let the rest the truth, this way we can gain more supporters!"

"My, my, what a gathering you guys have here!" A voice suddenly spoke over them, making them jump up in shock.

"Now, that I have your attention, I believe, its time for you all to... disappear..."

168 - Awakenings

A snap of a cervical vertebrae cracked loudly in the sudden silence and a limp body with an expression of surprise still on his face slumped down onto the concrete floor. Hitsu patted his uniform, dusting it as he made sure his medals were not dirtied or damaged in any way.

Cesar and the remaining two men stood rooted on the spot as they recognized the person, and the voice that spoke walked into the line of sight. "Remember I told you before that if you can't help, at least stay out of the way and not bring more troubles to everyone?"

Tyrier stood before the fear stricken men, "I told you I will kill you if you become a burden to me. And it appears that my words did not get through into your thick skulls."

"N-no, wait how did you know?" Cesar yelped in panic as his eyes widened in fear. "W-we are doing nothing!"

"Nothing?" Tyrier raised a questioning eyebrow and using the tip of his shiny boots, he toed the daggers laying on the floor. "While it might not be a crime to owe bladed weapons, but these surely are something you are planning on using on some stupid plan of yours."

"No! wait!" Cesar looked around wildly, seeing all the exits out of the alley blocked the men in the same uniform and he recognized them all! They were all the fearsome mercenaries who fought against that crazy Hero to a standstill! "I can explain!"

"It's too late for explanations," Tyrier replied, "In fact, letting you live for the past few seconds talking here is already good enough for you." Tyrier gave a gesture and three shadows darted in.

"NOO!" The terrified men yelled out, only to have their mouths covered and strong arms gripping over their necks. A sudden twist and a crack, and all three died with terror frozen in their faces.

"Damn, this sucks," Hitsu said as they laid the four bodies out in a row. "I thought we were on vacation?"

"Stop grumbling," Tyrier replied as he walked out of the alley and gestured to a black uniformed officer in the distance. "You there, you know who Lt Joseph is? Good! Tell him it's done, that's all. Thank you."

The officer nodded and tried to peek into the alley, but Altied blocked his view and smile, "Somethings is best to be arrogant of." He advised to the police officer, who gave a brief nod and left.

"Come on, let's clear the bodies and wrap it up." Tyrier said, "Tonight, Lt Joseph gonna treat us to a big meal for this shit he dropped on us!"

"HOORAAHH!" The men of Claymore One cheered as they melt into the shadows in the alley.

-----

Far Harbour, Civic Center

Lt Joseph nodded as the police officer whispered into his ear and he thanked him, thinking that he needed to treat those Claymore One guys to a beer or something later. He knocked on the double wooden doors and pushed it open and entered into the large reception room.

Princess Sherene gave a charming smile as she saw who has entered and waved for him to take up a seat in the informal setting.

Lt Joseph glanced around the room, noting that the Islanders were all watching him and gauging him. He walked over to the refreshments table and took a cup of tea, stirring some sugar and cream in before heading over to the group seated around in a loose circle.

"This is Lieutenant Joseph Tokin," the Princess introduced them to the gathered Islanders. "He was Lord General of the Army of Goldrose."

"General," Dijon rose up and gave an Islander salute, which Joseph waved it off.

"I am no longer a Lord General," Joseph grinned, "I'm just a humble soldier now."

"I see..." Dijon nodded, "We heard about your exploits with the Hero and also your efforts in saving the freed slaves. For that we thank you."

"I'm curious, Fleet Master Dijon," Joseph said as he sat down, "Why would the Isles go into so much trouble just to save a few slaves?"

Dijon leaned back on his chair as he studied Joseph and the Princess. He steeped his fingers together, before giving a nod and bluntly said, "For manpower."

"Manpower?" Joseph looked at the Princess who also had a clueless expression on her face.

"Yes, manpower." Dijon smiled, before explaining. "Look, the Isles are just several large islands, my nation lacks the land to grow crops or even cities."

"Look at how aggressive the Empire is going. The Two Nation Alliance is what is left on the mainland, not counting you and your merry band of rebels." Dijon said, "Sooner or later, the Two Nation Alliance will fall apart, and what is left is just remnants of royalty and rebels which frankly, the Empire can just sweep everyone away once they have control of the whole mainland."

"Once they have the mainland, where do you think they will turn their eyes to next?" Dijon continued, "They will surely turn their eye on the Isles, and while we have a mighty fleet, we can't fight with a population 10 times our size!"

"That's a reason why we need more people," Dijon answered Joseph's question, "We have unsettled islands ripe for starting new towns and ports, money and transports are all not an issue. Just we lack the people to settle down."

"I see..." Joseph looked at the Princess who gave a slight nod, confirming their theory of why the Isles need the slaves.

"Well, why not we take a break for now?" Sherene stood up and smiled, "Let me show you to your rooms and let you all settle in, we meet up for dinner later?"

Dijon nodded and as he stood up, the rest of his Captains followed him and Princess Sherene led them out of the reception hall, showing them the way to their rooms while Joseph remained behind, deep in his own thoughts.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"So what we suspected is true?" Captain Blake said to the image of the Princess shown on the main screen.

"Yes," The real time imagery nodded, "So far that is what they are telling us, there might be another reason they are not telling us. But it is believable so far."

Blake nodded, "How about the trade deal? Did they accept our offers?"

"They need some time to verify the quality of our goods, and also time to appraisal them," Sherene replied. "They decided to stay longer than stated before, extending it from three days to a 5 day week now or longer."

"I see," Blake scratched his chin. "We have enough supplies for them?"

"Yes," Sherene nodded, "I predicted that they might test our resources by purposely overextending their stay, so I had stockpiled enough food to last them for at least a month."

"Great thinking!" Blake smiled, and Sherene turned away from the camera blushing. "Now, must of the ex slaves appeared to want to stay than follow them to the Isles, and that will probably raise some tensions."

"Don't worry," Sherene winked, "I know how to sweeten the pot for them, so they won't make much noise over the lack of manpower to bring home."

"Haha, thank you for your hard work!" Blake replied.

"Well, you better reward me when I get back!" Sherene winked again and blew a kiss to the camera, before ending the call, much to the crew's amusement. Commander Ford laughed and winked at Blake, mimicking the Princess's actions and blew a kiss to him.

"You buggers..."

-----

Somewhere north of the Colony

A small quake rocked from inside of a smoking mountain, radiating out to its surroundings. Creatures ran and fled as the volcano shook, its smoking peaks boiling and vomiting out magma down its slopes.

A low rumbled came from the insides of the volcano, and something stirred in the depths of the glowing red river of magma and a dark shape slowly raised out from the molten earth. It crawled out from the magma and the liquid earth cool as it hit the surrounding air, turning its body rock hard.

The creature shook its body and flakes of hardened crust broke away and it crawled its way out towards one of the many cave tunnels and before long, it emerged from the top of the volcano. The air shimmered around it and it sniffed the air, around it before spreading its wings out and sending the rest of the hardened crust breaking away from its body.

It gave a roar as it tasted the air, having slept for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was awakened by something and it stretched its serpentine body as it perched on the volcano peak. Its large yellow eyes narrowing as it spotted creatures and animals run away in fear from its appearance.

It leaped off the peak and spread its wings, allowing the hot air currents to fill its wings membrane and it glided lazily in a circle before it tilted its body down and darted down towards a wind wolf who tried to dodge to the side, but the agile dragon snapped out its claws and latched on tightly in a death grip, sinking its claws into the hide of the wolf which yelped and cried in pain.

The dragon gave off so much heat, that the wolf's hide started to char and its fur burst into flames. The wolf yelped and screamed in pain, desperately trying to escape from the claws of the dragon carrying it in the air but soon its struggles weaken, as its body boiled and cooked from the heat of the dragon.

The dragon landed on a flattish peak of a mountain and started to feast on the cooked flesh of the wolf, relishing the taste of a fresh kill, after hundreds of years of hibernation. As it finished its meal, it found a comfortable place to sleep off the meal. The dragon roared out a continuous flame, scorching the terrain around it till the rock melted and form a bowl shaped depression. Quite the ground hardened, the dragon nodded in satisfaction and curled up into the bowl and dozed off.

Simmering waves of heat could be seen rising from the body of the snoozing dragon, and none of the creatures nearby dare to return to their nests and dens, as they fled in fear of a new boss monster that appeared.

-----

UNS Singapore, R&D Laboratory

Senior Spaceman Mason tapped some keys into the computer with the ship carpenter, Amar hovering over his shoulder. "We give it a double planked hull. Adding two straight beams called coamings that run the length of the chart house, day room, and engine hatch, and are integrated to the hull. These beams will add strength and help seal water out since they rise up from the deck. This will give us the strength without excess weight, and laminating the wood would help too."

"We have the machinery and glue to bond the wood, making it stronger," Mason added for Amar's benefit. "We can use the foam sealant that the Singapore uses to repair breaches on its hull. It is highly heat and water resistant, and we have tons of that stuff laying around."

"Fom see-land?" Amar looked confused, to which Mason ignored.

"Now that we have the design, we just need to work out the model and test it!" Mason continued. "This I need your help to make a model out for testing!"

"You hoomans are amazing," Amar peered at the screen, looking at the detailed lines of drawings and plans. "If I have no idea what is happening here, I might think you people are demons!"

"Hahaha," Mason laughed, "Your magic is just as strange to us as our technology is to you. So no complaints!"

"Talking about magic," Mason jolted up, "I think we can further strengthen the hull here with magic reinforcement runes! This way we will not need the use of steel to brace the internal bulkheads."

169 - I Spy with my Eye

Fleet Master Dijon took a swig of ice cold foamy root beer and munched on a large triangular piece of bread which the locals called a 'pit-za'. The taste sweet and sour with the salty gooey cheese and slices of meat sausage tastes heavenly, as Dijon finished the third slice of the round bread that was cut into six slices.

"Fleet Master and Captains, the magical wards are in place." The Fury's ship mage bowed to the gathered men and settled down at a corner of the reception hall, where Dijon had requested from the Princess for their personal use.

"Good, now no one can listen or scry into our meetings, so let's start!" Dijon wiped his greasy hands onto a table cloth and gestured for his Captains to report their findings. "It's over two days since we landed, what do we know of these... rebels?"

"Master Dijon," The Captain of the Man 'O' War, Boar, spoke, "My men tested the weapons the rebels were offering and so far, they are quite impressed. Especially with the repeating crossbows! Its range might be shorter and power weaker than our steel crossbows, but the rate of fire of it is crazy! One man can fire off more bolts than a file of five men armed with steel crossbows in a turn of a glass!"

"I strongly advise we purchase some repeating crossbows back and hand them over to Weapon Guilds for them to learn and discover how they work!" The Captain of the Boar added, "It will greatly increase our fighting strength if we can have the men equipped with such weapons!"

The rest of the Captains nodded and voiced their approval, for they too have seen and played with the repeating crossbows. Dijon nodded, "Do it, see what the Princess wants to trade for those crossbows. Next?"

"The quality of their refined steel is must tougher and durable compared to ours," A greying sailor with large gold loops in his ears spoke up, "I tested the few bars of sample steel they offered us and made this." The sailor brought out a long package wrapped in soft leather and handed it over to Dijon who curiously unwrapped the bundle to find a shiny curved cutlass.

"This is?" Dijon asked the old hand as he lifted the cutlass up to admired in the light.

"I forged this with the steel they gave us," The old Smith replied, "'Ca-born steel' they called it. I tested it and it proved to be at least two times stronger than our current steel we produce. It is almost like mithril!"

"I see," Dijon stood up and gave the cutlass a few experimental swings and sweeps. "Tourn, draw your sword!"

The broad-shouldered Captain of the Talon, stood up and drew his cutlass out, and with a loud "AHHH!" He chopped downwards at Dijon who parried with lightning fast reflexes.

A loud clang echoed in the hall, and a piece of metal snapped off from the cutlass held in Tourn's grip. His cutlass has broken off in the sharp attack with Dijon!

Dijon nodded in a pleased manner as he examined the blade surface for any imperfections, barely finding any nicks. "This is good steel indeed!" He handed the cutlass pommel first to Tourn who took it and started to swing the cutlass around.

Dijon picked up the broken sword and observed the blade, seeing where the two edges had met and the force of both swords broke the poorer quality iron-steel. He nodded again, "Well?"

"If they can supply us with a large quantity of this 'ca-born steel', it will definitely increase our fighting strength." The old smith said while the rest of the Captains muttered among themselves and nodded.

"Good! This is a wasted trip after all!" Dijon grinned widely, "The Princess had offered us these materials in exchange for grains, raw ores, processed wood, and most importantly, shipbuilding techniques."

"For raw materials and food, it is a good deal in exchange for the repeating crossbow and 'ca-born steel'." Dijon said, "But in exchange for shipwrights to teach them how to make ships?"

"Fleet Master," A Captain spoke up, "We shouldn't offer them the shipwrights! Their weapons and steel we can trade for and the Guild Masters will sooner or later unlock the secrets to their production means. Therefore trading our ways to make ships will not be worthwhile to us!"

"Yes, we agree too!" The Captains voiced their thoughts, "Why let them profit? We can just sell ships to them!"

Dijon nodded, "Than its settled, we will not agree to not teaching the rebels how to build ships, rather we will offer them our older ships for sale."

"Next, what else is worthy to be traded?" Dijon asked as he picked up another slice of cold pizza.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"So those Islanders doesn't wanna share their shipbuilding technology, but rather offer us some old ships for sale?" Captain Blake frowned as he watched the live feed of the Islander meeting going on at Far Harbour. "Damn, those money grubbing bastards... I hoped the lure of better steel and a repeating crossbow would be enough to entice them to share their technology..."

"Oh well, not every day is sunday~" Blake sighed, "Princess, squeeze them hard in exchange for the carbon steel and the crossbows. I think they are also interested in canned food and glass."

The image of the Princess on the side of the video feed nodded as she too was viewing and listening in to the ongoings in the reception room, as they have bugged the whole area, with both audio and video devices. Magic wards? Ha!

"Not getting any shipwrights is still within our plans, but raw resources are important, our current output from the new mines are still below our needs and the Isles can provide us enough raw resources to cover the deficits."

"Luckily, the harvest is doing fine, and there will be less spoilage of harvest since the tractors with the combine harvesters were introduced!" Sherene smiled happily, as she was glad that food will not be many issues for the winter months.

Blake nodded, glad that he pushed hard at Chief Matt and his team to produce a sort of simple combine harvester, that is powered by the same V9 engines the aircraft were using. Dozens of the large spinning harvesters were deployed to all the farms, vastly improving the rate of harvesting crops and preventing the rest of the crops from over riping and spoilage.

"I guess the Fleet Master will speak to me tomorrow after they are done with their discussions," The Princess tiny portrait spoke. "I better go prepare my notes if I want to counter their offers! Bye, ~!"

Blake grinned at the casual way the Princess signed off, thinking that she is started to be more and more carefree and badly influenced by the media the Entertainment Broadcasting team is throwing out. He looked up to see his bridge crew turning away and hiding their smiles as they acted busy. He sighed, wondering if it was the media team or his crew was badly influencing the Princess.

-----

Sawtooth Mountain, Holding Camp

Kaga Whitetail was feeling conflicted, as ever since she reported the manner to the soldier, the ones that were involved in the conspiracy went missing! She wandered around the Camp's common area trying to see if she could find them but for the past two days, she couldn't even see a shadow of them!

What had she done! She berated herself and started to question her own beliefs. Are the so-called hoomans, demons that require sacrifices? If so is that why those who opposed them had gone missing?

She suddenly felt very lonely and afraid of this place, despite the number of people around her. She had no friends here, as everyone kept a respectful distance from her due to her spirit powers as the beast men treated her as an elder, while the elves normally don't get close to a beastman.

As she was feeling down, her senses suddenly felt someone was spying on her and she spin around, trying to locate the source. Something had triggered her six sense, and she felt a chill down her spine as she looked around, her fluffy ears twitching as she scanned her surroundings.

"-kawaii!" Her twitching ears heard something strange and she turned to the direction the voice came from and saw two short eared hoomans crouching suspiciously behind some crates outside the fence of the camp.

She narrowed her eyes and glared at the two people who suddenly noticed her looking their way and they both ducked down, trying to hide from her sight. Already feeling unhappy, she stormed her way to the wire fence and glared at the two men trying to squeeze themselves behind a stack of crates but failing terribly. "YOU THERE! WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?!"

"Ahhh! Gomenasai! Gomenasai!" One of them was like praying and bowing, wearing a pair of strange artifact on his face, that covered his eyes. The other was trying to crawl away with something black and blocky in his hands.

"Are you a thief?" Kaga asked, speaking in common, as she couldn't understand En-ish or whatever they are trying to say.

"Ahh... n-no... w-we no thief!" The weird guy with the strange round contraptions around his eyes spoke back in halting common tongue.

Kaga observed them both and found them to be wearing a similar uniform, like what most of the rebels do. "Are you workers here?"

"Work? Y-yes yes work!" The strange dou both looked at her like she was some goddess, making her feel conieous of her body, and she turned her body away from them hugging herself.

"You... what are you two doing! So suspicious! I going to call the guards!" She yelled angrily as she blushed.

"No- no! We no su- suspicious! We work!" One of them showed a sort of card that was clipped onto his breast pocket of his uniform while in his hand he was holding some strange black item.

"What is that?" She asked curiously, pointing to the black object.

"O-oh this...? Both of the men looked at each other and suddenly they gave out a silly laugh. "No-Nothing!"

"GUAR-!!"

"SHHHHHH!!!" Both of them quickly hushed her, "Ok ok, this is a camera!"

"Cam-el?" Kaga looked confused at the En-ish word. "What does it do?"

"It- erm- pictures?" The guy with the eye thingy spoke hesitated.

"Pik-cure?" Kaga was even more confused.

"Look!" The guy turned the object around and showed the back of it by the fence. Kaga leaned forward and saw some runes lit up and suddenly an image of what appeared to be her incredible likeness appeared on the surface.

"WAA!" Kaga hissed, her tail and ears standing up as she glared at them. "EVIL! You steal my spirit!"

"N-no no!" No steal sp-spirit!" The guy cried in surprised, "Picture!"

"Look!" He turned and pointed it at a nearby tree and clicked something before showing it to Kaga.

Kaga hissed in warning as he pushed the evil artifact towards her, and she saw an identical image of the tree inside the artifact! "What magic is this!?"

"N-no no magik!" The two laughed and seemed to wipe tears and sweat away in relief as Kaga calmed down. "This- take picture!"

"It can capture anything inside?" Kaga looked suspiciously at the screen and tapped hard at the object with her extended claw nails.

"Don-t break!" The guy holding the artifact hugged it close to his chest, saying some weird language, "Antique, DSLR Nikon D850~!"

Kaga leaned back and looked at them with disgust, "You two are weird..."

"No- weird!" The two of them yelped, "We take picture- of you!"

"What? Why?" Kaga narrowed her eyes in fright, wondering what they want to do with her 'pik-cure'!

"Catgirls!" The two guys spoked in unison, "REAL CATGIRLS! WOOOO!"

"Eh..." Kaga looked frightened by the two and she slowly backed away from the two strange men, "My mommy told me... not to speak with strangers..." And she turned tail and ran off in fright. "Crazy hoomans!"

"Ahhh~ Nekomimi moeeee~~~!"

170 - History and Wrecks

Skies over the South Eastern Goblin Coast, 228 km from Far Harbour

Quicksilver flared his wings as he glided along the coastline, his small crew of two were seated in tandem on his back, observing the area around them as they did their routine aerial patrol. Quicksilver's dark silver scales glittered in the sun as he made a slow bank over the coast, his horned and ridged serpentine head looking around alertly.

"Yaaawwn..." Gother yawned, as he stretched his stiff body covered in a thick flight suit. "See anything interesting, Pera?"

"Nothing but the sand, sea, and trees..." Pera replied as he glanced at his wristwatch. "Well, we do another pass along the coast and we can return to base."

"Yay!" Gother cheered, "Quick, you hear that?"

"Yessshh..." Quick hissed and he flapped his wings, gathering speed and did a loop as they went along the coast for the last round, when he suddenly spotted something in the distance. "Wait! I see something!"

"What?" Both the aviator crews went on alert, "Where?"

"Our 2 O'clock direction." Quicksilver replied, "Follow the coastline, see the dark outline against the waves?"

"Head that way," Pera ordered as he was the crew chief. "Gother, report back to base, tell them we are investigating an anomaly."

Quicksilver returned to their original course and left their usual patrol route as they head towards the unknown sighting around the coast.

"It's a ship!" Quicksilver exclaimed as his eyesight were better than the elves, spotting the object washed ashore against the rocks and reefs.

Pera using a pair of field glasses, replied, "I think that's the missing ship from the Isles."

"Bring us down for a closer look and see if you spot any survivors!" Pera yelled over the wind.

Quicksilver bobbed his head in acknowledgment and arrowed his wings, losing altitude fast while increasing his speed. Soon the individual masts of the beached ship could be seen clearly and Quicksilver flared out his wings, reducing his speed and he did a lazy sweep around the wreck.

"See anyone?" Pera yelled as he gripped the saddle bars tightly as Quicksilver did an almost 90 degrees tilt.

"I don't see anything!" Gother yelled back as he too hung on tightly to the saddle bars.

"Keep circling!" Pera commanded as they peered around the wreckage, trying to find any signs of life. "Gother, radio Mother."

"Dragon Two to Mother, come in over!"

"-other, send."

"Dragon Two, spotted a shipwreck off the coast of goblin sea, over."

"Mother, Roger, send coordinates, over."

"Dragon Two, standby!"

Gother removed the flap covering his map and started to read off the numbers on the map back to base, who acknowledged the coordinates.

"Mother is telling us to standby for support," Gother yelled, as he secured the radio set. "ETA, one hour!"

"Got it!" Pera nodded, "Quick, bring us down, not too close to the wreckage. We wait for support to come.

Quicksilver slowly came to a gliding stop over the white sandy beach and his claws landed on the soft warm sand, digging deep as his full weight slowly settled down on to his claws. Both Pera and Gother, unbuckled their harnesses and removed shotguns from their casings and climbed down from Quicksilver's back.

"Damn," Gother shoved his aviator helmet's visor up and grimaced at the heat coming from the sand. "It's bloody hot!"

"Stay on alert!" Pera said, as he kept his eyes at the distant trees, "There is at least a hundred men or more onboard that ship, and they can't all just drowned from the storm."

"Yeah, so where are they?" Gother asked. "Where have they gone?"

"God knows..."

-----

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Dr. Sharon sat on the sofa of Magister Thorn and swiped her tablet as she dug out some historical text from the UNS Singapore's archives. There were sadly not much, as most of them were just basic books from the ship's entertainment library.

"Do you know who is the Hummingbird of the Left?" Magister Thorn asked from behind his desk, covered by stacks of old scrolls and manuscripts. They had been working on and off on this topic for the past few days.

"Roughly I can guess," Dr. Sharon replied distractedly. Lately, the voice in her head had disappeared, making her have a sense of unease in her heart. "Well, at least I think I am right."

"Who is it?" Magister Thorn asked curiously as he stood up from his seat and drag his chair over to the sofa where Dr. Sharon was sitting. "I did not know you hoomans have gods!"

"While to be frank, we have many gods, but science had proven those gods to be just beliefs created by man. But who is to say religion is wrong?" Dr. Sharon explained. "But then again, after coming here, I won't be surprised to find our gods are real too!"

"So about this Hummingbird?" Magister Thorn asked again, "What kind of god is it?"

"Well, if I guess rightly, he's from the Mayan or Aztec civilization..." Dr. Sharon replied. "I can't remember the full details, maybe two thousand years ago? My history of South American cultures is lacking... I only roughly guess."

"South 'er-marry-can'?" Thorn looked confused.

"Its the name of a continent from the world we are from," Dr. Sharon explained.

"But if he's a Mayan or Aztec God, then we are kinda in a big mess..." Dr. Sharon looked up at Thorn. "They are famous for sacrifices, from babies to young to male or females to the old."

"Is that why the computer listed it as a God of sacrifices and war?" Thorn asked. "But why the Sun too?"

"I seriously have no idea..." Dr. Sharon said. "I think we need to look for help, maybe someone has studied Ancient South American history or cultures onboard this ship..."

-----

Shipwreck off the South Eastern Goblin Coast, 228 km from Far Harbour

The Valkyrie's engines pitch grew louder and louder as it came into a hover a short distance away from Quicksilver who stuffed his ears with his wingtips as the roar of the engines irritated his sensitive hearing.

Marines hopped out, ignoring the little green figure who screeched insults from the hull, "Dumb Ma-neesss! Go earn pay! Stop eating and grow fat! Too fat my god plane can't lift your fat ass off into the skies! Next time you walk!"

A Marine with three silver stripes on his sleeves jogged over with an officer that has a single gold bar on his shoulder and stood before Quicksilver and his crew. "So you guys called for some tender loving care?"

Quicksilver blinked his eyes in amusement at the way the hooman was talking while his two crew members looked momentarily confused. "Ahh, nevermind, its a joke." The hooman Marine rolled his eyes.

"Ahem, Sergeant Mills," The slightly embarrassed looking officer coughed, "I think I do the talking, you go check up on the troops."

"Gotcha L.T" Mills gave a wink and ran off towards the Marines spread out around the beach.

"I am Lieutenant Coraths, 1st Battalion, Bravo Company, Platoon 1," Lt Coraths replied. "You guys saw anyone alive from the wreck?"

Both Pera and Gother shook their heads. "We had Quicksilver here called out among the forest edge but no one replied."

"Great..." Lt Coraths rubbed his forehead between his eyes, "Ok, I need you guys up to provide some eyes over the sky, while me and my boys move in to do a sweep."

"Sergeant Mills!" Lt Coraths yelled and Mills came over. "Get the men ready, we are going into the forest to do a spread. Make sure even one keeps within five meters away and be on constant visual contact from each other."

"Yes, Sir!" Mills cheerfully replied and went off to inform the men. He had recently been promoted after finishing his instructor role at Camp Alpha and now he got posted to 1st Battalion, Bravo Company, Platoon 1 as a third sergeant.

The men quickly spread out in a double line formation and entered into the forest, their weapons on alert as they sweep the land for any signs of life. One of the leading point men held a precious motion and heartbeat sensor, his long ears peeking out from the headset of the tracker.

"We do a five kilometer sweep and if there still nothing, we report back to HQ and await further orders." Lt Coraths said to Mills who nodded. He was slightly awe of Mills as he heard some stories and rumors of him during his Officer Cadet School days, that Mills once got hit by a fireball and still continued fighting while on fire with his skin melting off.

Roughly an hour later, someone yelled, and the sweep came to a halt. Lt Coraths and Mills walked up to the Marine who gave out an alert. "Sir, Sarge! Look here."

On the ground, were clearly remains of a campfire. Mills crouched down to feel the campfire, finding it cool to the touch and he shook his head. "Maybe a day or more old. It's cold."

"Look here! Looks like blood!" Someone cried.

They saw several splatters of something dark and even a large patch here and there, with the ground looking disturbed. "Looks like a fight here. Looks like some tracks."

"Wait! These look like Oerkin footprints!" One of the point men spoke up, as he examined the tracks on the dirt. "Yea... smells like them too!"

"Shit," Mills cursed. "So the missing crew got taken by orcs?"

"Can't tell for sure, let's report it in." Lt Coraths replied. "Radioman!"

"So are we following the tracks? Mills asked as he watched the tracks leading deeper into the forest.

"No!" Lt Coraths replied hurriedly, "Let's see what HQ says."

The radioman started to make his call back to HQ, having found a small break in the canopy.

"So what now?" Mills asked as the rest of Marines formed a circular security cordon around the campsite.

"Sir! We can't get through to HQ!" The radioman replied as he fiddled with the radio set.

"L.T?" Mills asked again as he looked at Coraths.

"Eh..." Coraths rubbed his forehead, "We fallback to the wreck." He said after a moment.

"Huh?" Mills gave a look of surprise. "Seriously Sir? We are not going to follow the tracks?"

"It might be a trap!" Coraths said, "Until we get confirmation from HQ, we do nothing."

"Okay..." Mills frowned and gave the order to the men to pull back.

It took them another hour to exit the forest, but then all of them were tired, hot, and sweaty. "Damn wild goose chase!" Mills muttered under his breathe. "What a waste of time and energy!"

"Sir!" The radioman cried, "HQ says to proceed with extreme caution, and see if we can follow the tracks."

"Got it, eh, men! We are heading back in! Take a 15 minutes break!" Coraths yelled.

"What?" Mills couldn't believe his ears at what he was hearing. Even the men were grumbling as they flopped down or sat down against the trees to rest.

"L.T!" Mills strolled up to Coraths who was wiping his face with a hand towel. "We just wasted an hour walking out of the forest and now we are going back in again?"

"Well, sarge, you heard the radio. HQ wants us to go check out where the tracks lead to." Coraths replied.

"But Sir, the men are tired, and we do not know how far those tracks might lead to." Mills explained.

"The men are fine! They are trained for this!" Coraths proudly replied.

"That is not what I meant, Sir." Mills patiently tried to reason with Coraths, "We do not know how long we will be in the forest, and we will need supplies!"

"Not an issue," Coraths replied confidently, "We can have the Valkyries airdrop in supplies to us when needed."

"Oh my gods," Mills whispered under his breath as he watched Coraths walk away.

"We are so screwed!"

171 - Lost

Far Harbor, Civic Center

The reception room's furniture had been rearranged the night before, now a long table was set in the middle of the room with high back chairs all around. Yet only two of the chairs were occupied, one by Fleet Master Dijon while opposite him sat the Princess. The rest of his Captains and aides stood respectfully behind him while the Princess's retinue did the same.

A piece of parchment was placed before each of them, with a pen for them to sign the terms and conditions listed. "The Isles will provide, 10,000 stones* of iron, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, and tin each. 5,000 heads of egg-laying bird wyverns and 1,000 heads of muffalo. 2 Flying Fish class schooners and a dozen fishing boats." Princess Sherene read from the contents written down on the contract. (*1 stone is 100 kg)

"In exchange, We will provide 10,000 repeating crossbows, 10,000 sets of half-plate armor, 10,000 sets of half faced helmets, 20,000 sets of cutlass and 10,000 sets of long daggers, all made out of carbon steel. 20,000 small sized 'mason' jars with lids for food canning, and 1,000 pure glass panels." Sherene looked up from the contract and smiled sweetly, "All to be traded within two month's time."

"Hmph," Fleet Master Dijon frowned, acting like he got cheated by the Princess. The two flying fish class schooners were over 5 years old and leaking, and well below the Isle's standards for an ocean faring ship, while the fish boats were small sized and cheap and easy to manufacture.

Princess Sherene smiled despite knowing that Dijon most like will be giving her two of the oldest ships in his fleet, but Blake had said that it was alright to accept the deal, as they plan to tear the ships down to learn how to make their own and with the discovery of the shipwreck off the coast of Goblin Sea, Blake had told her not to inform the Islanders about the discovery, as he planned to salvage the wreck for their own use once the Islanders has returned.

Well. at least glass was cheap and easy to make for us, thought Sherene, as she signed and stamped her official seal onto the parchment and did the same with the other copy. "Pleasure to do business with you, Fleet Master. I hope there will be more opportunities for more trade between us."

Dijon nodded and gave a bow, "The pleasure is mine, of course, as a merchant, we will never turn down our clients."

"Now, let's us celebrate!" Dijon grinned, his early expression of a stern face disappearing as he picked up a glass of wine and toasted to the Princess.

-----

Somewhere in the Forest, North of the wreck

Mills cursed, as he slapped at some insect buzzing around his ear. He wiped beads of sweat off his face, his helmet long removed hours ago and secured to his harness webbing, and he wore a jungle hat instead.

He looked around at his surrounding men, looking at their tired and listless faces as they toiled through the forest mindlessly, barely keeping an eye around their surroundings. They had been following the tracks for more than a day and their supplies had run out, while the LT tried to call for a supply run, the interference in the forest blocked all of their attempts to communicate out.

The tracks there were following led them deeper into the forest, an unexplored region the Marines and Surveyors had barely touched, hence there were no maps, nor even transmission towers installed and the dumb fuck LT had to bring them in without any re-supply, Mills cursed in his mind.

"Sarge!" One of the Marines called out, "Where are we going?"

"Hell if I know..." Mills replied harshly. "Keep your eyes open! We are in an unknown territory!"

"Damn, Sarge, does the L T knows what he is doing?" The Marines gestured to the rear where the Lieutenant was.

Mills looked back, spotting Lieutenant Coraths flipping over a map. Mills shook his head as he watched the antics of the Lieutenant. Does that idiot know this area is not mapped?

Finally unable to bear the embarrassment the Lieutenant was causing to the rest of the platoon, Mills went up to Coraths and gently took the map away from his hands. "Sir, this area is not mapped, you can't find anything in this."

"Wh-what?" Lieutenant Coraths looked up in surprise, "Why did you tell me earlier? You made me look like a fool!" He hissed to Mills angrily.

Mills sighed, "Sir, I think we should stop and retrace our steps back to the wreck. We have been out of radio contact for at least 16 hours!"

"No! We came so far already to give up, and HQ ordered to follow the tracks!" Lieutenant Coraths stubbornly replied.

"Sir, we have no lines of supply nor communications, HQ most likely has dispatched another platoon to look for us." Mills replied. "We need to re-establish comms as the priority!"

"No, our mission stands," Coraths glared at Mills, "Sergeant, do your duty, don't teach me how to do my job! We continue on!"

"Alright, enough slacking around! Let's move!" Coraths bushed past Mills and yelled at the rest of the Marines who grumbled and continued on, following the point men.

Mills closed his eyes as he counted down to one, cooling his temper before he turned and followed the rest of his men, muttering under his breath, "Don't make me shoot you behind your back, asshole..."

-----

Camp Alpha, Commandant's Office

Major Frank frowned as he looked at the screen of his computer. He picked up the handset and keyed for Master Sergeant Pike's communicator. "Top? What's the news with the missing Alpha Company's platoon?"

"Major, we lost contact with them roughly 18 hours ago. They were supposed to report in every two hours, but as that area has no radio coverage, the communication operators did not sound out the alert till just now." Pike replied.

"Damn, send out a search party, and request for air support from the Air Force," Frank ordered, "Who's leading the lost platoon?"

"Lieutenant Coraths Riveria, ranked 49 out of 175 Officer cadets in Class 2. Decent grades and command scores." Pike replied as he forwarded the dossier on Coraths over to Frank from his workstation at Sawtooth Mountain Command. "His instructors' comments were that he is quite a mission focused and likes to follow the book to the letter."

"I see," Frank nodded, "Sent the search party out, dead or alive, find them."

-----

Sawtooth Mountain, Air Force Base, Dragon Pen 2

Quicksilver was happily chomping away at a giant stainless steel bowl, that is more like a tub. He licked the insides of his bowl clean, smacking his lips as he swallowed the remains of the fried potatoes, cheese, and tomato sauce. "Hmmmm mmmm! Now that is a meal worthy of a dragon!"

"Right? Right?" Blue Thunder stuck his head over from his own pen as he too licked his chomps after finished his own serving of cheese fries. "I can just eat this all day!"

"Burpp..." Quicksilver gave a burp and looked at Blue Thunder, "Hows the wing?"

"Still sore!" Blue gave a dramatic sigh while wiggling his wounded wing still with patches of 'X' shaped duct tapes. "But healing! Just need more meat! Glazed and roasted with 'tear-ra-yucky' sauce! Oh my!"

Blue Thunder swallowed a mouthful of saliva as he remembered the exquisite taste of 'tear-ra-yucky' glazed meat. "Ohh... I hunger for some now..."

"You and you bottomless hole tummy!" Quicksilver sighed as he saw Blue Thunder's eyes glazing over as he drooled and day dreamt about his meat. "You should heal up first!"

"Hey, Quick!" Some yellow jackets and green jackets crew came over. "You're up for a mission!"

"Huh?" Quicksilver looked over to the crew that started to unload the harness from its storage bins. "I thought I am off duty now?"

"The Air Boss wants you to go," Flight Corporeal Pera replied as he walked in with Private Gother into the dragon hangar pen. "It's about the shipwreck from yesterday."

"What about it?" Quicksilver asked, while Blue Thunder curiously listened from his side. "Didn't the Marines went down to check it out?"

"Yea, they did, but those Marines went missing," Pera replied as he wore his own body harness.

Quicksilver stood up and waded over to the markings drawn on the ground, where the yellow and green jacketed crews had laid out his harnesses. He places his arms and legs at the proper loops and the crew swarmed over his body, securing the straps and buckles together.

"How did they get lost?" Blue Thunder asked as he leaned his massive head against a stack of machinery.

"HEY!" One of the yellow jackets yelled, "Get your fat ass head off that equipment! You want the Chief to cut your meat rations?"

"Ohh... sorry..." Blue Thunder meekly apologized and shifted his head away from the machinery which groaned when the heavy weight on it got lifted away. "Tee hee... don't tell the Chief!"

"Grrrr..." The angry crewman went over and checked the machinery, and sighed with relief as the engine for the crane system only looked dented but still working. "You want us to get chewed out by the Chief?"

"Hehehe sorry!" Blue Thunder hid his head back into his own pen. "Anyway, what happened to the Marines?"

"Not sure," Pera yelled from the back of Quicksilver. "We are going to find out!"

"Ok, take care! Give me the full details when you guys return ok?" Blue Thunder spoke to the back of Quicksilver who crawled out of the dragon hangar, towards the runway. "Be careful!"

Quicksilver gave a flip of his tail as acknowledgment and before long, he took off from the runway, bouncing off into the skies.

"I'm bored..." Blue Thunder sighed as he leaned his head down between his arms. "And craving for meat! Tear-ra-yucky..."

-----

Skies over Goblin Coast, Enroute to the Wreck

"Dumb Maa-neessss!" Greg the goblin giggled as he sat on the oversized bucket seat facing the rows of irritated Marines. "See? No listen to the Great Greg, now dumb Maa-ness lost in forest! HEHEHEHEHE!"

"Aww, someone shut that damn goblin up!" Someone yelled, "Damn thing keeps yelping away."

"Oh, dumb Maa-neesss want a piece of Greg?" Greg sneered, "Careful dumb Maa-nees walk home later! Hahahaha!"

"God, this is like some weird ass slapstick B grade comedy show..." Corporeal Koing sighed as he heard his platoon mates throw insults back and fore with the goblin crew. "Come on, I'm trying to catch some sleep guys!"

Luckily the heated exchange did not last long as the pilot's voice came over the intercom, "Alright, kids! We are over the AO* now, 5 minutes!"

*Area of Operations

The new Lieuftuent nervously yelled out, "Al-alright people, check you gear!"

Koing sighed, "Hope nothing goes to shit and Platoon 1 is just lost and not in combat!"

The men suddenly felt gravity disappeared and they yelled out, some in fright, others in enjoyment as the pilot dropped the Valkyrie towards the ground in a combat dive, a combat maneuver to rapidly reduce little and also to get to the ground as fast as possible, to avoid taking fire or radar lock in a combat situation. But most of the time, the pilots like to do that, as it gave them a kick out of making their cargo puke.

The cabin light turned green and Greg happily smashed the rear hatch door's button, dropping the ramp down, and yelling from his position, "GO and die dumb Maa-nesss!" Go go gooo!"

The men rapidly unbuckled themselves and charged out of the ramp in order, while Koing unhooked the supports holding his partner to the cabin, ASAG-05, nicknamed 'Tags', which was ladened with supplies, happily bounced out of the Valkyrie following Koing as they took a kneeling position.

"Walking and getting dirty is so dumb! Only gods fly! Bye~ Dumb Maa-nees!!"

172 - Chains of Command

Far Harbour, Pier, Fury

Fleet Master Dijon looked at the pitiful few ex slaves that were willing to follow them back to the Isles and sighed. The transport ship was able to carry over 500 men and women, yet barely a tenth of the passager hold will be used. He sighed and glanced at out to the sea, seeing dozens of longboats ferrying his men and supplies to the ships anchored offshore.

"Fleet Master!" His first mate called out, as he walked barefooted towards Dijon and gestured to the pier. "Compliments of the Princess."

Dijon looked down from the decks of his flagship and saw dozens and dozens of crates were being delivered by workers. He strolled down the gangplank and gestured his some of his crew to open the crates and follow each crate was filled with glassware.

The harbor master dressed in a strange single piece of clothing said, "Sir! The Princess offers you this glassware in compensation of the number of freed slaves. It's the least she can offer you, she said."

Dijon checked another few more crates. finding each crate containing at least 40 sets of glass goblets. He gave a low whistle, as the quality and clarity of the glass were beyond anything they have, matching or even surpassing the Master artisans at home and in greater quantities too. He mentally calculated the value, estimating that a single glass goblet could probability sell at around two to three gold coins, meaning the stacks of crates here would be worth as much as a small ship!

"Thank your mistress for me!" Dijon grinned, thinking that maybe he did not lose out much after all on this trip. "I will look forward to coming back for another visit!"

"Please do so, Sir!" The harbor master bowed, "We will greatly appreciate and welcome your visits! Swift winds and calm seas!"

"Swift winds and calm seas!" Dijon replied, gestured his men to carefully load the crates of glassware to the ship, before he glanced at the distance white stone building, "I will be back."

------

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, Far Harbor reports that the Isles' Fleet has left our waters," The communications officer reported from his station. "Harbor security is doing a sweep of the area to ensure no stragglers were left behind."

Blake nodded, "Put me through to Major Frank, please."

"Aye, stand by Sir!" The communication officer tapped several keys, before the screen in front of Blake lighted up with a <CONNECTING VID LINK> text.

Soon Major Frank's image appeared on the screen and he saluted, "Captain!"

"How's the search going?" Blake asked.

Frank frowned, "No news yet, I have the Dragons dropping active radio transmitters with a cable down into the canopy of the forest, and only having my search party replying. The missing platoon is still not responding to our hails."

"Damn, could they been wiped out by monsters or the same thing that took the sailors?" Blake asked worriedly.

"Sir, we found tracks of a campfire and orc tracks," Frank replied, "And tracks of the missing platoon too, so far all indicated that they were following the orc tracks."

"It's been more than 36 hours since they went missing," Blake sighed, "Step it up, if not call off the search, I leave it to your judgment."

"Yes, Captain!" Frank nodded before Blake closed the connection.

"Damn, always one shit after another," Blake leaned his head back.

"Captain," Commander Ford spoke up from his workstation. "You need to take a break."

"Well, when we have no shit happening, I will then take a break," Blake sighed. "There just so much to do, and everything has risks."

"Well at least the slime plant is on track now," Ford grinned.

"Ahhh... slime plant... who came up with such a horrible naming..." Blake groaned at Ford's reminder.

"Well, it processes slimes for use to various industries," Ford replied, "Don't forget, you and the Princess supposed to be there tomorrow morning for the opening ceremony!"

"Urgh, can't you go in my stead?" Blake asked, "I'll take a double shift in exchange!"

"Nope, You're the big boss!" Ford winked, "and besides, your girlfriend is there!"

"Damn..." Blake cursed Ford, "Alright, anyway, what's the assessment of the shipwreck?"

Ford checked his tablet before replied, "Well, we sent a couple of teams down to check it out, looks like its still intact, except for a couple of holes just below the waterline."

"Most of the equipment is still onboard, except for the ship's charts." Ford added, "Guess they are smart enough to remove any maps."

Blake nodded, "Is it salvageable?"

"I have Chief Matt to take a look with one of the teams," Ford nodded, "He says we just need to unload all the heavy stuff onboard, like the ballistas, catapults, ballast, and other supplies to lighten the ship. Next, he said, we can attach the deployable floats from the lifeboats, and wait for the tide and float the ship out. as it is stuck on the rocks."

"Do it," Blake gave his approval, "But I do not want the Islanders to know what we are doing. Make sure none of their ships are nearby when we float the ship out."

"Finder keepers?" Ford gave a suggestion, "I mean they should have some salvage rules of the sea here right?"

"We don't know," Blake answered, "So play it safe, and if we can repair and upgrade that wreck, it will be useful in the future."

Ford nodded, "That's why you told the Princess not to mention to them that we found their missing ship?"

"Yup," Blake grinned, "Cause I want to steal it!"

"Heh!"

-----

Somewhere in the forest northeast of the Wreck

"CONTACT!" Someone yelled, and a harsh bark of an M1 Magelock roared out, sending a stab of flames into the dwindling darkness. "Incoming!"

Yelps and shrieks suddenly rang out in the dark forest twilight as goblins rushed out from the undergrowth, ambushing the tired and lost Marines.

"Form up! Give me a defensive circle!" Lieutenant Coraths yelled as he looked around in confusion at the dark figures. "Lights! Give me some flares!" He yelled next to the platoon mage who threw up some magical flares that lit up their surroundings.

"No!" Mills yelled from his position as he saw what the Lieutenant ordered. The pitiful few lights popped into existence, providing a soft warm glow, that clearly exposed goblins but also the Marines within the magical glow.

The goblins screamed in delight as they saw the highlighted Marines under the glow and rushed forward, their eyesight clearly more superior in the dark compared to the elves who tried to filter out which were shadows and which were goblins in the dim glow.

"Fuck!" Mills cried as he fired point blanked at a goblin that appeared to grow out from a bush. "Back!" He ordered, "Form a firing line here!"

The men followed his orders, back pedaling as they fired at anything that moved, while Coraths was rallying the other men on the other flank. Suddenly, Mills heard Coraths calling for a charge, and he was stupefied, a charge into the dark against unknown numbers? Is he crazy?

He saw the men of Section 1 and 2, with a few others from 3 and 4 rush forward, screaming a war cry and slamming into the surprised goblins and for a moment, it looked like the charge worked in the Marines favour, till suddenly a Marine screamed and his broken body flew over the heads of the rest and crumbled against a tree.

A large shadow stepped into the magical glow, resolving into a forest troll. "Troll!" The men yelled, "RPG!!!"

Mills turned and yelled at the nearest Marine with an RPG-1 on his back, "Quick! Take out that troll or they all be butchered!" The Marine and his buddy quickly yanked the tube out and crouched down while the rest hurried away from the back blast and providing cover for the team.

"ONE ROUND AWAY!" The HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) rocket screamed out and impacted on the troll, blowing its arm, causing it to bellow in anger and pain. "RELOAD!"

The angered troll hammered its fist on a slow-moving Marine, beating him into a pulp while the others fired at it and tried to retreat, only to have the giggling goblins sneaking in for a stab or poke.

"Lieutenant! What do we do?" Someone yelled at the stunned Coraths who stared open-mouthed at the Troll ravaging his men. "Sir?!"

"Ah.. hit it with rockets... yes! The RPGs!" Coraths blinked rapidly and turned around looking for any Marines with RPGs. "QUICK!"

"Shit!" Mills cursed as he saw Coraths panicking, "Come on guys! Hit it again and don't miss!"

"You!" Mills ran to the Orc machine gunner, "Ignore the Troll! Suppress the goblins instead!"

The orc nodded his helmeted head, and resting the bipod of his MG-1 on a tree root and fired sending bright arcs of tracers into the undergrowth.

"Up!" The RPG team yelled and aimed the weapon at the one-armed Troll, "ONE ROUND AWAY!" and the rocket impaled itself in the hard belly of the Troll before it blew up, ripping the troll into two halves. The Troll continued to scream and struggle on the ground as its lifeblood slowly drained away.

By then it was too late, more than half of the platoon were dead or dying, with the remaining half with wounds of varies degrees. Despite the death of the Troll, the goblins, like sharks sensing blood, rushed in wave after wave, shrieking wildly and waving crude weapons at the retreating Marines.

"Fuck this!" Mills cursed, as he fired his weapon mechanically, the tide of goblins were like endless, popping out from the shadows every now and then. "Back!"

"Hold the line!" Coraths yelled suddenly. "Hold the line!"

"What?" Mills paused and turned to look at the Lieutenant. "What is he trying to do now?"

"We leave no man behind!" Coraths yelled again, "Stand your ground! Kill those green scum!"

"Is he serious?" Mills felt like he was dreaming, "Shit!"

"BELAY THAT ORDER!" Mills roared angrily, and the remaining Marines looked confused.

"Sir! We need to pull back and regroup!" Mills yelled at Coraths as he made his way over while reloading his weapon. "We are outnumbered and blind here!"

"No! We hold the line! We will not leave the bodies of our brothers to the green scum!" Coraths stubbornly cried, his M2 against his shoulder as he fired at anything that moved in front of him.

"You serious?" Mills looked at the wide eyed Coraths. "We need to fall back! You impulsive charge nearly killed everyone! The goblins will overrun us!"

"Coward!" Coraths screamed at Mills, "You hoomans think you are so smart! But when come to fighting, you are all the first to run!"

"What did you say?" Mills expression turned cold, "You want to repeat that again?"

"Coward! Sergeant, I am charging you for insubordination!" Coraths continued to scream at Mills, "I am busting you back to private! Get out of my sight!"

The surrounding men turned and looked at each other, confusion on their faces. "Sir, I don't think this is the time for this..."

"Shut it private! You want me to charge you for insubordination too?" Coraths turned and screamed at the Marine.

"Enough!" Mills yelled, "Lieutenant Coraths, I relieve you, sir, under the authority of paragraph 1088 of Naval Regulations, for your reckless hazarding of your command. I assume full responsibility with this and will forward a complete report to the next higher commander, with witness statements from all concerned. You will stand down as the commanding officer, and remain escorted until such time as you are notified otherwise."

"Corporal!" Mills barked to the surprise of the men around him, "Take the Lieutenant's weapons! Assign someone to watch over him! Lieutenant, I hope you cooperate as we are under combat situation now, don't make it worst!"

"What? You are relieving me of command?" Coraths eyes looked even wider than before. "You have no authority, coward!"

"Take him, Corporal!" Mills sighed, "The rest watch your sectors, prepare to move out!"

"You... you...!" Coraths looked like he was going to have a heart attack.

"Sir?" The Corporal gently removed Coraths's rifle and his sidearm before gesturing the private he scolded earlier to look over him.

Mills quickly reorganized the remaining men into two sections, "One, pull back 50 meters and hold! Two provide fire support!" He commanded the men to pull back in a tactical withdrawal.

"Back! Move it!"

173 - Meetings

UNS Singapore, Conference Room

"Output of our current mines has risen by a total of 4%, while saltpeter output has dropped by 12% as military demand for saltpeter has dropped. We are reallocating manpower from the saltpeter mines over to the mines. Estimated transfer of manpower will take roughly three working weeks." Chief Engineering Officer Gale reported.

"A third of our all our M1 Magelocks have been recalled back to the factory for retooling to the newer 6.5 mm smokeless cartridge and will be issued out to the frontline troops first, while the Militia will still use the original black powder M1s till the Marines have all switched over to the new ammunition."

"Production of the new smokeless propellant is moving smoothly, but we had a couple of accidents. Thankfully all minor injuries," Chief Gale paused and looked towards Dr. Sharon. "Dr. Sharon and my team have worked out some SOP* (*Standard Operating Procedure) and safety measures for the workers in the factory. We will also be conducting more safety courses to ensure workplace safety for all our works in the entire production sector."

"Also the new slime factory for processing slime for use as raw materials is scheduled today, at 1100 hours," Chief Gale gave a nod to Captain Blake and the Princess. "This new factory will be able to process up to 4 tons of slime daily, with more room to expand should we need to."

"Slime captured or harvested will be gutted, cleaned, sterilized, and sorted out to either as a food product or raw material." Chief Gale explained the purpose of the Slime factory to those that were clueless about its usage. "Slimes like the Green and Yellow variants will be dried and processed into food. Honey Slimes will be sterilized and milked for its nectar, while Black Slimes found in the northern swamps will be sun-dried and aired, before being processed into bio-rubber."

Bio-rubber were made by using the rubber-like bodies of the Black Slimes, stacked together and heat bonded, before been shaped into the tires, gaskets, soles, or linings and many other products. The demand for Black Slimes rocketed, and teams of hunters ventured into the swamps to hunt for the Slimes, while farmers attempted to breed the Black Slimes in their own backyards.

Blake gave a nod, "We will be there for the opening. What else?"

"The vehicle factory output currently far exceeds our needs, so I might cut its production to half, we have sufficient vehicles like trucks, tractors, buses, harvesters, jeeps, and half-tracks to support a population of fewer than 10,000 people, not to mention the need for bio rubber for tires." Gale added, "On the other hand, the market for consumer products has risen, and I most likely will focus on that instead."

"Ok, work with the Princess on what the population needs most," Blake replied. "Next?"

"Sir, I had the boys comb over the entire ship and found dozens of hairline cracks in the main structural frame of the ship," Matt said as Gale finished his report. "The ship took quite a beating when it landed, but firing the main guns finally cracked the spine of the old lady."

"What can we do?" Blake asked.

"Either we refrain from firing the guns, or we brace the main structural frame with patches which will barely do any good once you fire the guns again. Alternately, we can remove the guns and site them on stable ground." Matt listed out his suggestions.

"Give me a detail report," Blake replied, "I take a look later."

"My team has fully surveyed the shipwreck and will commerce salvaging operations in three days once the Isles's Fleet has left the area," Matt said, "We will strap and secured the self inflating flotation devices we salvage from the lifeboat and wait for high tide before we attempt to float the ship out. Pumps will also be installed to pump out the flooding in the bottom hull."

"Great, make sure the Isles don't spot the wreck!" Blake said. "I don't want them to claim it."

Magister Thorn gave a cough, "I will have my best students cast a shimmering spell over the wreck before the Isles ships can spot it. I will also be there to oversee it." Thorn gave a grin, "Always wanted to pirate a ship!"

"Hahahaha," The people around the table laughed and smiled at Thorn's joke before Blake gestured them to cool down and listen to Matt's report.

Matt nodded, "Next, Ordnance have come up with a new weapon, a simple dual purpose breech loading cannon, 3" 23 monobloc gun design using a vertically-sliding breech block, firing a 76.2 mm or 3" shell. It can be mounted on a fixed pedestal or field carriage."

"So far, tests results are quite favorable. Its range, firing at a 45.3 degrees angle, it can land a 5.9 kg shell at 7,315 meters away." Matt read off the numbers from his notes as the display screen showed a video clip of the weapon being test fired. "At an anti air angle of 75 degrees, laser calculation recorded the shell reaching heights of 5,181.6 meters."

"That's pretty impressive," Blake whistled, "Give my thanks to the team."

Matt nodded and continued, "The R & D on the fast craft is still proceeding, the team is currently testing out a 1:10 scale model, once their results are refined, they should be starting the next step of testing."

"Good, we need at least some presence in the waters around us," Blake grinned. "And with a light gun, we can at least have more firepower on the field or at sea against large sailing ships like what the Isles have!"

"Sir, why not develop torpedoes?" One of the naval department heads asked. "Won't it be more devastating against their ships?"

"Yes, it will, but we know nothing of building a torpedo, and the amount of resources we need on developing a torpedo is not worth it as it can only be used at sea," Blake explained to clarify the doubts of his people. "While a dual purpose light gun, it can be used at sea, land, and against air targets."

"Also. mounting a light gun takes up less space than a torpedo," Matt added, "A 3" gun can carry more ammunition than a torpedo launcher, and sink or damage more ships per gun than what a single torpedo launcher can do."

"All clear?" Blake looked around the table, "Good? Ok, what else do we have? Magister Thorn? Dr. Sharon?"

"Captain," Magister Thorn stood up and gave a slight bow, "Dr. Sharon and I have actually discovered something strange and disturbing about the origins of the Hero."

"What is it?" Blake frowned when he heard it was about the Hero.

"We are unsure as of now," Magister Thorn replied, "But we will like to request some help in finding out more before we release the information."

"What help do you need?" Commander Ford asked.

"We need some people to help with our research." Dr. Sharon spoke up. "I like to access HR's records."

"You need HR records?" Blake looked at Ford in confused, "Ok, sure."

"Thank you," Dr. Sharon replied. "We will give a full report once we have finished our investigations."

"Eh... ok, next?" Blake looked around the table.

"Sir," Major Frank spoke, "Search operations for the missing platoon is still ongoing, but there were reports of what appeared to be gunfire, therefore the platoon is most likely engaged in combat, I took the liberty of deploying a third platoon in for support into the area and also increase the search radius."

"Ok, keep me updated." Blake nodded.

"Master Sergeant Pike has also revised the troops' loadout to maximize their firepower out on the field after the incident with the Hero," Frank loaded up a chart on the main display for everyone to view. "1st and 2nd Battalion will be reorganized into the following, Three infantry Companies, One Weapon Support Company, and One Motorized Support Company."

"Infantry Companies will have an HQ company and four rifle platoons," Frank further detailed, "Each rifle platoon now will have an additional machine gun section attached." Previously, each platoon only has four seven-men sections.

"Each section will now consist of an AT (Anti Tank) and assistant AT, a grenadier, a marksman, a point man, and finally the section IC and 2 IC (InCharge)," Frank continued, "Machine gun sections will be a three-man team, consisting of the IC, machine gunner and assistant gunner. An ASAG will also be supporting the MG section."

"Under the Support Company, four 120 mm mortar platoons with three mortars in each platoon will provide heavy fire support for the Battalion, while the Motorized Support Company provides logistical support to the Battalion."

Blake nodded, "Looks good, when will it be implemented?"

"Within the month or longer," Frank replied, "Depending on how fast we resolve the current issue with the missing platoon."

"I like to nominate the whole of Claymore One for Silver Valor Cross, another other merit awards," Frank pushed a list of recipients and nominations over to Blake. "Also for a few outstanding Marines."

Blake nodded and looked towards, Commander Tommy, "What's the Air Force status now?"

"We lost two pilots and three aircraft from the fight with the Hero," Tommy reported, "Our current manning is at 27 F/A - 1 Cobra and 6 T-1 training crafts." The T-1 training aircraft were the original two-seater prototypes that were improved and turned into trainers for the pilot trainees.

"I am also recommending Blue Thunder and his crew for a Silver Valor and also confer them the title of Ace pilots for their efforts for taking down six confirmed aerial dragon kills." Tommy handed over a list of names to Blake. "As for the injured Blue Thunder, he is recovering well and will be flight capable in a couple of weeks."

"Next, we are working on a heavy rotor lifter," Tommy added, "We are designing a helicopter that will allow us to transport troops and supplies. The Valkyries are overworked at the moment, and if any one of them goes down, or is down for maintenance, our lift capabilities will be seriously screwed."

"Not only that, we are looking at designing a cargo plane for short haul air transportation purposes," Tommy said, "This will be useful not only for the military but also the industrial and civilian sectors in the future."

"Also, we are working on a parachute course for the Marines," Tommy gave a nod towards Frank, "It will improve our combat reach in the future."

"Great work people, good initiative all around!" Blake grinned. "How's about the civil side, Princess?"

"Rebuilding of the city is still underway," the Princess replied, "Shelters for civilians are also being planned out."

"On agriculture, we are expecting a large bountiful harvest, and with the new harvesting tractors, we do not expect large spoilage. So food will not be a problem for winter this year. Also with the trade agreement with the Isles, we will be able to start our own fishing industry which will also increase our sources of food." Sherene read off her notes.

"There has been some unrest due to the damages in the city caused by the cannons, but we managed to pacify the affected parties," Sherene looked up from her notes and said, "Issues now is the production of winter clothing."

"Matt and Gale. Can you work out a heating system to the city?" Blake asked, "Or some heating stoves for those outside the city grid? And also see if you can start up a proper clothing manufacturing process. We got like, five months roughly before its winter? Work with the Princess on it."

"Got it, Captain!" The two nodded.

"Anything else?" Blake asked.

Quartermaster Chen raised his hand up, "Sir, I have a proposal here."

"Go," Blake gestured to Chen to speak.

"Sir, the rail gun has actually left a small trail of destruction directly into the Uncharted Forest," Chen said, as he pulled up some UAV imagery onto the screen which showed the blue-green canopy of the forest and a somewhat pencil straight line of destruction could be clearly seen from the over top view. "While it is not a straight line from Sawtooth Pass to the town of Falledge, it at least covers a third or more of the distance."

"Look, what I am saying here is that we can actually make use of the destruction to carve a highway into the forest!"

174 - Getting Out

"Fuck!" Mills yelled as a bolt of greenish magical energy blazed past his ear. He paused to turn around and fired at the direction of the shaman who cast the spell. In the dark, he doubted he was able to hit anything but it should make the goblin duck for cover, he hoped.

"Come on!" Someone yelled, and a barrage of machine gun fire erupted from somewhere in front of Mills, the bright tracers leaving after strobes of light in his eyes. The machine gun appeared to suppress the chasing goblins as Mills heard the shrieks and cries of goblins fading behind him as he ran.

Hoping over a tree trunk, Mills leaned against the tree and took a breather, before yelling, "Report! Section 1 and 2?"

Shouts slowly drifted from the forest, as men shouted to each other, passing words along the strung-out Marines. The machine gunner kept up the fire in short briefs, keeping the goblins at bay while word traveled back up to Mills.

"Section 1 and 2 both have two men missing each, fuck!" Mills cursed under his breath, meaning now he has only 13 men, including him. "The lieutenant is one of the missing?"

Mills gave out a deep breath and looked at his spent men. They had been running for several hours in the night while being chased by goblins. "We hole up here! We are on a slight raise terrain and have nice lines of fire here. And with the ruckus we are making, I am sure search parties from HQ should have heard us by then. Once they get into contact with us, we regroup, resupply and return back for the fallen."

The men most of them veterans fighting in the Pass nodded, "Take this time to quickly clean your weapons too!" Mills added. "and rotate the MG gunner!"

Mills peered over the root, but in the pitch dark of the forest, he barely could make out anything. "Shit, and here I was so fucking proud I made Sergeant, should have stayed a corporal and remained at Camp as a trainer... fucking hell."

Shrieks, yelps, and giggles were soon heard again as the goblins regrouped, Mills checked his watch, barely an hour has passed, "Watch your front, boys!"

"MARINES! WHEN YOU GO TO INTERESTING PLACES, WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"MEET INTERESTING PEOPLE!"

"AND WHAT DO YOU DO?"

"WE KILL THEM!"

"HOORAH!"

-----

Goblin Coast, Shipwreck

"Watch your step!" One of the techs warned as Chief Engineer Matt gripped the rope ladder and pulled his way up, grunting as he made his way up. Hands gripped his body and pulled in over the railing and onboard the deck of the ship. He stood carefully on the slanted deck, as the ship was tilted to the side at an angle.

A massive groan came from the ship as a wave slammed into it, and Matt felt the whole ship shifting slightly. He ran his hand along the wooden hull of the sailing ship, observing the lines and workmanship while taking a tour of the top deck. The main mast of the two-masted ship had two third of its length snapped away, most likely caused by the storm.

"Chief! Good to see you!" A tech came up and started to report their progress. "This ship is quite similar to a Terran brig, judging by the number of mast and type of square rigging they use. We cleared away the remains of the rest of the sails to prevent winds from toppling or shifting the wreck more."

"That mast must have broken off in the storm and dragged the ship towards land before the sailors could cut it off and the Captain must have ordered the men to abandon ship," The tech said, "We searched the Captain's quarters for maps and any intel, only finding some dairies and personal efforts. Most likely thrown overboard or carried away by the Captain."

"Most of the ship's store is missing, and so are the weapons like swords and crossbows," The tech continued as they toured the Captain's room, "We suspected they took all the food, water. and weapons before abandoning the ship."

The Captain's Quarters were quite spacious, with a large work desk and high back chair, with the back facing large shuttered window openings. A couple of sea chest took up a corner of the room next to a messy bed against the wall. A wet moldy smell came off from the sad looking animal skin serving as a carpet while wall mounted cupboards covered the remaining wall.

"Anything of interest here?" Matt asked as he pushed out the shutters of the window, letting in fresh air to air the cabin and light flooded in.

"We cleared every item and swept the entire cabin for hidden compartments, using metal detectors, echo sounding and even with magic. We did find a hidden compartment magically locked under the animal skin, but it was empty." The tech used his booted feet to peel the skin back and tapped at a spot on the wooden plank. "Students from the Academy spent a couple of hours cracking the magic lock, well they were pretty excited at first but turns out to be empty."

"I see, the students are still here?" Matt asked as he looked into the small compartment roughly the size of a shoe box.

"Yes Chief, they are casting a ritual to create fog to hide the wreck from the Isles' ships," The tech gestured to the outside of the ship.

"Good, make sure they have everything they need, the Isles' fleet should be less than a day away. They most probably won't come within sight of land, but it pays to be safe," Matt straightened up and walked out of the Captain's Quarters, "Show me the damages to the hull."

"This way Chief," The tech led Chief Matt down into the cargo hold and portable lights set up at fixed intervals lit the interior up. An engine roar grew louder as they passed by a couple of ballistas on their mounts, the shuttered gunports tightly closed to prevent sprays from the waves from getting into the main deck. A V9 radial engine rumbled on a stand attached with to a capacitor with cables snaking off to various locations onboard of the ship, provide power to the lights and water pumps that hummed and sucked out the seawater flooding the ship through two areas, the hold, and the crew quarters at the bow.

"Here, Chief, this is the hold," The tech stood before a hatch cordoned off with yellow warning tape. "Ware the steps, they are slippery!" He bent under the tape and carefully climbed down the wet slimy wooden stairs.

The hold had several rotting barrels and crates sitting on ankle-deep seawater and the smell of the sea and rot was very thick. Sounds of crashing waves and the groaning of the ship like it were in pain could be constantly be heard over the power generator upstairs.

"It was almost at chest height when we first came," The tech explained as he pointed to a gaping hole at the side where glistering seaweed and barnacles covered rocks could clearly see jutting in. The rigged lights showed the damage clearly, the splintered hull with a hole roughly a meter wide and 30 cm tall, had seawater splashing in every few seconds. "Now its almost low tide, if its high tide, this area will be chest height in water."

"We cover up that hole with space foam once its low tide, "The tech added, "And we will continue to pump out the remaining water, after that we will attach the floats and deploy them. The stab resistant material of the floats will be more than able to handle the reefs and rocks here. Once high tide comes, the ship will be able to float out."

"This way," The tech continued on, "We checked the crates and barrels, all of them either biscuits of some sort or salted fish, meat and fresh water. Most of them are already contaminated with seawater, not sure if we can still use them. We are removing everything that is not bolted down to lighten the ship now."

The tech led Matt through to another hatch and into the forward crew quarters at the bow. Light from outside flood through from the hull as another tear in the hull, large enough for a fully grown man to climb through.

Spray from the waves splashed in and flowed down towards them as the bow of the ship was actually slightly angled towards the sky, allowing Matt to see the horizon through the hole. "If it's high tide, the water comes in more," The tech explained, "oh, the guys are here to fix the hole."

A couple of techs carrying what appeared to be red cylinders on their backs entered the crew cabin and saluted Chief Matt, who nodded and gestured them to continue their work. They started spraying the quick-drying space foam over the hole with a nozzle attached to the tanks of space foam used to quickly patch holes in spaceships.

They sprayed both the outside of the hull as well, to create as much of a perfect seal as possible and within 10 minutes they were done, after spraying two coatings of foam to ensure that the foam sticks to the wet hull.

Matt tapped the dried foam that hardened into a rigid substance, and nodded, "Good work, now we wait for the Isles's ships to pass by us before we float this baby home."

"Sir, how are we gonna float it to Far Harbor?" One of the techs with the space foam asked. "We got nothing to tow it back. Are we gonna sail it back?"

"Yea, Chief, I know we all did a basic sailing course back on Earth but I doubt anyone remembers anything from that course any more." The other tech spoke up.

"Oh that's easy," Matt grinned, "You saw those V9 radial engines I bought along with me?"

The men nodded, remembering the pile of equipment the Valkyries airlifted in earlier.

"When we float this lady out, we are gonna jury rig the engines on the side of the hull, most likely from the gunports and attach the two paddle wheels I had them specially made," Matt winked at his astonished men. "We are gonna paddle back and we don't need sails!"

-----

When the search platoon came into contact with 1st Battalion, Bravo Company Platoon 1, they found dozens and dozens of dead goblins littering around the last stand of the lost platoon. "Thunder!" The point man of the search party yelled from the cover a tree.

"Flash!" A tired yelled replied the point man and he cautiously came out of cover and climbed over the bodies of the dead goblins. "Hey, glad you guys are here to join the party!" A soot-covered Marine Sergeant covered in wounds called out from a small mound of dead goblins.

"Sarge?" The point man looked at the terrifying face of the three striped hooman covered in blood, gore, and black powder residue. He looked around the area and found several more wounded Marines, all covered in wounds and surrounded with dead goblins on all sides.

"Help is on its way!" The point man turned an yelled out, "Medic! We need medics here! You guys alright?"

"Just peachy, private," Mills grinned tiredly, as he used his broken M1 rifle, breaking it when he ran out of ammo and swung it around like a baseball bat after his sword bayonet snapped off. He braced himself up from the dead goblins he laid on after exhausting all his strength fighting off waves after waves of goblins

He looked at the rest of the surviving lost platoon and laughed, those that survived joined him and started laughing and cheering too, as they saw dozens of Marines emerged from the undergrowth.

"Nothing beats starting the day killing goblins, sleeping on their bodies and the smell of fresh blood!"

175 - We All Float

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, Isles's Fleet currently on an east heading, 116 km away from the wreck," The operator reported from her station. "The Fleet has just passed by Point Baker and heading towards Point Charlie, estimated time of arrival, 7 hours 48 minutes."

Commander Ford traced his fingers on the tactical table plot, measuring the distance between the fleet and the wreckage, and nodded, "Sir, we can begin salvage operations. The Islanders shouldn't be able to see what we are doing at this distance."

"Do it," Blake ordered, "But make sure the work team takes safety precautions."

"Aye Captain." The operator turned back to her station and started issuing instructions.

"Lucky we managed to recover the lost platoon," Ford sighed, as he traced his finger up the digital map on the table, tapping at a spot in a forested area. "We haven't fully mapped out nor explored this area yet."

Blake joined Ford at the table and leaned both arms on it, as he looked at the map of their surroundings. "We only barely managed to survey and explored a radius of roughly 200 km around the Colony and roughly a 50 to a hundred km of each outpost we have out there." Blake indicated the mines, hydro dam, farms, and Far Harbor.

"We might need to do a proper mapping of our surroundings, but it is just too manpower intensive if the area is forested," Ford replied. "and manpower is something we can barely spare!"

Blake nodded, "We really need to find more ways to resolve our manpower issues."

"How about getting more autonomous golems adapted for the factories?" Ford replied, "Automatic manufactories should reduce a lot of our manpower issues."

"No, we only have one source of golems and it's from one Elementalist" Blake replied. "Should anything happen to her, our industry will be crippled."

Ford nodded, "Maybe we can get more slaves and free them?"

"Urgh... where do we get the gold for that?" Blake sighed, "Unless... We strike directly at their slaves' markets and free everyone?"

"But do we have the lift capabilities for an attack?" Ford asked.

Blake rapped the table and looked up at Ford, "We need to prepare and plan for that scenario once we have the lift capabilities."

-----

Goblin Coast, Shipwreck

Chief Matt stood on the slanted deck surrounded by a thin layer of fog. He leaned over the railings and barely made out the few figures on the beach who had drawn up several spell formations, which were activated currently. Tendrils of fog drifted out from the center of the spell formation and covering the surrounding areas with a layer of mist.

Chief Matt nodded with satisfaction at the fog created by the students, knowing that it will effectively cover their salvaging operations from any prying eyes. He turned to his men and said, "Start securing the ship with the load bearing straps! Once the Isles Fleet is out of range we can prepare to float the ship out!"

"Aye Chief!" The men excitedly started their work. "Check the lines!"

The weapons onboard had been removed and tossed overboard before being dragged to shore. The remaining stores and furniture were too removed and dumped overboard. Several techs dressed in their EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) space suits less all the accessories like maneuvering thrusters had dropped into the water under the ship and straps were carefully wrapped under the barnacles infested bottom of the ship's hull before being secured to through the opened wide rectangular gun ports.

The techs underworld worked carefully and slowly due to the force of the waves and the dangers of getting crashed between the hull of the ship and the rock reefs. They also have to be careful of the razor-sharp barnacles and shellfish that covered the surfaces of the rocks and hull.

It had taken the men in the EVA space suits a couple of hours to wrap four sets of load-bearing straps under the ship and once they were done, packets of self-inflating floats were looped into the straps and carefully secured to the straps at strategic locations.

Other crew members spent the time ensuring the timbers and the main deck of the ship was solid. The two radial engines were then secured under the main deck and bolted into the wooden frame of the ship. The two sets of paddle wheels were left on the top deck waiting to be installed once the ship had been successfully refloated.

"Chief!" A tech yelled from the beach, "HQ reports that the Islander's Fleet has just passed Point Baker! We are cleared to commence salvage operations!"

"Got it!" Matt hollered back, "Pack up the gear and be ready to embark on the ship!"

"The rest activate the floats!" Matt ordered, and the men jumped to his orders.

On the hull, were four sets of load bearing straps each ladened with a single floatation device on the sides. The men in the main deck pulled a tab linked to the devices and the CO2 canister releases the gas stored inside and the floats popped out from their packaging and enlarged into bright orange pods.

The ship tilted and groaned as the balance of the ship shifted on the rocks. "Check the hull for any leaks!" Matt yelled, "Also check the floats! See if any have any leaks too!"

The ship was a hive of activity as the small army of techs ran up and down the hatches, verifying and double checking the hull to ensure everything is shipshape. Soon the tide started to come in, and the ship groaned as it was carried up by the secured floats. Matt and his crew held their breath as they all stood at the railings, looking at the floats rubbing against the rock reefs, hearing the scratching and squeaking of the floats.

Everyone prayed and hoped that the floats will not burst or erupt from the rock reefs. Slowly, minute by minute, the squeaking of the floats disappear as the rock reefs vanished under the rising tide and the ship was freed!

"YESSSH!" Matt and his techs cheered wildly, some hugging or high fiving each other. "Alright! Phase One is done! Now for Phase Two!" Matt turned around and yelled at the celebrating techs, "The hard part is over but we still need to ensure the ship doesn't get beached or trapped on the rocks again!"

"Bring the ship around to face the open sea!" Matt ordered, and one of the techs quickly manned the helm, spinning the steering wheel, turning the replaced and serviced rudder, forcing the ship's bow to point towards the open sea.

"Activate the CO2 canisters!" Matt ordered once the ship was facing the right direction. The men yelled down the hatches, repeating Matt's order and the tech yanked two cords which were connected to a dozen canisters of CO2 strapped under the hull. The CO2 canisters released the gas and a burst of bubbles erupted out, the force of the bubbles escaping, shoved the ship against the waves and tide, pushing the ship out towards the sea.

One of the precious motion detectors were repurposed as a sonar used as a depth sounder, the tech held the handheld device at the bow of the ship, yelling out the readings of the depth as the CO2 canisters shoved the ship further from shove. Once a safe distance was achieved, Matt ordered the anchor to be dropped and the ship came to a slow halt.

"Good work people!" Matt grinned at his excited team, "Alright, start installing the paddle wheels and contact the guys on the beach to row the boats over." The two longboats and a further two wooden dingies were found hidden along the forest edge, covered with foliage, most likely dragged up from the beach by the original crew and hidden. The Marines had discovered them and the techs used the boats to ferry from the beach to the ship and carry gear up and down.

The beach party had loaded up all the essentials and equipment onboard the boats and were waiting for the ship to be floated out before joining them out at the sea.

Matt grinned as he saw the men carefully lowered the paddle wheel down one side of the ship with ropes and hands stretched out from the gun ports of the main deck underneath to grab the wheel before they attached the wheel into the steel shaft. A tech lowered himself down with ropes and used a power tool to bolt the wheel securely to the power shaft.

This process was repeated on the other side, and the boats from the beach also arrived, the grinning faces of the students to the techs staring up at the ship as they holler excitedly. They paddled the boats to the side and a swing out crane was pushed out with ropes were dropped over for them to secure the boat with all the equipment and crates of supplies, which the men slowly hoist the boats up one by one, before securing them on the deck.

Matt looked at the men gathered on the deck as they finished all the work of securing the boats and equipment. He grinned and said, "Alright! Now is the final part of our plan! We are gonna run the paddles and sail home! Hoist the anchor! Make ready for sail! Now give me your best pirate warcry!"

"UGHHH~!" The human techs roared and laughed before they scampered to their stations, leaving the elves with a confused look on their faces. "Is it a hooman thing to shout 'Urghh' before they set sail on a ship?"

Matt laughed as he heard the elven crew said that, "Power up the engines!" He roared, as the men turned the capstan of the anchor, pulling the heavy anchor up.

Suddenly the cough and the purring roar of engines and the slight vibration could be heard and felt as the twin engines powered up. Matt waited till the anchor were properly secured before he gave the next order, "Engage the wheels! Give me Ahead Slow!"

"Ahead Slow, Aye!" One of the techs repeated and yelled down the order to the crew below, "Ahead slow!"

The two paddle wheels started turning as the shaft was engaged and it started to splash water, pushing the ship forward slowly. "It's moving!" The men yelled excited from their stations as they peered out from the open gun ports and windows openings. "Woo Hooo!"

Matt grinned as he felt a slight breeze against his skin, "Give me Half Full Ahead!"

"HALF FULL AHEAD!"

"AYE!"

The ship started to pick up speed, slowly gaining speed from 1 knot to a steady 4 knots. Matt went down to the main decks to check on the engines and found most of the men had stripped away their top as the temperature rosed up from the heat created by the Dragonite powered engines despite the opened gun ports and windows.

"Chief!" The tech in charge of the engines frowned, "We are just going at half speed, and the engines are looking like they are gonna overheat!"

"Damn," Chief Matt looked around the deck, "The airflow is not strong enough to cool the engines!"

"At this rate, before we go 10 km, the engines will melt!" The tech reported with a grim face. "We need some way to cool them!"

"Wait!" Chief Matt snapped his fingers, "I know just the thing!" He turned quickly climbed back up the hatch, leaving behind the clueless tech.

"Hey, kids!" Chief Matt found the small group of students gathered at the bow of the ship, enjoying the view. "I need your help!"

"Chief?" One of the students stepped forward, "My name is Elza Glassten, a first year. I am the leader of this party. What do you need our help with?"

"Elza, I need you and your party to help create a magic formation that creates cold air!"

"Cold air?" Elza tilted her head with her brown hair tied into a bun. "I think we can do it, but why?"

"The engines are overheating!" Matt explained, "It is too hot and will overheat and break down. That is why we need to cool the engines down!"

"I see," Elza nodded, and looked at her party of four and smiled.

"Let's go solve this heat problem!"

176 - Deja Vu

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Dr. Sharon sat alone on the workbench, staring at the broken golden amulet encased inside a clear containment unit. The voices in her head grew louder and clearer the nearer she was to the artifact and she felt a tingle of fear down her spine, yet the academic part of her brain was calmly analyzing her situation.

"... i' anar ondo..."
"... i' anar ondo...!"
"... I' ANAR ONDO...!"
"... I' ANAR ONDOOO...!"

"Doctor?" Someone suddenly shook her shoulder, making her jump, the voices that spoke in her head seemingly accompanied by tribal drums, cut off, leaving her mind back to her own thoughts.

"Ye-yes?" Dr. Sharon turned and saw a pretty redhead female dressed in a grey tech suit, with strips of a Petty Officer 1st Class, standing over her, "Can I help you?"

"PO Kristine reporting for duty Ma'am!" Kristine stood at attention. "I was told you needed help on some history stuff!"

"Oh, OH!" Dr. Sharon rubbed her temples as her mind slowly recovered. "At ease, sailor and grab a seat."

"What help do you need me on?" Kristine asked as she dragged over a chair.

"Well," Dr. Sharon scrolled through her tablet as she pulled up Kristine's academic records from her service record folder. "Says here you majored in archeology and history in Cambridge. What degree did you take on? Ancient history or Modern?"

"Yes, Doc," Kristine answered, "I got a BA(Bachelor of the Arts) in classical archaeology and ancient history. They mostly cover Mediterranean cultures."

"I see," Dr. Sharon looked slightly disappointed, "Do have any knowledge of ancient Latin America cultures?"

"Eh, I did read up on them but I am not very well versed in them," Kristine replied, "Why do you need knowledge of Latin America cultures?"

"We found something, that might be connected to something from Earth," Dr. Sharon explained, "That's why we need your expertise in archeology and history."

"Wait? You meant we found something here that could be linked with the ancient civilizations on Earth?" Kristine looked excited as she heard Dr. Sharon words.

"Yes, this," Dr. Sharon gestured to the containment unit on the end of the table. "We pulled this off the Hero's body."

"What is it?" Kristine played with the display screen as cameras inside the containment unit enlarged the imagery out.

"Well, its made out of pure gold as far as we know," Dr. Sharon said, "24 karats, 99.999% pure gold, weighing at 289.4 grams. It appeared to have broken off into pieces, judging by the cracked edges."

"To have the ability to smelt pure gold is quite hard, especially the separation of gold and silver is a difficult process," Dr. Sharon continued, as she dug out a gold royal coin. "These have a purity of 89 - 90% gold, 5 - 7% silver, and the remainder 3 - 4% copper and some minor impurities."

"This is either made by advanced melting technology, alien tech or... by the Gods themselves..." Dr. Sharon explained. "The natives here surely do not have the technology nor the means to refine such pure gold, and this amulet is several hundred years old by carbon dating."

Kristine's eyes widen as she listened to Dr. Sharon words, "The engravings on the amulet does look familiar. How are you sure it is related to us?"

"The computer had analyzed the symbology on the surface and managed to match this," Dr. Sharon showed a printout of the amulet with certain portions of the engraving being highlighted and displayed on the side, with English translated text. "Hummingbird of the Left."

"Hummingbird of the Left?" Kristine frowned, "Wait, let me get my old books! I should have a couple of reference books on Latin America in my tablet!"

Kristine quickly left the lab and headed to her office, as she was also a teacher here teaching Elementary English and Maths to the students here. Along the way, students bowed and greeted her back she was in too much of a rush, only giving a quick acknowledgment, and not stopping to chat with her students.

Reaching the Teacher's Room, she grabbed her tablet on her work table and started to scroll rapidly, searching for her old ebooks on history. "Found it!" She saw the book titles under her history folder, <Aztecs: An Interpretation (1991)> and <Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America (2001)>.

Hurrying back with her tablet, she found Dr. Sharon appeared to be staring into blank space, seemingly similar to how she found her the first time. "Doctor?" It felt like deja vu to her.

"Doctor?" Kristine called again and reached out to shake her after calling her a few times without any response. "Are you alright?"

Kristine shook Dr. Sharon's shoulder gently and the Doctor seemed startled by her touch. She turned from her seat and asked Kristine, "Ye-yes? Can I help you?"

-----

Somewhere in the Forest north of the Wreck

Sergeant Mills sat with the rest of his platoon, everyone spotting some kind of injury, watching the men of Bravo Company, Platoon 3 wrap explosive charges around the trunks of trees and roots.

"Clear! Fire in the hole!" A Sergeant from Platoon 3 yelled, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!"

A series of clumps echoed through the forest, and Mills feel the pressure wave slamming into his body despite being behind cover and over a hundred meters away. Loud snaps and cracking of wood could be heard and as Mills peered over his cover, he saw a small clearing had appeared.

Rays of sunlight flooded in, highlighting the drifting smoke and wood particles in the freshly created clearing. "Burn it all!" Someone yelled, and several magic circles could be seen formed by Marines who have some magic affinity and balls of fire rained onto the pile of broken tree trunks, roots, fallen leaves, and branches.

"Damn, this shit is gonna take some time to clear", as thick grey smoke erupted from the burning green wood and leaves, Mills cursed. "Well, at least we can have some form of communications and resupply."

The Lieutenant of Platoon 3, came up to Mills with a happy smile on his face, "Well, Sarge, once the clearing has burnt down, we can call in air support to evacuate you boys out of here."

Mills nodded, too tired and wounded to criticize the Lieutenant for burning the forest, which most likely the smoke will kill them off first before any monsters. The Lieutenant gave Mills a nod before he strutted off, yelling at his men.

"Well at least, in a couple of hours, we be on a nice warm bed," Mills sighed as he leaned back against the tree. He looked around his gathered men, mentally doing the butcher's list. His last stand have two deaths, leaving 11 heavily wounded men, but the search platoon had found another five Marines from his platoon scattered all over, three of them poisoned badly by the arrows and darts of the goblins, while the remaining two of the Marines got turned into Furballs, their cute little bleats catching the attention of the search parties.

They found three badly mangled bodies of Marines, killed in action by the Forest Troll, and two other MIA(Missing In Action), which Lieutenant Coraths was one of them. So total five KIAs, two MIAs, and seventeen survivors, all badly wounded, Mills thought to himself and cursed, "Fucking forest, fucking trees, and fucking 'Noob-tenants'!"

-----

Goblin Sea, The Floating Wreck

Elza and her classmates stepped into the main deck of the ship and instantly felt the suffocating heat and humidity of the area. She blushed as she saw the half-naked sweaty bodies crew of hoomans and elves working at the engines.

"Elza! This is crazy!" One of the boys cried as sweat started to form all over his body. His white uniform with a dark blue tie and dark blue pants started to get soaked with sweat and the humidity. "What can we do?" He loosened his tie as he stared with uncertainty at his surroundings.

Chief Matt climbed down the hatch behind them and said, "Can you guys cast a spell to at least blow air out?"

"I-I can do that, S-Sir!" A petite female student shyly raised her. Dressed in a naval like uniform, the girls wore a ribbon instead of a tie compared to the guys. She raised both her hands up and a magic circle formed, and she chanted the spell she wanted.

"Wait!" Chief Matt cried out, "What are you doing?"

Instantly a ball of visible wind appeared to gather before her glowing blue magic circle, the surrounding hot air got sucked in towards the ball of wind and she faced the opened gun ports. The swirling ball of air whipped the skirt of the girl wildly as the air was spinning around her, dropping the surrounding temperature, and the techs cheered and clapped.

"Gale!" The girl cried out and shot out the ball of hot air out and seconds later, it impacted the surface of the sea where a meter high water splash erupted. The girl teared and rubbed her hands frantically as the heat from the ball of air scorched her hands.

"Quick," Matt saw the girl's hand having gotten burnt by the heat, and swiftly grabbed her hands and dunked them into a nearby barrel of seawater. "It's gonna hurt but better than having boils and skin peeling off!"

The girl cried out in pain as the seawater burnt her scorched hands, but she slowly sighed as the water slowly cooled her painful burns. "Damn girl, that was stupid."

"Hey, get the medkit over here!" Chief Matt roared at the stunned techs, who quickly jumped into action, with several of them running like chickens with heads cut off. Matt sighed and turned to the pale faced students, "Well, I appreciate the help, but next time please tell me what you plan to do first. In an engine room, there are a lot of hazards, and we have to take safety precautions before rushing in to do anything."

The student nodded, as they stared wide-eyed at Matt. "Now, the temperature is just solved temporarily, we need a long term solution."

"Those spell formations you all drew on the beach," Matt asked, "Can you do something similar here?"

"The mist spells?" Elza asked, "It shouldn't be a problem. We just need to get our materials and we can set them up"

"Great!" Chief Matt grinned as he took one of the medkits offered by several of the techs, and scowled at them, "Why do you need eight people to grab one medkit? Back to your stations!"

The rest of the students went up to grab their materials while Matt sprayed burn lotion over the girl's hand and gently wrapped her hands up with bandages. "Alright, don't use your hands for the time being, once we are back, go see the doc."

"T-thank you, S-Sir!" The girl bowed and hurried off awkwardly.

"Chief!" The techs whispered, "Didn't know you are such a softie!"

"She's about the same age as my granddaughter," Chief Matt sighed, "A softie eh? I see... I haven't been around much due to all that paperwork, and now I'm getting too soft on you guys right?"

"Oh, no no no!" The techs all shook their head and they quickly disappeared to their stations not daring to show themselves.

Chief Matt shook his head at the antics of his men and grinned, while the students returned armed with sling bags filled with all manner of arcane components. "Ok, I think two of those formations should be enough, I want one here and one there." Matt pointed to two areas next to the engines.

Elza nodded and split her group into, and with the help of the techs, they cleared an area roughly 2 meters by 2 meters on the deck and started drawing on the wooden planks. "Can you just make it collect cold air instead of creating fog or mist?"

"I think we can if we just remove the spell for creating water and heating water," Elza said as they started to plan and draw on their notebooks the new formation.

It took them roughly 30 minutes which by then the temperature has rosed up again, making the students sweat and pant in the hot environment. "Done!" Elza called out as her team had finished the spell formation first followed by the other team.

The spell formations glowed and soon Matt felt the air turn cooler, and a thin mist appeared to form inside the deck, which slowly disappears away in the sea breeze.

"HA! I think I just invented a magical air conditioning system!"

177 - Decisions, Decisions...

UNS Singapore, Prison Deck

First Lieutenant Tavor of Naval Intelligence whistled a tuneless tone as he strolled deep within the bowels of UNS Singapore, clutching a briefcase. His slick polished boots making loud echos down the dim decks as he entered a restricted area. A checkpoint appeared, were five security officers sat behind an armored glass station and Tavor removed his sidearm and dropped it into an opening on the table before he scanned his palms and iris.

The armored hatch slid opened and Tavor gave a nod to the men inside the guard station before he stepped into a short corridor with metal detectors and chemical sniffers. The armored hatch closed and a yellow light blinked, followed by a computerized voice, "Please wait while we scan for any anomalies."

A short minute later, the yellow light switched to green, indicating all scans have been completed, "Please proceed and key in your access details."

Tavor tapped his login and password, and the computer timestamped and recorded his logged in access and verified his identity before the hatch at the end of the corridor opened. He exited the scanning corridor and he walked briskly towards the objective he was here for, as he headed deeper into the prison cell.

He stopped before a cell numbered '4' and keyed in his access codes, the armored door slide open, and 6 meters by 6 meters transparent cube, internally illuminated sat in the middle of the cell, directly below an anti-magic spell formation engraved into the cell floor.

A young girl sat on the bed, the only furniture in the prison cube, curled up like to ball, hugging her knees to her chest tightly as her long bushy brown hair covered her face messily like some horror movie actress. She sat there rocking to herself as Tavor stood there observing her actions.

Tavor walked over to an intercom set on a row of tables and monitor screens and hit the send key, "Hello? Can you hear me?"

The girl jerked up like she was shocked by electricity and she scrambled against the walls of the transparent cell, wrapping the blanket provided around herself and shivering wildly. "G-go go aw-away de... de-demons!"

-----

Goblin Sea

Chief Matt frowned as he looked at the spell formations on his deck, and had a nagging feeling in his head. "Elza!" He called out to the students who chatting away happily with the techs.

"Yes, Sir?" Elza hopped over the spell formation, her eyes shining with pride at her work.

"Can you explain how this works?" Chief Matt frowned as he looked at the formation, feeling he was missing something.

"Erm, the original formation was a three layer formation, the first layer collects heat from the surrounding, and the second layer formed water from the surrounding air, and lastly the last formation holds the gathered cold air and water together," Elza explained as she looked in confusion at Chief Matt's worried face. "The cold air touches the warm water and fog is formed."

"For this formation, we just removed the second layer and some parts of the third layer," Elza explained, "The heated air will be absorbed and cold air will be formed above the formation, thus colding the engines."

"Wait... if you removed the water creation portion, where does all the heat collected go?" Chief Matt looked worriedly at her.

"The heat? OH!" Elza looked up in horror, "The... manastones... they will gather all the heat..."

"SHUT THE SPELL FORMATIONS DOWN NOW!" Chief Matt yelled, "NOW!"

The students looked at Chief Matt in confusion, but luckily Elza jolted awake and she quickly followed Chief Matt's instructions, "Quickly stop the spells formations!" She knelt before the spell formations and pressed both her palms on the formation, channeling her magic into the spell, and cutting the magic conducts from the manastones powering the formation.

The glow of the spell formation faded and the heat slowly returned, but the two manastones used to power the spell formation continued to glow in a red hot manner with air shimmering over it.

"Don't touch that!" Chief Matt yelled, "You go grab some thermal insulation gloves and the laser thermometer." He ordered one of the techs who ran off bidding his order.

"Thank god we shut it down in time," Chief Matt gave a relieved sigh, "If the manastones overheat, it will explode. While the force of the explosion isn't very strong, it will still be deadly in a half enclosed area."

During the initial testings and experiments with mana stones, they had heated one of them till it blew up, destroying cameras and testing equipment with a TNT force of 5 kg for a single 200 grams piece of stone. But the temperatures required for it to go boom was over 750 degrees celsius!

"Alright, I think we need to rethink on this, the spells formation works, but we need some way to cool the manastones," Chief Matt said as he took the laser thermometer from the returned tech. "Wow, it reached almost 200 degrees celsius in like twenty minutes of operation."

"Hey Chief, the timber is burnt black," The tech wore the gloves and picked up the burning hot manastone. "Where do we put this?"

"See if there's a bucket of sand or seawater." Chief Matt replied. "Damn, I think we can jury rig it into some sort of steam engine for ships!"

"It can cool the engines, and at the same time create steam, which in turn can be used to generate electricity for the ship!" Chief Matt muttered to himself excitedly, "Oh my god, near infinite power! But the stones have limited power and have to be replaced. Damn..."

"Ok, boys! We are gonna come out with a way to cool the manastones!" Chief Matt roared at his crew, "Best idea gets one week off!"

"OOOOHHHH!" The techs all yelled and cheered in excitement and started discussing among themselves ways of cooling the stones, leaving the students bewildered.

-----

UNS Singapore, Prison Deck

Liz Regnar wrapped the blanket tightly around her thin frame, as she peered about wildly at the mirrored walls, only seeing her hundreds of her own frightened figure on the bed on all four sides of the walls. The harsh white lights made her crazy, as it was forever brightly lit and she lost all track of time, not knowing when was day or night, alone in this mirrored cell. The only way she could track time was by the meals given to her twice a day.

Now a godlike voice spoke from the ceilings, breaking her already fragile mental state. "Hello? Can you hear me?"

"No!" Liz yelled as she tried to bury herself deeper into the blankets, "It's just a voice in my head!"

"What is your name?" The voice spoke again. "Tell me your name!"

"I don't know anything! Go away!" Liz yelled again, "It's just a bad dream!"

"This is not a dream! You know it isn't! Now tell me your name!"

"It's not a dream?" Liz's eyes went wild with terror, "No! This is heaven or hell? Where am I?" She had tried to gather her magic but failed every time, and this time it was the same, making her feel small and useless, just like a normal person.

"Answer the question!" The lights suddenly went out, turning the cell pitch black and Liz screamed in terror. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!" A spotlight shone directly down at her, as she rolled up in a fetal position crying.

"E-Elizabeth Regnar..." Liz sobbed.

"Elizabeth Regnar, why are you with the Hero Dante?"

"I-I heard h-he was recruiting party members!" Liz replied, "I signed up and was chosen..."

"Who else was in the party with the Hero?"

"There was Stab... and Evelyn..."

-----

Lt Tavor leaned back from the console as he replayed the video of his interrogation of the girl mage. "Hmmm..."

He made some notes on his tablet as he reviewed all the data he has on both the prisoners and felt something was wrong and doesn't tally. Liz the girl mage had said the Hero Dante came here to subjugate the rebels by orders of the Emperor and were after Claymore One for kidnapping kids, while Evelyn the Archer said that the Hero was hired by the Adventurer's Guild to come to investigate Sawtooth Mountain Pass for traces of the rebels.

"So who is telling the truth?" He put both his booted feet up and observed the shaking curled up body of the girl in the cell. "Liz seemed too scared out of her wits to be lying. Or could both of them be telling the truth?"

He played back the video recording he had of Evelyn, and frowned, as he compared both girl's reactions. "Evelyn seemed more calm than Liz, despite the fear and confusion she has."

The way the prisoners were treated, with constant harsh white light, a mirrored cell, isolation, sleep deprivation, were all design to disorientate and confuse the mental state of the prisoners, making it easier for interrogation without the use of violence. Liz had completely broken down, while Evelyn seemed more... detached and confused, which was rather puzzling to Tavor, who thought that if someone were to hold out longer, it will be Liz the Mage as mages are supposed to have stronger will power, according to Magister Thorn.

He looked at the whimpering girl and felt nothing, to be honest. He was scouted straight into Naval Intelligent once he graduated from OCS on Earth. He was an orphan, growing up in one of Israel government-run orphanages before the war came, and the law stated that all males of a certain age group are required to serve the human race against the invaders, and also every one of age and both male and female in the orphanages was sent off to the military.

Tavor fairly well in Officer Cadet School, placing within the top twenty of his class. His instructors commented he was strong with languages including foreign cultures and has the ability to absorb a wide array of information and a great memory. Also, it helped that he has no family or ties to anyone.

He checked the medial reports from Dr. Sharon, going through their medical history, and found something about Evelyn appearing to be in a constant confused state once she regained consciousness. Dr. Sharon wrote that it might be due to the tranq shots given to her over a long period of time, causing her brain to suffer some minor amnesia.

Tavor watched the replay of the interrogation of the Evelyn girl, watching her every gesture and micro-expressions. One said the Hero is recruited by the Empire, the other said by the Adventurer's Guild, so let's say if both are telling the truth, does that means the Adventurer's Guild is under the control of the Empire?

If that is the case, it would actually not be a surprise as if I am in charge of an Intelligence network for a nation or empire, an Adventurer's Guild where people of all types and races gather for work, it will be the best place to gather information. Not to mention, even issuing secret missions to the unknowing adventurers to do dirty jobs under the guise of the Guild will be easy too! Tavor thought to himself, "Shit! There is at least one branch of Adventurer's Guild in every major town and city on this continent! Even the Isles have branches there!"

He frowned, tapping the console, what should we do about the two girls now that he sort of has an answer. The girl mage has power magic power, which will greatly help boost our magic capabilities, even if she does not goes to the front line and just serves as a teacher. As for the archer girl, unless she works as a hunter or trains the Marines in woodcraft, there wasn't much she could contribute to the Colony.

But are they worth the risk to try to recruit them? Or is it better to give them both a bullet in the head and an unmarked grave? What should I recommend to the Captain?

Decisions, decisions...

178 - Doctor Strange

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Kristine gently knocked on the door to Dr. Sharon's lab in the Academy, and gingerly pushed the door open. She saw the Doctor leaning over the glass containment unit, staring at the artifact without moving.

Kristine knocked harder on the door, and called out, "Doc?" She did not remember the Doctor to be so... strange. She briefly remembered the Doctor was quite famous for being geeky, always playing computer games during office hours in the med bay with her patients.

"Oh, Kristine, you are here," Dr. Sharon replied without turning, for some strange reason, she could feel the presence and identify the person who came in without seeing who was it.

"Classes for the day has ended, so I pop by to see if there's anything I could help with," Kristine replied timidly, as she looked at the back of Dr. Sharon.

"Thank you," Dr. Sharon finally took her eyes off the broken amulet and sat down on her chair. "I have been reading up on what God the Hummingbird of the Left. Seems like it is referring to the Aztec God of war, sun and human sacrifice, Huītzilōpōchtli." She pronounced the name as 'Whi-che-los-pon-chtli'.

"We might have a misconception here that Aztec Gods need daily sacrifices, most likely due to mainstream movies and shows, that mold our perception of the Aztecs as crazed worshippers of blood and death." Dr. Sharon said, "So far the two books you shared with me, shows another side of the story that we know of."

"But what we do know that most of the carvings on the amulets are 84% similar to the Aztec pictograms." Dr. Sharon added, "The question now is, why is an ancient Earth Civilization doing in a planet millions of light years away?"

"That is something I am not understanding too," Kristine replied carefully, "but so far we only have one incomplete piece of evidence, we need to find out more before we can come out with any concrete theory. If not its all just guesswork, we..."

Dr. Sharon appeared to tilt her head to the side like she was trying to listen to something. She put her hand up and stop Kristine's sentence as she narrowed her eyes. "Doctor?" Kristine looked with concern at Sharon.

"Wait," Dr. Sharon was trying to hear the voices in her head, but the banging of the drums muffled the words. She stood up and walked back to the containment unit and rested her forehead against the sapphire glass, and the words became clearer.

"-lmë nér edledhron..."

"What does that means?" Dr. Sharon whispered to the voice in her head.

"-Imë vanwa..."

"Dr. Sharon?" Kristine looked at the strange manner the doctor was displaying. "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, it's nothing..." Dr. Sharon straightened up, "Just voices in my head you know..."

"Eh ok," Kristine frowned and said in a concerned voice, "Doc, I think you need to take a break from work, I think you are pushing yourself too much. Yesterday you too were so unfocused that you have forgotten what we talked about!"

"Haiz..." Dr. Sharon sighed, "I want to, but there's just so many things going on. I have the hospital to handle, not to mention any critical cases, researches to do, voices in my head and now this."

"That's why you should take a couple of days off!" Kristine replied, "You are not an AI drone, even drones will break down without proper downtime! And you are so stressed and tired out that you are even hearing voices in your head!"

Kristine stood up and grabbed Dr. Sharon's shoulder and pulled up her and shooed her out of the lab. "Take the rest of the day off! Go back and get some proper sleep, or play games! Shoo!"

And like a mother hen, she shooed Dr. Sharon out of the lab and followed her down to the communal bus stop and ensured she left the campus than was Kristine satisfied. "Remember no work!" She called after the confused Dr. Sharon onboard the bus.

-----

Goblin Sea, The Floating Wreck

"If we put this spell formation back and with a container here and pipes installed," One of the techs were bending over a piece of drawing on the table. "We can use the heat released by the Transfer spell, and boil the water in the container, steam pressure will then be built up and collected and channeled to the turbines here, turning it and generating electricity."

"This way we can ensure that the mana stones don't reach critical mass!" The techs proudly showed off their collective work. "We harness the heat given off by the engines and transfer all that heat energy to boil water, thus creating steam to power the turbines which in turn gives us electricity and also cold air!"

"But this contraption only works in areas where there is plenty of waste heat. If not, it doesn't really work in any other environment." The tech doing the presentation explained.

"So this is just like a thermoelectric steam generator?" Chief Matt said while folding his arms over his chest. "Some sort of Seebeck generator?"

"Yes, we used the Seeback Effect for this concept," The techs replied carefully, wondering if the Chief would be happy with their work. "But in this case here, since we do not have a turbine or generator, we can just use the transferred heat to boil the water to get rid of the heat energy and the pipes acts as a funnel for the steam to escape."

"What do you think?" Chief Matt turned and looked at the quiet girl beside him. "Think you can edit the spell formation again?"

"Erm..." Elza folded one arm under her chest and the other tapping the side of her head. "I think so, we just have to ensure the Transfer spell for moving the heat is set up correctly. If not the heat will not be able to boil the water in the container."

"We might need to run a few trials to ensure it is correct," Elza said.

"No problem," Chief Matt replied. The paddle wheels so far were working splendidly, giving them a constant speed of 3 knots, as they did not want to overheat the engines. "Boys! You will help measure and ensure everything is perfect!"

"Aye Chief!" His crew roared out happily, glad that their design works.

"Everyone here gets a week off when we return! Good work!" Chief Matt grinned, "But only if we can complete our makeshift Seebeck Steam Generator! Now get to work!"

"Aye Aye Chief!" The crew quickly grabbed and dragged the stunned students down in the warm decks below, and they started to work on the spell formation again while the crews started jury-rigging makeshift containers and pipes.

-----

The Colony

Dr. Sharon rested her head against the window of the new model bus. The original electronic motored half tracks that used to be running the bus routes were replaced by the Dragonite powered aero-engined buses. An exposed radiator poked out from the bonnet of the bus while the small propeller fan, blew against the engine as it roared and clanked.

The bus was far noisier than the electronic half-tracks, which made virtually no sounds except for the harsh scraps of its metal tracks. The wheels of the bus were made out of bodies of dried Black Slime and sounds of something sticking against the paved road could be constantly heard.

Dr. Sharon sighed, missing Earth and the convenience of modern technology. The air in the bus was warm, despite the windows were rolled down. There were a few other passengers onboard, but they looked absolutely fascinated by the moving scenery and the bus to be bothered by all the minor details.

The voice in her head was surprisingly quiet as if it was asleep, but Dr. Sharon had a nagging suspicion that each time she was close to some modern technology stuff, the voices in her head appeared to quieten down a lot, but if she was with stuff from this world, it chatters non stop.

And when she was closer to the magical amulet, the strength and volume of the voice in her head gets louder, clearer and even comes accompanied by tribal drums. What the hell is going on?

She had spoken with Magister Thorn roughly about bodies or souls taken over by another entity, but Thorn has no idea of such topics for he isn't well versed in spirit magic, nor does he have any books or scrolls with knowledge on them. Even when she tried to repeat the words she heard to Thorn, he couldn't identify nor understand them, leading to her keeping quiet to the whole ordeal.

Maybe Kristine was right, she does need to take a break and just rest, and catch up to her games that she had been neglecting for weeks! She smiled to herself happily, thinking of what games to play later, RPG? FPS? or city building sim?

-----

Goblin Sea, The Floating Wreck

"Chief Matt! We present to you... the Seebeck Steam Generator Mark 1!" The techs grinned happily and in excitement despite the hot and sweaty environment. Even the students were grinning widely having been infected by their enthusiasm and energy.

"Alright, people quiet down!" Chief Matt roared over the excited voices. "Let's test it out!"

Elza nodded to one of her classmates who knelt down and injected his magic into the formation. A couple of techs started to pour buckets of seawater into a large metal box container which was used to store some equipment. It was suspended over a wooden table with a large hole remove from the tabletop and once it was filled they closed the lid and secured the lid with a heavy wooden plank. A couple of hoses recycled from the water pumps were attached to the sides of the makeshift water tank.

As the spell formation started to glow and the mana stones lit up, the air started to cool, and the men cheered, as they watched with barely concealed glee in their eyes. "Bring us up to half speed!" Chief Matt ordered.

The techs in charged of the engines, nodded and engaged the gears, switching gears and increasing the speed of the paddle wheels. The sounds of churning water grew louder and ship prowled forward, riding the waves as paddle wheels sped up.

"5 knots and holding!" Someone yelled down from the top hatch.

"Let it run!" Chief Matt ordered as they watched the engines and the spell formation. "Check the engine and the mana stones' temperatures"

"Engines holding at 119.7 degree celsius but dropping!" The tech with the laser thermometer cried, "Stones looking at around 89.4 degrees and climbing fast! 95.2, 99.6, 103.1, 107.5..."

"Keep observing!" Chief Matt ordered. "What's the temperature in the water tank?"

"Erm, looks like it's at 76.3 degrees and climbing." One of the techs checked the jury-rigged thermometer recycled from the engine for the water pump.

"Mana stones' temperature holding at 137 to 138 degrees!" A tech reported, "Engines temperature holding at 103.6 degrees!"

"Good!" Chief Matt grinned, "Now time to do an endurance test! Run the engines at half speed for an hour, I want to 5 minutes checks on the temperatures of both the engines and the stones! Clear?"

"Aye Chief!"

-----

The Colony, Residental Zone

Dr. Sharon flopped down on her chair and powered up her computer on her desk in her assigned apartment. It had a living room, and three bedrooms, and a kitchenette. One of the rooms she converted it into her work area, one as a guest and storage room, and the master bedroom she used for her self.

Most of the furniture was simple fabricated pieces, with a few locally made wooden pieces like the dining table set. She swept open the curtains, and opened the windows, letting in the fresh air and natural light. She has not returned to her apartment for the past few days, sleeping either on her office couch or hospital bed.

"Finally time for some games!" She grinned as she booted up her game menus.

"Mana tyalië...?"

"URGHHH!!!"

179 - Welcome To The (Concrete) Jungle

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

"Here are the full detailed reports of the interrogation of the two prisoners," Lieutenant Tavor handed over two files onto Blake's desk after he finished summarizing the details with the Captain in his office, with the XO in attendance.

"Sir, the effects of the interrogation might cause some side efforts to the prisoners, while I personally think that the Mage will be more useful in boosting our magical sector, the Archer could also help with other fields like hunting, tracking, forestry, and woodcraft," Tavor said. "The chances of recruiting either one of them frankly aren't very high. In fact, I think there might even be some negative backlash."

"It is also not advisable to release them should they reject our offers of recruitment," Tavor continued, "While we have to take note that, we did kill the Hero after all, and they might have emotional attachments to the Hero."

"Meaning?" Blake raised an inquisitive eyebrow up.

"Revenge, or hatred to our cause," Tavor replied simply. "They might take things to another level, which will implicate our operations and survival."

"Your suggestions?" Blake leaned back on his chair as he waited for Tavor to reply.

"Execute them," Tavor said coldly, "Saves us the trouble in the future."

"Cold-blooded murder?" Commander Ford snorted, "Where are our morals if we take that path? Are we degrading ourselves to murderers and cutthroats?"

Tavor gave a shrug, "It's the best case scenario for us, with the after efforts of the interrogation, we do not even know how their mental states will be like."

"Even if we do not execute them," Tavor continued, "Are we just going to release them back to the nearest town? If yes, what if they leaked out information on us?"

"Did you not ensure there was no information leaked to them and they were totally isolated in the cells?" Ford narrowed his eyes as he refuted Tavor's points.

"Yes, but they have battled with the Hundred and First ATI, and Eagle Company," Tavor replied, "They have some inkling of our combat capabilities, which if they were to be taken by any Imperial agent, they can disclose quite a bit of information regarding our weapons."

"But our weapons have already been exposed to hundreds and thousands of Imperial soldiers already!" Ford argued. "What difference does it makes?"

"A lot, Sir!" Tavor turned looked at Ford. "For one, the girl Mage is well versed in magic, almost at the level of Magister Thorn or even stronger in terms of combat magic. She fundamentally understands that our weapons are either a magic artifact or of a non-magical construct."

"Next, should they reappear back at any town or city, they can incite negative feelings towards us, which will be bad in the long run, should we attempt to form any contacts with anyone," Tavor said. "They can also be used as a propaganda tool against us by the Empire for killing the Hero, this will, of course, be a demerit to us, should we want to cause internal strife within the Empire."

"Lastly, I refer to the main reason of executing them again," Tavor added, "Should they decided to take revenge on us, it will only add more to our plate, which frankly is quite full."

"I understand, Lieutenant," Blake gave out a long sigh, "Killing them gives us bad karma, not killing them might lead to having troubles in the future while recruiting them, we might be rearing a poisonous viper in our house."

"Ford, thoughts?" Blake asked the XO.

"Sir, Lieutenant Tavor gave us good points regarding them, but to convene an execution of prisoners goes against our code of law," Ford frowned. "There is no concrete justification to kill them."

"As Tavor has interrogated them, both of them only joined the Hero's party for a year or so, and neither of them believes they are on the side of evil. There is a high chance they were duped by the Adventurer's Guild if the Guild is actually secretly controlled or is working with the Empire!"

Tavor had also reported his suspicions on the origins of the Adventurer's Guild, stating that they might be part of the Empire or has sided with the Empire.

"If that is the case, thousands of Adventurers were unknowingly working for the Empire's agendas, which makes them all victims of fraud!" Ford said. "How can we just execute two girls duped into working with the Empire unknowingly on the charges of becoming future problems which might not even happen!"

"I see..." Blake rubbed his glabella as he thought how troublesome this issue turned out to be. "We hold them for a period first. Let's give them the carrot first and see how it goes from there onwards."

"Tavor, put your best men over watching the two of them," Blake ordered, "Well, Commander Ford has his points, you have yours too and I believe its better to be safe than sorry. Watch them carefully, any signs of aggressive, you are authorized to use deadly force, but I do not want to see you taunting and forcing their hand. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Sir!" Tavor nodded.

"Dismissed!" Blake said, satisfied with Tavor's work. "Good job by the way."

After Tavor left the office, Ford frowned and said, "Sir, isn't that a bit too heavy-handed?"

Blake raised his hand, stopping Ford from continuing, "If we can reduce the number of deaths in the future by cutting off the root now, why not?"

"But sir!" Ford argued, "Have we fallen so low?"

"It's not a matter of falling so low or about laws and codes of conduct," Blake replied as he stared at Ford with steel in his eyes, "We got pushed around too much and it's about time to do something about it!"

"I understand Sir," Ford gave in, "But we still need to hold on to our morals, or we become like them, cold-blooded barbarians and killers."

"Welcome to the Navy, XO..."

-----

The Colony

Kage Whitetail glued her face against the super clear glass windows, sans the oily prints of her palms and face. She stared wide-eyed at the massive walls, which seemed to be made out of a single piece of stone, like a mountain.

The bus she was in carried a batch of the freed slaves as they are transported to the city after their quarantine period was over and for the first time, Kaga saw the Capital of the so-called rebels and demon worshippers.

The mountain-like walls spread as far as the eye could see, while the height was so great that she had to crane her neck all the way up to see the tops as the bus entered a tunnel-like entrance. The strange and magical white lights lit up the interior of the tunnel entrance, where what appeared to be a simple red and white striped barrier blocked the way into the city.

She stared curiously outside the bus intently, seeing strange stripes of black and yellow colored bands lining the floors while guards in the smart-looking black uniforms entered the bus and did a quick check before he disembarked. The red and white striped barrier was then raised and the bus was waved through.

The driver drove the bus forward, heading towards the bright light at the end of the tunnel and Kaga looked shocked as they came out of the walls and saw a sprawling city with structures that boggled her mind.

In the beast city, she lived in, the buildings cannot be taller than the Priestess's Tower which was already an impressive five stories tall. The buildings and stone towers she saw here, were shaped in rectangular blocks with boxy shapes jutting out at intervals, while some the walls were made out of glass totally!

She knew that building a tower more than three story high takes a lot of work and craftsmanship, not to mention the cost, as stronger and better material is required for the foundations and sometimes, magic is used to strengthen the whole building. What she saw here, were like dozens and dozens of buildings over five or even ten stories tall! How did they do it?

The exit of the tunnel was on the top of the slope, allowing Kaga and the people in the bus to ogle at the city as the area around the walls were large fields growing a variety of crops. There were even herds of Muffalos and giant Pico-pico birds mingling around the grassland. As they travel towards the city, there was another curtain wall, but smaller and shorter, likely only three-story tall surrounding the area providing an internal line of defense should the main walls be breached, which Kaga highly doubt it was possible to do so.

In the far distance, Kaga noticed a massive strange looking grey white structure glittering in the sun that appeared to be built into the sides of a mountain range.

"Welcome to the Colony, or as the locals called it the City!" A voice suddenly was heard coming from somewhere on the bus. The people, including Kaga, were not as frightened as the first time they heard a voice coming out from a black box in the camp.

"You have just passed by the Main Walls of the city and are now within the Agricultural District. This is just a small part of the City's farms, the others are all spread out over the North Eastern Sector."

"Next, we are coming up to the Inner Defensive Walls. This walls provide an internal line of defense and also includes bomb raid shelters for citizens to take shelter should there be an attack on the City. There are also bomb shelters located within the City for everyone to take shelter." The strange female voice cheerfully said. "Your personnel orientation officer will guide you along with more information should you wish to enquire."

"The City is divided into 6 Main Districts which are further divided into sub-districts. You have just seen the Agricultural District, which has 4 sub-districts, namely, North, South, East, and West. We have a Commercial District which is divided into North and South, the Industrial District where all our factories and workshops are located.

"You are now entering the Residential District 2. There are three Residential Districts from 1 to 3, each capable of housing up to six thousand people. We are now heading towards the Central Business District located at the very center of the City to do the in processing of the start of your new life here with us!"

The people in the bus stared at the neat and tidy streets, where magic wagons like the 'bus' they were on zipped passed them, and other magic wagon carried huge loads of goods on their backs drove along the streets.

The bus stopped at a road, before a strange red rune hanging from a pole. Kage realized that the red runes must be meaning stop, as she saw other wagons speeding off across them and similar runes hung over a bent pole were showing a green glow.

How amazing! Thought Kaga, as she looked at the orderly way the wagons moved and the people on the streets that crossed the road. The roadside stalls and buildings looked vibrant and colorful. There was no rubbish on the streets nor beggars sitting around. Everyone was dressed in colorful clothing and they looked fat and happy.

"To your right, you will be able to see the Castle of Iron, that is where Captain Blake, Lord Governor-General to the City lives. We are now entering the Central Business District. Up ahead you will see the City Hall, where your identity card, work, and living permits will be issued to you."

A grand looking stone grey building sat at the center of a massive square that has a beautiful water fountain in the middle where several people sat on the benches relaxing or having lunch. The bus followed the roundabout and stopped before the steps of City Hall and the doors slid open with a loud hissing sound.

"Thank you, hope you enjoy your new life here! Have a nice day!"

180 - My Soul!

The Colony, City Hall

Kaga stepped down from the red bus and looked around in wonder. Stone buildings towered all over the huge plaza, with the lone fountain in the middle, large enough for have more than a thousand people to gather.

"People from Group 9! Please gather here!" A girl voice could be heard calling over the gawks and voices of awe in the crowd.

Kaga turned and saw a girl dressed in a long-sleeved white blouse with a red ribbon underneath a dark blue vest and blue skirt with blue side hat on her ginger head tied in a short ponytail. She waved a small triangular red flag on a stick, calling for people from Group 9 in Common Tongue. Kaga remembered she and the people in the same bus were from Group 9 and she walked up to join the group gathering before her.

-----

Billye of Tinstreet Orphanage from Falledge also known as Billy the Kid stood on a couple flights of steps bearing a wide smile that started to make her jaw cramp. She waved a little red flag and called out again in Common, "Please gather here people from Group 9! Please..."

Finally, some people finished gawking around started to gather before her, she had to stand on the steps to be able to look over their heads at the small crowd. "I need to count the number of people before I bring you in! Please stay together and do not wander off!"

Billy sighed inwardly as half of the people were either ignoring her or just too awed by their surroundings. She resisted the urge to scratch her stockings as her legs itched and the unaccustomed new uniform she was wearing. So far she started this job as an administrative assistant for almost 2 5-days weeks while studying Eng-ish lessons during the evening. Luckily her seniors here were kind and helpful to her, but she was just not used to being feminine again after fighting for scraps so long in the gutters.

"People! Please line up..." She called out, again and again, her temper starting to rise.

"HEY!" Billy couldn't stand it anymore, a vein popped in her head. "GROUP 9! Please line up properly!" She yelled loudly at the crowd who looked shocked at the little girl shouting at them before they obediently lined up before her. "I need to count heads! Can't you all listen to instructions!"

The group of people blushed in embarrassment as passersby giggled and laughed at the scene of a little girl holding a tiny flag and scolding a bunch of grown-ups.

"Billye!" Another girl dressed in the same manner panted as she ran down the steps, "Sorry, there was a meeting that dragged on longer than expected! I..." The girl paused as she saw the group of chastened looking newcomers all obediently lined up. "You managed to control... the crowd all by your self?"

"Roxy..." Billy's face turned sheepish, "Tee hee... I just accidentally raised my voice a bit..."

"Hahaha," Roxy laughed and patted Billy's head, "Well, good work! Let's get them in processed then!"

"Okay, I counted, everyone is here!" Billy smiled, quite liked the feeling of warmth from Roxy. "Group 9 follow us and PLEASE! Do not wander off!" She gave a glare for good measure to the group and together with Roxy at the rear, led the whole group of newcomers up the stairs and into City Hall.

-----

Kaga gave a small smile as she suddenly recalled why the little girl looked so familiar, it was the wounded child she helped carried during their run in the forest! She must have recovered and is now working here. Maybe she should find some time to catch up with her later.

Passing by the massive round stone columns, they entered the massive double wooden doors of the City Hall and saw a large bustling hall, with several doors that led somewhere. A row of counters with the same blue uniforms the two guides were wearing sat behind the tables and were serving people seated on chairs.

A large strange magical board hung over the counters will periodically change runes with a chime, and someone seated on the rows of chairs laid out on one side of the hall will then walk up to an empty counter. Kaga was then given a square chit, with some strange runes drawn on it, and looked up as Billy explained.

"This is a queue number! Each of you is given one!" Billy turned and pointed to the huge magical board hung above the counters. "When your turns come, a matching number will be soon on that board, as long as your queue number matches with that, head towards the correct counter!"

"If you do not understand the numbers or runes, just match them!" Billy continued to explain, "On each counter has a number too! The board will show you which counter to go to! Remember, just match your queue number with the board, and match the counter number shown and head to that counter. You can seat there while waiting for your number to be called!" Billy pointed to the rows of chairs on the side.

"If there is anything you are not sure of, please feel free to ask!" Billy said and was almost immediately bombarded with questions and she almost instantly regretted.

"What magic is this?"
"What are we doing here?"
"Where's the toilet?"
"I'm hungry!"
"Where do we sleep?"
"..."

Kaga found an unoccupied chair and sat down, observing each and everything in the hall. Suddenly she saw a group of short-eared people, and she tensed up slightly, remembering the two strange short-ears that appeared at the camp and tried to capture her soul! But she slowly relaxed again as the short-ears did not appear to be after her and the people around them, making her question if the rumors of demons are true.

She watched the short-ears carefully, observing their every movement and manners, feeling like they were very similar to the long ears, making her fluffy ears twitch. Who built all these? Could it be the demons? If so, they must possess very powerful elemental magic to raise stone walls and buildings!

Time passed unnoticed as Kaga was concentrated on observing her surroundings, seeing new things and wonders while the board chimed, and Kage saw the exact same runes with her 'queue number' and another rune next to it.

She quickly recognized the rune to one of the counters bearing the same rune and she walked up nervously and stood before a cheerful looking middle aged lady. "Oh my, a beast man! Take a seat, dear." She spoke in Common.

Kaga gingerly sat down, her tail and ears erect as she nervously stared at the uniformed lady. "Don't be nervous, you are here to fill in some information and we will assign you a place and offer you jobs and education courses."

"There will also be an orientation for you to attend, so you get to know the City better." The matronly lady smiled, putting Kaga feel slightly at ease.

"Now, please put your hand here, on this Truth Stone," The matronly lady said, "What is your name, dear?"

"Ka-Kaga Whitetail..." She replied as she stared at the stone with her right hand on it. The stone gave off a warm feeling and glowed slightly, while the lady nodded as she appeared to use her fingers to press on something rapidly on the table, giving off tapping sounds.

"Age? Hmm... 19 you say? Where were you born? Parents? Siblings? Previous occupation?" The questions continued coming. "As in what did you work as before?"

"Eh... I was... the Guardian Priestess of the City of Beast..." Kaga truly spoke out, knowing that she couldn't lie with a Truth Stone in her hand.

"Oh my, you are the Guardian Priestess?" The matronly lady eyes widen and she rubbed her forehead, "This is above my pay grade... Please on hold..."

The administrative lady got up and walked to a table at the back, and picked up a strange looking handle that has some curly strings linked to it and seemed to press on the surface of the strange object.

Kaga's eyes widened and her ears and tail stood straight up as her heightened hearing clearly hear the lady speaking to someone on it! What demonic sorcery is that! She couldn't understand what she was talking about as they seemed to be speaking in another language that she recognized it to be like what the people were saying that they need to learn.

Less then a turn of the glass, the lady returned and smiled, "So sorry, dear, to keep you waiting, but I informed the higher-ups about your situation and they will be here to talk to you, but let's continue registering you first into the system!"

Kaga looked suspiciously at her, and wonder should she make a run for it. "Hehehe, dear girl, don't be so nervous, now, what skills do you have? Magic? Combat? Knowledge?"

"I am skilled in the use of Spirit Magic, I should be considered a 6th Circle Mage by your standards." Kaga replied, "I am also well versed in divination and protection formations." She also listed out several fields of thought she had studied.

"Wow, a 6th Circle Mage at your age?" The lady was clearly impressed, "Good, good, we need more people of your caliber!" She appeared to rap on the table rapidly, producing more of those tapping sounds as she looked to the side at something, driving the level of curiosity of Kaga higher and higher, making her ears twitch madly.

"Erm... If you d-don't mind..." Kaga couldn't stand not knowing what the lady was doing, "What are you doing tapping on the table?"

"Oh? Hahaha," The lady laughed and gestured Kaga to lean over the counter. "You are a curious one ain't you?" She showed Kaga a piece of a flat black rectangular object with tiny squares laid out in rows on the surface with runes drawn on each square.

"This is a 'keyboard', we press the keys to type in the words we want into the 'corn-pu-er'," She explained as she showed Kaga a glowing display screen on the side filled with more strange runes. She held a strange black oval object and clicking sounds could be heard and Kaga saw something glowing on the screen and the lady demonstrated by tapping on the 'key-bore' and runes appeared like magic on the screen.

Kaga ears and tail twitched madly as she looked at the way the 'corn-pu-er' worked and resisted the urged to ask more. The lady laughed at her expression and kindly said, "Don't worry, you will learn more when you start attending classes."

"Now look here," The lady pointed to a boxy object with a round shiny circle in the middle. "Smile!"

Kaga gave an awkward smile, looking directly at the strange object, wondering what is it when suddenly she remembered seeing something very very similar to it. But it was smaller compared to what those two weird short-ears were holding... But could it be the same? It can capture your soul?

A click sounded and the lady giggled, "My dear, you looked so stiff! Now I need your fingerprint and a drop of your blood into the Truth Stone and we will be mostly done!"

"What is that thing?" Kaga asked pointing to the camera. "Does it capture your soul?"

"Hahaha, where did you hear that from, my dear?" The lady giggled again, "You are so cute!"

Kaga blushed as it was the first time someone called her cute, "But.. but..."

"Hehehe, don't worry, it just takes a photo of you," The lady smiled and took her hand gently, and pressed it against a piece of silvery-looking pad. "Don't move your finger yet. Ok, the other fingers..."

Next, she took one of Kaga's finger and placed before the Truth Stone and there was a tiny prick of pain and a drop of blood landed on the surface of the Stone, making it glow. "Ow, what did you do?"

"I need a drop of your blood to register with the Truth Stone," The lady replied. There was a strange whining noise and the lady smiled, "And we are done!"

She handed over a small stack of papers and a small rectangular card, "Here are some brochures for you to read on, and this is your Identity Card! Don't lose this! There is a fine if you do!"

Kaga looked down at the card and gasped in shock as a perfect looking image of herself was posted on it!

"MY SOUL!"

181 - Home

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor

A long moanful wail of a foghorn blasted out from the lighthouse at the end of the pier, as a sailless ship approached. Workers paused in their work as they looked at the ship with two strange contraptions on its sides slowly came in to dock with the pier.

"Dead slow astern!" Chief Matt yelled as they approached parallel to the pier. "Keep her steady!"

The paddlewheels slowly came to a stop before they started to reverse directions, churning the sea with splashes of whitewash. The crews on the deck tossed out mooring ropes to the surprised looking workers on the pier, who quickly grabbed the ropes as the Harbor Master came panting down the pier, yelling happily, "They're ours! Our ship!"

"Stop all engines!" Chief Matt roared, as the ship's speed slowed to a crawl and the noisy rumbling engines died down and the turning paddle wheels stopped their movement.

The crew onboard yelled and cheered loudly as the ship came to rest against the pier. "We are home!"

"Good work, people!" Chief Matt grinned as he watched the men and women hugging each other and cheering. "Drop the gangway! Division leaders to ensure their areas are properly secured and equipment powered down and prepped for transportation!"

"Chief Matt! Permission to come onboard?" a voice called out from the lowered gangway and Matt saw Commander Ford standing there with his staff. He quickly came down the helm and saluted the Commander.

"Sir! Welcome onboard The Floating Wreck!" Chief Matt greeted the XO who returned his salute before saluting the flag tied to the mast. "Apologies for not having a welcome party, Sir!"

"It's ok, the Captain sent me over to take a look at how the Harbor was progressing when we receive word of your return," Ford grinned, "Looks good."

"Well, the Islanders do know how to build a ship," Chief Matt said, "It was built pretty solid, but we might need to rebrace certain portions of the ship."

He gestured to the paddle wheels, "While R and D are still coming out with a proper screw propulsion system, we have to make do with these first. And also better bracing for the engines and a more sturdy design for the paddle wheels. Luckily the sea is calm enough to not break the wheels. I will seriously advise till we have a steel frame for the wheels, not to go out to the deep sea."

Ford nodded as he looked at the busy crew carrying crates and containers of equipment out on the hold. A portable power crane on the pier was rumbling its way over on the tracks on the pier, to help unload the equipment. "I heard you guys had some breakthrough in so steam power system?"

"Oh yes!" Chief Matt grinned, "Well, the kids that Magister Thorn sent over are not bad at all, we managed to work out a simple system with their fog creation spell formation to create a sort of Seebeck power generator."

Matt led the party down the hatch and into the main decks where the original ballistas were removed and replaced by two occult looking shrines like contraptions. Magic runes covered a small area while a water tank stood on thin flimsy looking stands with two metal pipes looking like arms poked out from the tank. Dials and more runes covered the surface of the water tank while mana stones sat on certain points on the magic formation.

"What is this?" Ford looked at the strange design.

"Basically, this spell formation absorbs hot air, turning it into heat energy and transfers it into the water tank, boiling the water, and steam comes out of the pipes," Chief Matt explained, "Since we didn't have any turbines generators, we just let the steam out from the sides of the ship."

"The radial engines will overheat if we do not come out with something to cool them, and luckily, we managed to come out with something like this, that will allow us to not waste the heat energy," Chief Matt smiled at the ugly looking generator. "It's not pretty but it works and can also function as a generator and thermal sink, but its only good for areas with high temperature, if not the power output will be low."

"Nice, very nice," Ford nodded and patted Chief Matt on his back, "Always coming up with thing amazing, Chief!"

"Well, its either getting it to work or we are rowing home," Matt laughed. "It's design still needs to be properly refined, but once its up, we should be able to have a more efficient design that can work as air conditioning and thermal generator for engine rooms, which can also provide hot water, cool air, and power. It's like killing three birds with one mana stone!"

"Work on it," Ford replied, "Once the dry docks are properly constructed, we will move The Floating Wreck over for a full structural breakdown and check up before we get it repaired and refitted."

"Most likely we will plate the hull with a layer of steel, should increase her top speed by a few knots, rebrace the internal structure for steel paddle wheels and strengthen and up-armor the hull and structure for the new 3" guns that Ordinance is working on. Modernize the ship, slap in some proper navigation gear and steering, and we got our selves a nice little Corvette." Ford laid out the plans for the ship to Matt.

"The Islanders will also deliver a couple of their own ships to us, which we will do a for 3D scan, and we will try to reverse engineer them while putting in our own touches, hopefully, within six months we can learn how to build proper ships, either paddle powered or screw powered." Ford said, "And also have our own small fleet of mosquito boats ready in time for the Goblins annual sea festival!"

"Pretty ambitious don't you think?" Matt said as he listened to Ford's words. "Six months?"

"Captain wants to at least have another ship, at least a corvette size by end of this year's winter," Ford said, "But I told him unless he plans to scrap only one of the ships the Islanders are trading to us, then yes, we could have another ship to be retrofitted to at least more modern standards."

"But Intel gauges that the Islanders most likely will give us their oldest ships that most likely barely can float their way here," Ford said, "So depends on what we get, we see how it goes."

"The Floating Wreck definitely will not set sail alone," Ford continued, "Even with modern guns, there's no way a single ship can handle hundreds of goblin ships. so either we built a new ship out, or its gonna stay within range of the new coastal defenses we are planning along Far Harbor."

"The PT boats that we are designing wouldn't be able to handle the high seas, nor do they have the range to hit Goblin City," Ford added, "So till we have some experience building large ships, and tenders for them, the PT boats will be assigned to coastal defense and short-range patrols around Far Harbour."

"I see," Matt nodded, "Well, Sir, I think we better go top side, I need to check on my guys to make sure they are not slacking!"

"Alright, Let's go," Ford reclimb the steps back up the decks. "Good work bringing back this ship, Matt, tell your boys and girls that!"

-----

The Colony, City Hall

Kaga felt her brain was functioning and not functioning at the same time. The past few hours were like an unlimited buffet of information dump and culture shock that overloaded her mind. She sat there on one of the chairs with her head leaning against the backrest, mentally drained.

"Kaga?" A soft voice called out, shaking her shoulder gently. "Are you okay?"

"Haa??" Kaga whimpered, "Nooo... my brain hurts!" Her ears flattened against her head and she squeezed her eyes closed while covering her ears with her hands. "No more information!"

Billy stood there confused, wondering what had happened to Kaga in the meeting room with the higher-ups that made her this way. "Erm... I was told to bring you to your apartment, we will be housemates from today onwards!"

"LALALALALAA...." Kaga mumbled to herself, "I can't hear you~ Lalalalalala~"

Billy frowned and shook Kaga again, "Hey wake up!"

"Lalalala...."

A vein popped in Billy's head and she shook Kaga more vigorously, "HEY!"

"Ahhhh..." Kaga cried, "So giddy..."

"Heavens..." Billy sighed, "Am I gonna have someone like this as my roommate?" She lamented her luck.

"Why did you shake me..." Kaga rubbed her head and said in a hurt voice. "Wait, it's you!"

"Hmm?" Billy frowned, "You know me? Is it because I was your guide this morning?"

"No, no," Kaga hopped up from the chair, "I carried you in the forest when we were running away from the Hero!"

"Huh?" Billy rubbed her head, "I am sorry, I can't remember much of what happened in the forest when I woke up I was on the back of the little golem."

Kaga gave her a hurt look and she lowered her head sadly, sniffling, "... sob... I thought you would remember me...sob..."

"Eh..." Billy sighed, "Ok, ok, I am sorry, but thank you for saving me! And now we are housemates!"

"Housemates?" Kaga gave a confused look, "what is that?"

"Oh, we will be staying in the same apartment," Billy grinned, "They assigned you to be with me!"

"I see, but what is an 'a-pa-men'?" Kaga asked, her ears twitching in curiosity.

-----

The Colony, Residental District 3

The red bus with a number 3 dropped both Kaga and Billy off at a bus stop with a sign that said, 'Street 13'.

"Remember. only bus number 3 comes in here, and press the bell when you see the sign 'Street 13'!" Billy explained to Kaga, "Now once you're off the bus, follow this street and the next block will be the apartment you be staying at!"

"Eh... okay," Kaga looked up, down, left, right at her surroundings curiously, constantly turning her head to stare at something strange and asking, "What's that?"

"That's the rubbish bins," Billy sighed, feeling mentally drained as she kept explaining things to her throughout the bus ride. "Later I teach you more."

Kaga craned her head up staring the large blocky stone buildings towering into the skies, there were dozens spread out with perfect streets and roads between them. Patches of blue-green grass patches covered the lawns while what appeared to be gardens or parks were placed here and there among the towers.

As the evening softly settled in and the sky turned purplish red, street lamps lit up, casting a bright orange glow around the area, and the towers lit up with lights, turning the whole scene like some wonderous mage city told in stories. Kaga stood still and took in her surroundings in wonder as she watched people walking around the streets, children running without care around the parks and gardens while heading home and the wondrous magic wagons driving up and down the streets.

"Come on, stop gawking like some country bumpkin!" Billy teased, "We are almost home!"

Kaga followed Billy to a stone tower, where a large rune sign was posted on the side of the tower's walls. "We are in Block 6A, the seventh floor, unit number is 0, 7, 0, 9! Please remember!"

Kaga followed Billy into the brightly lit entrance and saw a flight of stairs that lead up while a couple of double doors were facing them on the other end. Billy held Kaga's hand and pulled her along, leading her to one of the double doors and press a strange looking rune on the wall. "Press this if you want to go up," Billy explained.

"What is this?" Kaga asked as she bent over to observe the strange looking square rune that looks like an arrow pointing upwards.

"Its an 'air-le-vater'", Billy replied, "Look its here." A chime rang and the doors suddenly slid open with a soft rumble, surprising Kaga greatly, as a very small room appeared.

"Come on," Billy strolled in and pulled Kaga in, and press and rune on a surface filled with many others. "Remember this is the number 7!"

The doors slid close and Kaga shivered and felt trapped. The small room suddenly rumbled and shook slightly, making her jumped and hug Billy tightly.

"Are we going to die?"

182 - Running and Choices

The earth shook as creatures and monsters of all types stampeded through the thick foliage. The weak and slow creatures were trampled over by other larger and faster creatures as they fled from the disaster happening behind them. Fires roared and the wood cracked as forest raged with flames, fueled by the dry grass and trees during the hot summer months.

A fiendish red dragon rolled around in a raging patch of flames in the middle of the scorched forest, enjoying the waves of heat emitted by the surrounding forest fires. It breathed in the scorching hot air, feeling the burning hot air in its lungs and it gave out a sigh of contentment. "I love the smell of flames in the morning!" It roared happily while rolling about, scattering ashes and embers into the hot air.

Creatures fled with their eye whites showing in terror and made their escape from the burning forest, screaming in fear and some even choked to death from the smoke of the flames, while others burnt to death or suffered from heat stroke.

-----

Northern Forest

A great silverback wolf with a scar across its face growled as it turned to face its brood. There were barely three females left, and the young pups were clinging tightly on their backs, whimpering in fear. A couple of younger males panted and flopped on the warm grass, as they escaped from the burning inferno behind them.

The alpha wolf snapped at the youngsters, forcing them on their feet and to continue towards South where there was a great water source. The mothers grimly licked the young pups on their backs and followed the alpha with patched throats and dry tongues dangling out from their jaws.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, we are picking up a large heat source North of our position," A sensor operator reported before she switched the view on the main display with her station's display. "On screen now!"

Blake turned his attention to the screen as he put aside his daily reports to look at the sensor readings. A colorful infra image could be seen, with large patches of white, reds and yellows shown over a stretch of forest.

"Sir, our patroling UVA spotted this, on its routine patrol route," The operator said, "Switching to visual."

The display changed again, this time showing a swath of blue-green trees and in the distance, large plumes of grey smoke could be seen covering the horizon. "Looks like a massive forest fire, Sir!"

"Where is that?" Blake asked as he observed the imagery. "Is it near any of our installations?"

"It's roughly 200 over kilometers North of us," The operator replied, "Nearest installation is the Hydro Dam station, at the waterfall. Estimated 100 km away."

"Keep observing it," Blake ordered, "Warn the Hydro Dam crew of the fire and get them to take precautions. Also get a team to start working out some forest fire protection and fire fighting procedures just in case the fire spreads over here."

"Yes, Sir!" The operator replied and started making phone calls.

"Damn," Blake whispered under his breath, "This better not come to us!" He scrolled through his contacts list on his communicator and selected <The Princess>.

After a short while, the call connected, "Hello dear?"

A choking sound was heard on the other line, "Are you alright?" Blake panicked, thinking something had happened.

"No, I mean yes! I am alright! Just... don't call me dear in public!" Sherene whispered, "I am in a meeting now!"

"Haha ok, but I'm calling for some serious issues," Blake grinned. "We have reports of a massive forest fire up north."

"Forest fire?" Sherene's worried voice sounded over the comms. "Will it affect us? It's going to be the summer festival this week! Do I need to evacuate anyone?"

"No, but I like you to notify the fire department to be on standby just in case," Blake said, "And also come up with some fire safety procedure in case we need to implement should the fire comes within 50km of our territory."

"I understand!" Sherene replied, "I will get my people on it!"

"Thanks for the hard work!" Blake grinned, "Love Ya!"

"PFFFFt!!!!" Sherene's face turned red, "You...!"

"hahaha! Bye bye~" Blake winked and closed connection, smiling contently to himself, while the crew on the bridge whispered and giggled.

-----

Northern Forest

Snarls and roars broke out among the trees, and a dark figure flew out and slammed against an ancient tree. The snap of the thoracic spine of the wind wolf was barely heard over the roars and cries of the wolves circling around a five-headed Hydra.

The Hydra was large, almost on par with the Alpha wolf. Its scaly body bore bloody wounds and ripped scales. It was surrounded by four wind wolves, and two of its serpentine heads glared daggers at the alpha while the rest of the heads each tracked a wolf.

The wind wolves growled, their hackles raised and feet spread out, ready to pounce onto the Hydra which suddenly attacked them as they ran away from the fire. The Hydra hissed and its tail suddenly lashed out, striking with a force strong enough to bend a 5 mm thick steel plate.

The nearest wind wolf leaped up, dodging the tail sweep and landed on all fours before it charged at the Hydra. The tail continued to sweep with a massive force, forcing the rest of the wolves to scatter or rest having broken bones. The Alpha roared and leaped in, dodging the tail attack nimbly and the Hydra's heads dart in to cramp their jaws on the Alpha.

The Alpha suddenly roared out, firing a ball of condensed air, which slammed right into the opened mouth of one of the heads. The ball of super condensed air erupted deep inside the head and the head popped, the eyeballs of the startled Hydra burst out with bits of flesh and blood. The other heads cried out in pain as one of its heads died and the shock was transmitted to the other brains.

As the heads reared back in pain, this gave the wolves an opportunity to strike at the Hyrda. They clamped their powerful jaws on the fleshy portions of the Hydra, tearing out flesh and scales. One unlucky wolf yelped in pain and fear when suddenly the heads recovered and three of them bit down on the wolf.

The wolf screaming wolf struggled and tried to get free but the sword long teeth held on latched on tightly, causing a large amount of blood to flow out. The rest of the brood tried to save the wolf, one of them even leaped on to the back of the Hydra, gnawing away at the base of one of the necks.

The heads suddenly bit harder and with a ripping sound, the screaming wolf was ripped into two, its guts and blood flung two ways and tossed to the side. The Alpha wolf roared madly when he saw his brood killed and fired another ball of air at the Hydra's heads which weaved away from the attack.

The Hydra slashed out with its claws catching another wolf who was latched on to its body, its fur barely able to block the slash, three bloody claw marks appeared on the flank of the wolf, making it cry out in pain and it disengaged from the Hydra, limping to the side to lick its wounds.

Its remaining four heads turned and glared at the wolf on its back and darted down, tearing the wolf too slow to run into bloody chunks. The silverback Alpha Wind Wolf seeing that they could no longer win this fight, turned and roared out at the hidden females, telling them to run and it turned back and faced the Hydra head-on, buying time for the females with the pups to escape.

-----

The Colony, Residental District 3

Kaga suddenly jolted awake and sat up straight in her bed. She looked around her surroundings in confusion before slowly remembering that this was her own private room!

She flopped back on the soft and comfy bed, hugging an equally soft and fluffy pillow, and started rolling around the bed, enjoying the simple luxury of clean, soft bedsheets. She procrastinated for over 15 minutes on the bed before she was willing to get off the bed.

As she left her room, she saw a note stuck to her door from Billy, telling her there is food on the table and if she wants to cook, there were some ingredients in the refrigerator.

Kaga peeked under the covered plate and found a couple slices of bread with a slice of cold ham and a fried egg, She took the whole plate and walked to the balcony, pulling aside the curtains and instantly a view of the city was before her.

Kaga dragged a chair over and sat down eating her breakfast as she watched the scenery of the city. She remembered that she has to go down to the Academy for the start of her classes and today was a day off for her, so she decided to read the brochures given to her by the lady at the City Hall.

The first brochure with vibrant and realistic images spoke about general laws and crimes in the city. Things like stealing, robbery, fights, murders were all dealt harshly. Other laws talk about traffic in the streets, like how to cross the roads properly, with a green man light and stop if it is a red man.

Complaints or grievances are to be reported to the nearest police station while starting a new business requires a license to be granted from the City Hall. Bribes and corruption will also be dealt harshly and even littering is a crime!

The more Kaga read, the more she felt there was no freedom here! Even crossing the road if the traffic lights are red, is called jaywalking is also considered a crime, and may be fined up to a few hundred credits!

Who was the lord of this city? Kaga thought to herself, how can the Lord expect the people to follow every single law listed and not rebel?

She continued reading and found more unbelievable laws written down. If caught without their identity card can also be resulted in being arrested and thrown into jail till their identity can be verified! Losing the card will also result in a fine, but if the owner loses the identity card more than three times, the person can be jailed for up to 3 months!

She quickly returned to her room and search through her stuff, making sure her identity card is still safe. This place is so strict with their laws, maybe that is why it looks so neat and tidy?

She put down the brochure about laws and picked up the next, which was about living in the city and how to adapt to a new city life. The colorful images printed on the parchment was amazing, making Kaga wonder how much gold must be spent just to make all these pictures on the high-quality parchments.

This talked about how to travel around the city on public buses, which timetables and bus routes, numbers, and even the cost to ride them. Another section talked about where to find markets to purchase daily necessities. There was even a section on the exchange rates of silver and gold to the local chits and credits.

The final brochure talked about education and jobs. A long list of educational courses was listed out, including the timings of the classes, cost, and locations. There were several basic courses that were free and that was what Kaga will be going tomorrow. She looked at the names of the courses and were confused as they were mostly in Eng-ish, which she barely understands. She sighed and could only wait till her Eng-ish improves before she can check up what courses shes can take.

Under Jobs, they were split into different sectors, from service, manufacturing, farming, to military. There were a few more others which she couldn't understand what they were.

"What job should I choose?"

183 - More Running and Choices

Camp Alpha, Training Room 5

"Alright boys, we are so gonna have some fun today!" Master Sergeant Pike stood before a gathered platoon. "Lately, it seems that you boys have gained some weight?"

"Nooo!" The platoon moaned in dismay.

"Top! I'm still a growing up!"
"We have been working out in the gym!"
"Orcs good, no fats, much muscles!"

"Wadever~" Pike waved away their complaints. "FULL BATTLE ORDER NOW!"

The platoon had a look of horror and they quickly sprinted off to their barracks to grab their gear.

"10... 20... 30..." Pike looked at his wristwatch while counting numbers. "40... 50... 60..."

The men re-gathered and formed up in lines, each wearing his helmet, webbing, field pack, and weapon. "Top! Platoon ready for inspection!"

"Hmmm... you guys took 3 mins and 40 seconds to form up," Pike frowned, "Never mind, give me a hundred."

The whole platoon looked aghast and they dropped down to a push-up position. "One... two..."

"One... hundred!" By the time they finished with a hundred push-ups, their arms were trembling and sweat plastered their uniforms to their backs.

"On your feet!" Pike roared. "Today we are going to play with a new training toy! And that toy is inside this Training Room 5! Now section by section move in!"

The men wearily formed up and entered the large structure, despite being called a Training Room, its size was more like an aircraft hangar. A running track greeted the men, with obstacles along the tracks way. Slopes, monkey bars, water pits, rope ladders and many more were laid out at intervals. There was a magic formation drawn up in the middle of the circular track and also one on the roof where lamps hang.

"Okay, boys!" Pike rubbed his hands together gleefully, "You guys are the lucky ones to test out this new obstacle course! Do you see those two magic formations? Those are gravity spells! It will increase the gravity in this area by 1.5 times!"

"REJOICE! For I am joining you for a nice little run around this course!"

"Urghhhhhh....."

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Captain Blake strolled in through the armored hatch, nodding at the two saluting Marines, "How's the forest fire doing?"

"Captain," Ford greeted Blake and gestured to the tactical plot table. "The fire is spreading southwards at a rate of roughly 400 meters per hour, that is if there are no wind conditions affecting the fire's spread."

Blake nodded, "So the Hydro Dam should be safe?"

"Yes Sir," Ford replied, "The fire should die out before it comes within 50 km of the dam. But just to be safe, we are planning on making fire breaks 15 km out from the Dam."

"City Hall has also dispatched some firefighters over to the Dam," Ford said, "We also deployed some Marines over to support them should they need the manpower."

"The firefighters will be deploying water pumps, drawing water from the Dam, and spray around the surrounding forest, to help moist the area," Ford continued, "Not to mention, the hot air and water vapor released by the fires will condense into clouds that can cause rain or lightning."

"The rains might not douse the fires but this will increase the humidity around the area," Ford added, "This will slow down the rate of the fire spreading."

"How about the creatures and monsters in the forest?" Blake asked, "They should be escaping the fires right?"

"Yes Sir," Ford tapped at the tactical map, "Major Frank has raised the security alert to Orange, and all our outposts along the Northen sector are on heightened alert. Luckily the farms along our Northen sector has completed their harvest, so most of the workers have returned to the city or moved to other farms. Livestock is also being relocated to the Eastern Sector Pastures just in case."

"Alert the Militia too," Blake rubbed his chin, "Make sure our infrastructures are not damaged by the escaping monsters. See if we can channel the animals and monsters away."

"Got it, Cap," Ford nodded, "I will talk with Tactics."

-----

Northern Forest

The lead female wind wolf panted and heaved, the little ones on clinging tightly on her back, their claws and tiny needle-sharp teeth prickling her back as they held on to their dear life of their mother as she dashed through the thick trees rapidly.

She leaped up over a massive tree root in front of her path and something slammed against her, sending her flopping back with a surprised yelp. The four pups on her back cried out in fear and fell off, rolling around the forest floor like giants balls of fluffy cotton.

The other female stopped and let out a low growl, staring at the large shadow that appeared from behind the tree. A bronze boa hissed and slithered down, its glassy eyes staring at the yummy meals rolling on the forest floor whimpering in panic.

The mother wolf snarled and charged, her motherly instincts coming into play as she threw herself forward to protect her babies.

The giant boa dismissively flicked its long muscular tail, slapping away the female wolf with ease, sending her flying backward and coughing blood. The pups yelped in fear and tried to scramble away as the boa hissed happily at its tiny prey.

The other female wolf, leaped forward, planting both its clawed front paws directly on the crown of the giant snake, smashing its head down with her full body weight against the forest floor. The three pups on her back bit and scratched harder on her back as they held on to their dear life, screaming in fear.

The Boa flipped and snaked, hissing in anger as it turned its attention to the other wolf. A dribble of blood flowed out from a broken scale on its head and it darted forward, trying to sink its fangs on the wolf who nimbly dodged out of its striking range.

The attack and distraction had bought enough time for the fallen pups to climb back onto their mother, which was badly wounded. She licked her pups and nudged them up her back, and turned to face the giant rampaging snake together with her sister.

-----

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

A Marine knocked on the door to Blake's office and saluted, "Captain, the prisoner is here."

Blake looked up from his paperwork and nodded, "Bring her in."

The Marine pushed the door wide open and a girl in rattling chains was lead in with another Marine escort. "Sit!"

Blake observed the fidgety looking girl dressed in a one piece orange prison wear. An antimagic collar was secured to her neck and both her hands were handcuffed together with a long thin chain that linked to the cuffs on both her legs.

The two Marines stood expressionless with their arms behind their backs at parade rest, next to the seated girl. Their eyes staring at a space on the bulkhead behind Blake.

Blake tapped his stylus pen against his table as he watched the clearly distressed girl. He let the silence drag for minutes before he brought up her dossier from the computer on his desk. "Elizabeth Regnar, seventeen years old, and already a Fifth Circle Mage, specializing in non elemental magic." He spoke in fluent Common Tongue.

"Tell me Liz," Blake asked, "Can I call you Liz?"

The girl nodded timidly, keeping her head down and not daring to meet his eyes.

"What is your plans for the future?" Blake continued, "What are your goals?"

Liz kept quiet as she continued to keep her head bowed.

Blake gave a shrug and said, "Well, I have a few choices here for you, I can let you go free, but you might turn around and bite me later."

"So it seemed better to have you executed and just dump your body in the forest and feed the monsters, and no one is wiser," Blake said coldly. "Alternatively, you pledge your allegiance to me, and you get to keep your life, and still have a future for your plans and goals."

"So what will it be?" Blake asked, "Feed the monsters or work for me?"

"I... I..." Liz gripped the hem of her dress tightly as she didn't know what to do. The haughtiness and pride were all gone in her. The defeat and subsequence imprisonment had drained her mentally and for the first time in her life, she felt weak and powerless.

Ever since she was a child and manifested her first magic circle at a young age of ten, everyone around her praised and called her a child prodigy. Her family was instantly famous as countless rich and powerful families had extended multiple invitations to work with her family, and countless marriage proposals were offered to her, some even from members of the royal court in the Capital!

She was enrolled in the most prestigious Royal School of Magic in the Capital when she turned twelve and after five years of studies, she graduated as an honor student and a Fifth Circle Mage! Yet now, she was defeated, weak, powerless and even captured.

Liz sat with her head lowered as she slumped her shoulders in shame and defeat. Is dead better than dishonor? Or pride? Should she die when she hasn't even reached the prime of her life?

The tapping sound from the pen made by the demon kept her on edge. She gritted her teeth and finally muttered, "I... I... choose... to serve... you..."

"Huh?" Blake blinked his eyes as he pretended not to hear her response, "What did you say?"

"I said... I choose to serve you!" Liz looked up angrily with shame and tears in her eyes. "I pledge my soul to you! Isn't that what you want?"

"Well, if you are willing to work for me then sure," Blake smiled, "But I don't need your soul."

Liz looked surprised, "But you are... de..."

"Demons?" Blake gave a bark of laughter, mirth in his eyes. "Seriously?" He looked at the two Marines and grinned. "So you are saying they sold their souls to me?" He gestured to the stock still expressionless Marines beside her.

Liz turned and looked at the Marines at her side and felt a chill down her spine at the way they stood still and without expression, like being soulless! She shivered and timidly nodded, "Everyone says the rebels sold their souls to demons and..." She stared at Blake's short and rounded ears.

"Hahahaha," Blake shooked his head, "Well, don't worry about that. But there are some terms and conditions I will lay down first."

"You have to take a binding blood oath and obey the laws and regulations everyone here follows," Blake spoke seriously, "There are people who do not trust you, and frankly so do I. Until you prove your worth and trustworthiness, then I will release you from the blood oath or after a period of 5 years."

"5 years?" Liz looked surprised, "You mean you will release me from my oath after 5 years?"

"Yes, after that it is up to you if you want to continue working for me or leave," Blake explained, "But for the next 5 years, you have to work and live here unless you are assigned to another location."

"I will put your abilities to the best use, but most likely you will be assigned to the Academy for the time being," Blake said. "You will be paid a retainer fee and assigned a government housing. Other than not breaking the law, and doing what work you are assigned to, you are generally free to live your life anyway as you want to."

"Is this real? I even get paid?" Liz looked at Blake suspiciously, "It is not some trick to lower my guard and you eat my soul?"

"I am serious, and no we do not eat nor need souls" Blake solemnly replied, "Now, I will have someone do up a contract and let you read through it and of course, you can change your mind anytime, before your blood oath. Well if you do~" Blake ran his thumb against his throat and gave an evil smile.

Liz nodded rapidly in understanding. "Good," Blake grinned, "Bring her out and assign her some basic accommodations first," Blake told the Marines who gestured to Liz to get up.

"Bring in the next prisoner."

184 - Gods and Burgers

The Colony, Residental District 4

It was sunny when Kaga stepped out of her apartment. Dressed in a simple pastel green dress, she timidly looked around her surroundings as she exited the 'evil-ator', still unaccustomed to the scary room that seemed to trap her as it rumbled and shook it way up and down.

Today she was supposed to go to the Academy for her introductory classes and the morning before Billy left for her work, she had acted like an older sister, teaching Kaga how to take the public bus and where to get off, despite being younger and shorter than Kaga.

Kaga gathered her courage and strolled out of her apartment block and nervously looked around. The scenery still slightly different in the day compared to the time she first came in the evening. There were slightly lesser people on the streets and she even saw some people riding on strange contraptions with two thin wheels, working their legs in a circular motion and speeding along the streets.

She saw some children playing around a park as she walked towards the bus stop, they were climbing up and down some kind of tiny castle that even had some kind of slide, which the children giggled and laughed as they zoomed down the slides. Kaga felt conflicted as she remembered her own childhood, that there were no fun times. It was all about learning and training on her spirit techniques, even the other children had to work in the farms or help out in their families stores.

Is this some kind of utopia? She thought to herself as she walked down the clean streets, passing by a park filled with bright yellow flowers, each almost as tall as her. Kaga has not seen such flowers before and she took a detour and stood before one of the massive blooms.

"Little girl, is this the first time you have seen such flowers?" An elder suddenly spoke to her from the side. He was dressed in outdoor work clothes and wearing a straw hat and gloves.

"Ah... yes, what kind of flowers are these?" Kaga frowned as she doesn't recall seeing such flowers in her books that she read before.

"These are called 'Sunflowers'," The gardener explained, "They came from the hoomans."

Kaga looked surprised, "The hoomans? You mean those short eared people?"

The gardener nodded sagely, "Yes, these flowers are not only beautiful, but the seeds could also be eaten or pressed in oil for cooking. Even the petals can be used to make colored dye!"

"I see," Kaga smiled and gave a bow, "Thank you, sir, I need to go to the bus stop now!" And she left the park full of sunflowers. "Interesting."

As she arrived at the bus stop, she saw a row of stores or houses next to the bus stop with many people queuing up. Curious, she went and take a look and her sensitive nose picked up delicious smells of cooked food of some sorts.

Her nose carried her body to the stores before her brain caught up with her, and she saw several shops selling bread, pastries, some kind of 'bur-girls', the soupy long chewy 'nu-dels', and even traditional people's food like fruits and nuts platters in paper bowls, honeyed porridge, and cold cuts.

Kaga's tummy rumbled despite having breakfast, and she jingled the strange colorful coins in her pocket that she received as part of a 'Care Package' that every newcomer gets after registering in the City Hall. Should she get a 'bur-girl'? She pondered long and hard. And in the end, her tummy won the war against her brain.

After she queued for a short while and ordered a wyvern patty 'bur-girl' covered generously in tomato sauce, she happily munched away and saw a bus driving off from the bus stop. She froze as she recognized the bus number as the one that Billy told to take to go to the Academy, and that if she missed it she has to wait up to 20 minutes or more for the next bus!

"Nooo! I'm late!"

-----

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Dr. Sharon, Magister Thorn, and Petty Officer Kristine sat around the work desk in Magister Thorn's office as they looked at the stack of documentation regarding the broken amulet recovered from the Hero. A two live video conference call was linked to UNS Singapore's conference main where several of the top brass were in attendance.

"So in conclusion, this Sun Amulet is from Huītzilōpōchtli, the Aztec deity of war, sun, and human sacrifice. But in this case, human, being the relative word, as we can confirm that it does not limit to human beings but other living species as well," Dr. Sharon said. "The information was given by the girl who witnessed how the Hero drained the life force out, can be concluded that it is a form of sacrifice to Huītzilōpōchtli which most likely, boosted the Hero's life span and also his powers."

"From the Marines' eyewitnesses, they clearly heard the Hero bragging he lived over 200 years, meaning that the Hero must have routinely sacrificed people to increase his life span," Dr. Sharon added. "But we can't really prove any of that, so all these are just working theories."

"So Doc," Blake's voice came in loud and clear, "How does all this relate to how an ancient human civilization deity came over thousands or even millions of light years to this planet?"

"We suspect that due to the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire from 1519 to 1521, which drove the Aztec Gods away. The Spanish inquisitors in Mexico during that time were pretty effective and brutal in enforcing their ways and religion," Kristine took over and explained, "This probably reduced a massive amount of devotees worshipping the Aztec Gods meaning a huge reduction in faith, which was theorized by some that faith is the main source of power for Gods. As for how they travel to other planets, we have no idea. By magic?"

"If that is the case," Commander Ford interrupted, "Does that means that Gods and Deities from America, England, Eygpt, China, India, hell, all over the world are real?"

"Theoretically yes," Kristine replied, "We have a lack of information and evidence here, but we theorized is that the Gods and Deities from Earth had migrated away from our planet when the civilizations they are the patron of, collapsed. As they lost worshippers and faith, their powers or even their presence were weakened greatly and have to find new worshippers in other worlds."

"But how come there isn't any divinity with Christianity or Buddhism or even Islam?" Someone asked. "Why we didn't have a Hero of our own?"

"I think there are, is just that modern people don't believe in them as much as the olden days, I mean look at the old days, there were stories of Heros and even Gods appearing upon men, but over time this became legends and myths." Kristine explained, "We pray to our own religions, and make offerings, but we rely more on technology than faith to power our current culture and lifestyles, whereas, in the ancient times, religion and gods were integrated in every part of their lives and culture, maybe that is why we lost touch with magic as we rely more on tools and technology nowadays."

"So does this means that as long we have faith and belief in Gods, we can use magic too?" Blake asked.

"No, we probably had regressed too much in that matter," Dr. Sharon replied. "Our species have evolved to be more reliant on technology, our brains are more attuned to science. This probably cut off our original roots with magic. That is probably why we can't feel or touch any magical power now."

"So is there a way we can use magic in the future?" Major Frank asked, "Like training or even implants if required?"

"Most likely not in our generation, if we continued to live here, but future generations and cross-breeding with the elves," Dr. Sharon frowned, "I say there is a 60% chance our descendants will be able to use magic."

"As for the use of implants," Dr. Sharon sighed, "If you are willing to sacrifice people to do testing as guinea pigs, then there's a 50 50 chance of success, maybe higher."

"Or we dig up more of these artifacts," Dr. Sharon gestured the Amulet. "Fuse ourselves with this and we can use magic too."

"No, we will not sacrifice people as test subjects on some mad science experiment here," Blake forcefully cut in. "No departments must ever cross that line, or I personally put a bullet in your head, is that clear?"

"Aye Captain!" Everyone replied in unison.

"Good, that line of thought will not be entertained again," Blake growled. "Now, the amulet, is it dangerous? What did Dr. Sharon meant by fusing with the amulet?"

"Dangerous? Not really as it is in an inert state," Magister Thorn replied, "But it is best not to touch it with bare hands, as it might attempt to fuse into the person's body."

"Fuse?" Blake looked worried, "Isn't that dangerous?"

"Well, the amulet doesn't react to anything except when it senses a living body touching it," Magister Thorn explained, "As long no one touches it barehandedly, it should just lay dormant."

"Magister, did you touch it?" Blake frowned.

"Ha..." Magister Thorn looked slightly embarrassed, "I did it under controlled conditions with guards and even Dr. Sharon watching me."

"The amulet seemed to feed off the life force or mana of living beings," Magister Thorn added, "I feel my mana powers draining from just a slight contact of no more than two seconds, which I quickly retracted my touch from it."

Blake sighed and rubbed his face, "Magister, please do not take such risks, and from now on, no one touches the Amulet, once you all have completed all your findings, I want that thing booby trapped, locked up and buried with the key thrown away. Is that clear?"

Magister Thorn looked dejected, "But its a God level artifact..."

"No..." Blake shook his head, "It's too dangerous, no one knows what will happen if the Amulet fuses with a person. Will that person still be sane? Or the mind has taken over by the Aztec Gods. So no, it is for the safety of everyone, we can't take the chance of another Hero rampaging here, especially in the school and so near the city."

Magister Thorn nodded and apologized, "You are right, I am sorry, I have forgotten about the safety of my students and the people in the city."

"Apology accepted," Blake replied, "Remember no risks, we can't afford to lose any people at all."

"What else do we know?" Blake asked, "Are there more Heroes out there?"

Magister Thorn nodded, "There are a few over the years, but no one knows where they are now."

"I see," Blake frowned, "What else?"

"The inscriptions and pictograms on the Amulets are like a prayer to Huītzilōpōchtli," Kristine said, "Well, with half of the Amulet missing, I could only translate so much."

"But one thing is for sure, Huītzilōpōchtli was here during the Age of Gods," Kristine continued, "So theoretically he should be part of the New Gods, who fought against the Old Gods. But since we do not have much-written records of what happened to the Gods after the Final Confrontation on this continent, we do not know if there are any Gods still remaining on this planet."

"And also what kind of God leveled artifacts are scattered around the world," Kristine said, "If the Empire has on their hands a few of these artifacts, we might be in for a tough fight if they have a few more of those 'Heroes'."

Blake's expression turned dark, "I understand, Tavor, I want you to see if you can set up some spy network, we need to gather more information from out there." Blake turned to the Intelligence Officer who nodded.

"Now, the other problem we have is which other ancient Gods and Deities have come here!"

185 - Gone Rogue

The Colony, City Hall

Billy pushed a trolley laden with boxes of documents and rolls of parchment. She stopped at the elevator and pushed the button, and as she waited her eyes drifted to the poster stuck on the noticeboard.

<First Summer Festival! Come with your family and friends!> Was written in bold letters, and lifelike colorful images were displayed. Billy smiled, thinking of asking Kaga along to the festival that was just three more days away.

The lift doors sprung open with a ding, and Billy pushed the trolley in, sighing as she returned to her mundane job, despite missing her free life but in Falledge, she was grateful for having a roof over her head, food on her table and the sense of security of the City.

"Endure three more days!"

-----

Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station

Corporal Bartley Jackson leaned his thick muscular body over the packed sand barrier and sigh worriedly. He looked at the large swath of blue-greenery of trees and in the fall horizon, a reddish glow and thick grey clouds of smoke could be seen.

The air smelled slightly acidic, as ashes and the haze from the forest fire was carried over by drifts of wind. Even the sun was blotted out from the amount of haze in the air, making the entire area dim. Lightning flashed in the distance among the clouds of smoke.

Bartley frowned slightly as he stood watch from the three storied tall reinforced concrete watchtower next to the Dam, where a large lake was dammed up, and the constant roar of falling water, that turned the turbines of the dam muted the rumble of thunder. He thought he spotted some movement in the far distance.

He picked up his field glasses and scanned the edges of the forest. A perimeter of roughly 500 meters was cleared around the Power Station, giving the defenders clear lines of fire and making it harder for any enemies or monsters to approach. There were also couple layers of remote control claymore mines planted around the Power Station and barbed wired fences ringing the last hundred fifty meters to the station.

A sudden movement caught his attention, and he swept his field glasses over and spotted a blur of white that appeared in his 10x magnification view. Bartley adjusted his focus on the field glasses and saw a wolf half hidden among the forest edge.

Bartley frown grew deeper as he observed another large wolf appearing beside the next. He keyed his comms, "Tower 2, to Aquarium, I got eyes on two wind wolves, north-eastern quadrant, Over."

"Aquarium, Roger, standby, out."

Bartley returned to observing the two wolves, and they both gingerly paused at the edge of the cleared field. By now, remote cameras installed at the Power Station would have picked up the two wolves and he wondered what the new Lieutenant would do.

He checked his MG-1 on the mount, making sure the ammunition belt was not snagged against anything and returned to observing the wolves who seemed to hesitate and kept looking over their shoulders.

"Aquarium to all units, hold your fire. Only fire by my command." The Lieutenant voice came in over the radio set.

Suddenly the wolves seemed to sense something as they stepped out to the cleared land, and faced the forest, their hackles, and tails up in an aggressive stance.

Bartley eyes' went wide as the wolves turned, and saw tiny shapes on the backs of the wolves. "Tower 2 to Aquarium, be advised that the wolves appeared to have pups on them, over."

"Aquarium, Roger."

Just at this time, suddenly a small rain of dark shapes coming from the forest appeared over the two wolves, who leaped and dodged like they were dancing or playing and a small flood of green shapes appeared from the forest edge, rushing towards the wolves.

"Tower 2, I got goblins engaging the wolves over," Bartley reported as he glued his eyes on his field glasses. "Please advice? Over."

"Aquarium, standby over."

Bartley cursed in a soft voice as he rooted for the wolves. "Come on, you can do it."

The goblins encircled the two clearly weaken wolves protecting the pups on their backs, and hidden goblin archers shot arrow after arrow at the snarling wolves. Goblins spearmen kept the snapping jaws and claws at arm's length, constantly giggling and shrieking away.

The wolves barely had much strength left, looked at each other and suddenly they leaped over the heads of the short goblins, breaking out of the encirclement and charged towards the Power Station.

"Aquarium to all units, set your sights at two-fifty meters, make ready!"

"What?" Bartley lowered his field glasses as he listened to the radio chatter. "The Lieutenant wants to shoot the wolves with the babies?" The wolves were limping towards the perimeter fencing with over a hundred goblins chasing after them.

"Aquarium to all units, target the wolves followed by the goblins."

Bartley gave a conflicted look at his machine gun before he detracted it with a determined look and slung it over his back. He hooked his booted feet to the sides of the ladder and gripped the sides before sliding down rapidly, expertly controlling his rate of descent with his gloved hands and feet.

He sprinted out from the tower and ran towards one of the gates at the perimeter fence, praying that he could make it in time. He glanced over at the Power Station's roof, where several helmeted heads could be seen, manning their weapons.

Reaching the gate, he unholstered his revolver and fired at the lock without coming to a stop, and slammed his whole body weight against the small gate with the shot off lock, sending it swinging opening and squeaking on its hinges.

He saw the wolves were roughly 300 meters away from his position as there were colored markers stuck at measured intervals for the defenders to gauge distances. He ignored the squeaking calls on his comms and just ran with full speed towards the wolves.

-----

Lieutenant Starven stood up from his chair from surprise inside the security control room and stared incredulously at the large Marine charging out to the killing zone. "What is that Marine doing?" He asked the roomful of personnel who also stared in surprise at the camera displays.

"Call him back now!" Starven roared, "Who is that mad man? What is he trying to do?"

"Sir, that should be Corporal Bartley from Tower 2!" One of the operators replied, "He was the one that called in the sightings."

"Call him back!" Lieutenant Starven roared angrily. He stared with anger at the moving figure on the display screens. It was not even two weeks he took over command of Battalion 1, Charlie Company, Platoon 4 and those hoomans in his command were disregarding him!

"Sir, he is not responding to our hails!" The operator replied. "The wolves are approaching the 250 mark! Do we still fire? We might hit him."

"Goddamnit!" Starven cursed, "Warn him off now!"

The operator turned back to his radio set and desperately tried to call the Marine that went rogue.

-----

"Corporal Bartley, cease your actions and return to your station immediately!" Bartley's comms squeaked, which he ignored as he pumped his arms while sprinting towards the wolves. The two wolves slowed and glared at him as he approached, while also keeping an eye behind them at the horde of goblins at their tails.

"Steady!" Bartley stood before the two wolves who towered over him with at least twice his height. Bloody foam could be seen on the sides of their jaws, while their massive tongues lobbed out and their sides heaved with each pant. Wounds and bloody marks could be seen all over both the wolves when Bartley was up close to them.

One of the wolves suddenly collapsed as its rear legs gave out, and the three dog sized pups cried out in fear, meowing for their mother. The remaining standing wolf positioned itself before Bartley and growled, baring its dagger sized teeth at him.

"Easy! Friend!" Bartley gently said while spreading his hands to the side to show he meant no harm. He slowly moved his hand to his communicator and keyed the mike, "Aquarium, do not fire, repeat, all units do not fire on the wolves!"

"What the thirteen hells are you playing at, Marine!" Lieutenant Starven's voice screamed into his ear. "You will return to the Control Room now and place your self under arrest for the abandonment of your post and total disregard for orders and your superiors!"

"Sir, the wolves are just trying to protect their young," Blake explained slowly and calmly like he was talking to a child which infuriated the Lieutenant more. "They meant no harm to us. We have no need to fire on them."

As they were talking the cries of the goblins grew louder and standing wolf panicked, it tried to protect its fallen sister and at the same time having to be on guard against Bartley and the approaching Goblins.

"Corporal, I don't care if the Gods themselves are out there, you disobey direct orders and abandoned your post!" Lieutenant Starven screamed, "Get your ass back here now!"

"Sorry Sir," Bartley stoically replied, "Since I have already disobeyed orders, I might as well continue."

"What? Get back here n-!" Bartley disconnected his communicator and unslung his MG-1 from his back. He turned and faced the coming goblins and braced himself and fired.

The wolves and pups jumped in shock at the loud buzzing roars coming from the strange two legged creature. They cowed on the spot and covered their sensitive ears from the loud roars, whimpering in fright.

The MG-1 spewed bright tracers out towards the coming goblins, the high powered 8.5 mm rounds torn through their makeshift armor and naked bodies like paper targets, dropping them in scores.

Bartley grunted and fired in a long burst at each cluster of goblins he saw still standing. The heavy recoil made controlling the weapon difficult for most people but not for him and the Orcs as he had a naturally larger build and stronger upper body strength.

Less than five minutes, the remains of the goblin force retreated in fear, screaming and crying in their tribal languages as they ran back to into the cover of the forest.

Bartley lowered his weapon and looked at the very scared wolf standing over its sister. Its tail and ears were lowered and plastered against its skull. It gave a growl of warning at Bartley who gently put his weapon down on the grass, and raised his hands up, "Easy, I am a friend."

The wolf looked at him with suspicion and at the weapon he placed on the floor and decided to trust him, for both she and her sister were totally spent, having been on the run non stop and attacked by monsters for over five days.

It flopped down on the ground and panted, her strength leaving her body and laid there with half opened eyes watching the two leg approach her slowly.

Bartley slowly made his way towards the giant wolf and patted it gently on its head, letting the wolf lick his hands. "Good girl. Friends."

He looked at the frightened pups trying to hide under their mother's belly and smiled. He walked slowly over to the other fallen wolf and found it still alive, but badly injured and weak. A wolf pup the size of a German Shepherd, growled at him, baring its fangs as it tried to protect its mother.

Bartley kneeled down and held out the back of his hand, which the wolf pup cautiously sniffed his hand, before giving it a lick and allowing Bartley to rub and scratch its head and floppy ears.

When the security team of Marines led by Lieutenant Starven came up, they found Bartley surrounded by several wolf puppies, happily licking and playing with him between two giant wolves watching over them.

186 - Wolf Whisperer

Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station

A small convoy of jeeps rumbled in through the double gates and sentry posts, stopping before a blocky structure sitting next to a roaring man controlled waterfall. A concrete dam had blocked off the original waterfall and water was released by outflow gates which created the waterfalls. The skies were hazy and smelled of burning wood and ashes.

Captain Blake stepped down from one of the jeeps and nodded to Major Frank who was accompanied by Master Sergeant Pike. Both of them were waiting at the entrance of the building for Blake's arrival and saluted Blake as he exited the jeep. "Sir!"

"At ease," Blake replied, "So they are inside?"

"Oh no, Sir," Major Frank replied. "We actually placed them outdoors under a shed, with armed guards, twenty four seven."

"And the Marine who broke regs?" Blake asked again as he followed the two Marines into the building. "What happened actually?"

"Well, the Marine is one of ours," Frank explained, "Seems like he spotted some wolf puppies being carried by the two female wolves and being chased by goblins, he decided to save them instead of shooting them."

"So he managed to save the wolves," Blake stopped and turned to look at the two officers. "What's the issue now?"

"Sir," Pike answered for the Major, "The Marine abandoned his post during a combat situation and also disobeyed a direct order from his commanding officer."

"I see," Blake nodded, "So what are you guys gonna do about it?"

Frank frowned, "I don't really want to give a very harsh punishment, but if I don't, it might give off the impression that we are cuddling our own people and also that abandoning of duty posts and insubordination will not get one into much trouble, which will undermine the officers' authority and also lead to more issues in the future."

"Go by the book then," Blake replied, "We can't show favoritism."

"Sir, insubordination during times of war is a death penalty..." Frank looked at Blake seriously.

"Put him up for court-martial," Blake sighed, "Let the court judge him then."

"Now let's see the wolves," Blake continued walking through the corridors to the elevator that will bring them up to the top side of the dam.

Both the Marines looked at each other and nodded, "Yes, Sir," Frank replied with a heavy heart as he knew that the Marine will get a death penalty.

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbour, Special Projects Workshop

"Easy... easy..." Senior Spaceman Mason called out as he stood under a newly developed inline four engine that was secured to chains from the workshop roof crane. "Lower it slowly..."

He held on to the side of the brand new engine and with the help of another engineer, they carefully slot it into place in the hull of the sleek looking experimental speed boat built by the ship carpenter Amar and a team of engineers and craftsmen.

The next hour was spent carefully connecting the drive shafts, cranks, chains, and bolting the engine into place. The experiment speed boat had a 'V' shaped bow, sharp lines and a simple wheelhouse. It was 10 meters long, and four meters wide, powered by a four cylinder water cooled inline piston engine of 102 horsepower. After several model kit sized prototypes, they finally built a smaller scaled working prototype to test before they start working on the actual design.

The whole team double checked the motorboat to ensure every bolt, nut, and screws was properly tightened and in place before they pushed out the sliding doors that led out to sea. A sluice gate was opened and seawater started to flood the dry dock of the experimental motorboat.

As the water started flooding the dock, the motorboat gently floated up on the surface of the water and the team of amateur shipwrights cheered. "Let's start the engine and test out our new toy!" Mason yelled excitedly. Even Amar was excited as he stood on the side watching the boat he helped design and built.

Mason grabbed a bright yellow personnel flotation device and tossed it over to Amar, "Come on! Let's go for a test drive!"

Amar eagerly wore the life vest with the help of one of the hooman engineers and they all climbed aboard the motorboat. Mason turned the ignition and the engine roared slowly to life, sending out a small cloud of grey smoke from its exhaust. "Woooo!"

The rest of the team removed the lines from the moorings and Mason gently gave power to the boat, easing it out of the workshop. As it appeared out of the workshop and into the sun, the workers around Far Harbor stopped and stared, wondering what kind of boat is that.

"Engine temperature looks good, just as we trial ran them before!" One of the engineering guys on board called out.

"Great, let's clear the stone pier and see what this baby can do!" Mason grinned, and pushed the throttle up, sending the motor craft charging through the waves. "Oh my god, this is awesome!"

The sea wind and spray hit them as they bounced across the waves, running at over 20 knots per hour. Amar gripped the hand rails of the motorboat and started laughing wildly, "This is amazing, I never gone so fast before in the sea! Amazing!"

The motorboat hit a surging wave and bounced up, sending whitish 'V' shaped waves out. Mason drove the motorboat around the pier, charging pass The Floating Wreck still moored at the pier and showing off his boat. Soon the pier was lined up with workers and staff as they "Oooh and Ahh" at the trials Mason was putting the boat through.

After an hour of playing around with the motor craft, they finally happily returned to the workshop leaving the cheering crowd behind.

-----

Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station

Blake leaned over the railing and observed the two giant wolves licking their pups from the roof of the Dam. "So how aggressive are they?"

"Well, as long you don't try to take their kids away," Pike replied, "They seem okay so far with us next to them."

"What happened exactly?" Blake asked as he watched one of the pups trying to snuggle up to its mother but failed and did a cute tumbling cartwheel instead.

"We think that due to the forest fire, they were trying to escape from it," Frank said, "And we think almost all the monsters were driven away from the forest. And these two were carrying their kids with them, so the rest of monsters most probably perceived the puppies as an easy meal."

"So what are we gonna do with them, Sir?" Pike asked as he frowned. "We don't know if we can train them to be mounts or even work animals, provided if they are willing to listen to us."

"Could we make them our next best friend like dogs?" Blake asked. "The Orcs do use them as mounts."

"Not sure, but I did send out a message to all the Orcs in the Marines," Pike said, "see if any Orcs have any knowledge of rearing a giant wolf."

Blake nodded, "Let's go closer." And they climbed down the stairs and walked towards the vehicle shed which they gave the wolves to use.

As Blake and his party approached the shed, both the wolves sat up and looked at them walking over with cautious and curious eyes but they did not growl nor any other signs of aggression.

Blake stopped before the nearest wolf and saw the streaks of dirt and blood on its matted fur. "Are they provided with medical care and adequate food and water?"

"Food and water yes," Pike scratched his head, "Medical? We don't have veterinaries here."

Blake turned and looked at Pike, "We don't? How about those looking after the Muffalos or Peco pecos?"

"Well, we are not sure if they are willing to even come close to a giant wolf," Pike replied, "and the scent of the wolves might spook the animals when they return. Plus the wolves don't allow us to touch them. We have tried, trust us."

"How about that Marine who got close to them?" Blake asked.

"Sir, he's placed in confinement now," Pike replied. "In one of the staff rooms here."

"Well, bring him here and see if he can do some good," Blake ordered.

"Yes, Sir!" Pike turned away and spoke into his communicator while Blake turned and watched the puppies play, the corner of his mouth lifting up.

Not long, a large build male accompanied by a trio of Marines arrived. They saluted the Major and Blake, "Sir! The prisoner is here, sir!"

"Remove the restrains," Blake nodded towards the handcuffs.

"Yes, sir!" The Marine escorts quickly removed Bartley's handcuffs, which Bartley rubbed his sore wrists once they were removed.

"Corporal Bartley, front and center!" Pike roared.

Bartley quickly marched up and stood in parade attention before Blake, "Corporal Bartley reporting, Sir!"

"Corporal, I heard the wolves are friendly with you," Blake asked, "Is that correct?"

"Sir, Yes, sir!" Bartley replied in a serious manner.

"Ok, Corporal, I got a job for you, I heard that the wolves only allows you to get close to them," Blake gestured at the wolves who were all looking at them with curious expressions, "I'm putting you in charge of looking after them. You will be let out from your confinement once per day to look after them, after which you will be returned to your cell."

"Corporal, while you did a good deed here, but you disobey direct orders and even abandoned your post which is a serious offense in times of war," Blake said, "Redeem yourself with hard work, and we will see what we can do about your court-martial."

"Sir! Thank you, Sir!" Bartley replied without a change of expression.

"Alright, show me what you can do!" Blake nodded, "Clean them up, and see if you patch them up as well."

Bartley walked up to the wolves who licked and poke their noses against him, allowing him to touch their fur and pat them. "Sir, I will need some brushes, a first aid kit and eh, buckets?"

Blake turned to Pike and nodded, who started talking into his communicator again. Blake gestured to Frank and they walked to the side away from hearing of the rest.

"Well, if we can tame these wolves, I think we can sorta have some kind of wolf cavalry?" Blake suggested. "Mobile infantry tactics and all."

"Wolf cavalry?" Frank repeated and laughed, "Well, it will be better if we had bears..."

-----

Northern Forest

A plume of flames rose up from the center of a massive ash field. The red dragon yawned and puffed out another plume of flames from its nostrils while scratching its tummy. It looked around in surprise at the land around it, unable to recall why the lush forest had instead turned into a land of scorched earth.

Its tummy rumbled in hunger and it looked around, trying to see if it can spot some prey, but all it saw was just scorched land and blackened trees stumps. Giving a huge sigh, it flapped its wings and rose into the air, and started looking around to see if it can find something big and yummy to cook.

As it rose up higher, it saw the area around was all burnt land, and flames and smoke were even seen in the forest all around it. It scratched its head in embarrassment as it finally realized that the cause of the destroyed land was caused by it.

Oh well, it thought to itself, nature will always find a way to grow back and it flapped its wings lazily, catching the heat air draft coming from the forest fire and started gliding in a circular motion as it climbed higher and higher into the air before flying away from the scorched land and headed for the distance blue-green forest that has not been affected by the forest fire yet.

187 - Summer Festival

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

Blake removed his uniform and draped it over his chair before he poured himself a drink made from fermented carrato, locally farmed. He took a sip and let the harsh burning liquid go down his throat and felt a warm fuzzy feeling in his stomach. "Want a drink?" He asked the princess who was seated on his chair going through her work with his computer.

She shook her pretty head and said, "Our food stores are looking good. We had a large surplus of grains and tubers, which can be stored for over a season."

"And we do not need to slaughter the animal stock for winter as we have plenty of feed stored up for them too," Sherene focused on her Excel sheet. "The Muffalo herders have started to sheering the wool for production of winter clothing."

Blake stood behind Sherene and hugged her. "How're the preparations going on for Summer Festival?"

Sherene smiled and leaned in Blake's embrace, "We have quite a few venues allocated for this Summer Festival, one at each Residential District, and the main event will be held at City Hall Plaza."

"Since it is a two-day holiday event, I have increased the number of buses to the outer farms, mines, and Far Harbour to pick up those that wish to attend the Festival," Sherene purred happily in Blake's arms. "I also followed the recommendation given by your staff to double the pay for those working on holidays, so that they will not feel left out for the Festivals."

"Hmmm," Blake muttered, "So everything is in order?"

Sherene nodded, "Well, my people are still setting up the stages and event site. They should be finishing by today and tomorrow the Festival starts!"

"How about your side?" Sherene looked back and asked, "Is everything ok?"

"Well, we still have many things to worry about," Blake sighed and stood up, picking up his drink and drowned it down. "Goblins to our West, Empire to our North East and a natural disaster to our North."

"But at least we managed to resolve all our basic needs," Blake smiled at Sherene. "Food, water, shelter, security, and manufacturing are all on track."

"We just need a larger population to support our industrial needs," Blake said, "other than that we are doing pretty well, as long there aren't any more invasions."

Sherene nodded, "But the Empire... sooner or later they will return right?"

Blake rubbed Sherene's head gently while leaning against his table. "Intel estimates roughly a month before news gets to the Empire's Capital, and another month before some sort of response to be taken."

"By then, it is autumn," Blake said, "Hopefully late autumn is the best, as no sword and shield army will move in winter without long term preparations. I hope..."

Sherene nodded again, "My father and brothers used to say fighting in winter is terrible and a huge drain to resources. Men had frozen to death or died to hunger due to supply lines getting cut off by heavy snow storms."

Blake grinned, "Not bad, well that's one of the major reasons, not to mention the terrain will be harder for travel. And they have to cross the Uncharted Forest."

"The newly formed Combat Engineer unit together with that Elementalist girl has already started a line of defensive works at the bottom of the ramp at Sawtooth Mountain," Blake added, "The original wall will be upgraded and supported with the still under development 3" guns. Once we have those built, even if the Empire throws a million troops at us, we can easily hold the pass as long as we have ammunition."

Sherene frowned, "Will the Empire stop coming? Why can't they leave us in peace?"

"I don't have the answer for that, my princess," Blake replied gently, patting her soft hair. "Well, we can only make it so expensive for them to attack us, that they call for peace talks."

"If not, once our airpower is up and running," Blake's eyes gleamed dangerously, "I just bomb them back to the stone age."

-----

The Colony, Residental District 4

Kaga sat on a wooden bench watching several City Hall staffs hanging colorful banners and ribbons on to the lamp posts lining the side of the streets. Lately, the whole city was full of excited energy as everyone was looking forward to the Summer Festival.

She nibbled her 'bur-girl' and sighed in bliss. She picked up a textbook, Introduction to Basic English, and started reviewing her notes for her class. Her study partner was Billy, when she returned from her day job at City Hall, both of them were becoming closer and closer in just a few short days.

The next day, Kaga went to her morning class in time and joined a class of over forty students, some she recognized as part of her same group when they escaped from Falledge. The teacher called Kristine taught them the basic alphabet and phonics. The lessons were easily picked up and absorbed by Kaga, as she had always liked to read.

When the school bell rang, Kristine ended the lesson and gave them some homework to do at home. The whole class stood up and thanked the teacher before they all excitedly left the classroom. Kaga was no different as she had an appointment with Billy at the Commerical District.

Having traveled a few times in buses, Kaga confidently boarded a bus that will take her to the Commerical District or C District, as some of the locals called it. As the bus turned into the street of D District, colorful signboards covered up the facade of the stores and buildings lining the street.

She alighted the bus and saw Billy already here and she went up joyfully to her. "Billy, I'm here!"

"Kaga! Finally!" Billy smiled, "I'm hungry waiting for you!" Billy reached out and hugged a blushing Kaga while rubbing her soft fluffy ears. "Hehehe."

"S-stop!" Kaga quickly brushed off Billy's hands, and covered her ears with her hands, "..."

"Hehehe," Billy grinned, "Your ears and tail are just too soft and fluffy for me to control myself! Hehehehe!"

"..." Kaga turned redder, "Let's go..."

"Alright! Let's go shopping!" Billy grin went wider as she thought of dressing Kaga up in cute clothes. "Hehehehe..."

"..."

-----

Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station

Bartley carried a large bucket of water over to the wolves' shed and refilled the water trough for the wolves. He had spent over two hours showering the wolves and the pups earlier and now the wolves looked much better despite some wounds still visible on their bodies.

Both the giant wolves licked Bartley and the little dog-sized wolf pups charged out and tackled him down on to the group and started to lick and sniff him happily. "Good boys and girls!" Bartley gave a rare smile.

These couple of days, Bartley schedule has been, the morning after breakfast, he goes to the wolves to feed them, cleans the shed, brushes their coat, takes them on walks and returns to his cell for the night.

The aggressiveness of the wolves had decreased a lot, that some of the other Marines could come near and play with the wolf puppies and the men started nicknaming Bartley as the Wolf Whisperer.

"Alright, let's go for a walk around the base shall we?" He gave a whistle and the wolves and puppies started to follow him as headed towards the perimeter fence.

----

The Colony, City Hall Plaza

The crowd grew larger and larger as more people squeezed into the plaza for the Summer Festival. Large white sails of cloth were hung at regular intervals among the streets and some local musicians were playing linked to the broadcasting system.

Along the streets were lined with stalls selling drinks, food, and trinkets. Everyone was in high spirits as they waited for the Festival to start. Soon the Princess came onto the stage set before the City Hall and the crowd went wild, cheering happily away.

"Hello everyone!" Sherene beamed happily to the cameras which were projected onto the large cloth sails, allowing everyone including those at the other districts events to see her. "I hope everyone is excited to be here tonight!"

"YES!" The crowd replied enthusiastically.

"Everyone here has worked hard, be it as a farm hand, a clerk, factory worker or even a cleaner!" Sherene gave her opening speech, "And this hard work is shown around us. Those that came here first will remember the food rationing, the lack of necessities and even proper heating or clothes."

"Now we have heated homes, plenty of food, running water, clean and safe streets," Sherene smiled to the camera. "And now I declare the first Summer Festival to begin! Enjoy the night of musical performances and dance!"

A sudden burst of fireworks erupted from City Hall's roof, turning the twilight sky bright with flashes and burst of colorful stars. Loud cheers joined the fireworks as the music started playing again performed by local musicians and the people started to party.

-----

Northern Forest

The red dragon just finished fighting with a giant copper boa twice its length, when it heard pops and cracks of thunder in the distance. Ignoring the rumbles of thunder, it roared out flames from its mouth, flash frying and cooking the snake.

It used its nimble front claws to tear the charred skin and scales off before tearing into the yummy soft medium rare meat inside. It feasted halfway when the rumbles of thunder came again, this time longer and louder.

Irritated by the thunders, it raised its serpentine head high up and looked at the sky, trying to see if it is going to rain. The rumbles of thunder came again, and it leaped into the air, as it scouted around its surroundings.

To its surprise, it saw exploding stars in the far distance lighting up the sky and the clouds. It tilted its horned head in confused and dropped back down to the ground and continued its meal while pondering on what are those strange bright colorful stars.

Once it had its fill, the red dragon leaped into the air again, and spread its wings out, heading towards the location were the exploding stars were last seen, leaving behind a burning forest.

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

The festival yesterday night was a success and everyone off duty had partied till late. The morning shift was only half manned, and Commander Ford was the senior commanding Officer inside the Bridge.

He seeped some hot decaf from his mug, wondering if they could come out with a local equivalent of coffee before their stock of runs out. He rubbed his temples as the party last night took his toil on his head.

"XO!" An operator called out, "Sensors are picking up a moving object, 168 kilometers away, heading in fast at roughly 110 kilometers per hour, bearing North, North East, to our position!"

"What is it? Do we have visual?" Ford called out, all his headache and sleepiness gone instantly.

"Negative!" The operator replied, "We got no assets at that location!"

"Scramble the alert Cobras!" Ford asked. "What other assets do we have on standby?"

"Aye! Scrambling the alert Cobras!" The operator replied as she looked at the ready chart. "Dragon One and Three, Gold, Silver Wing, and Valkyrie Two,"

"Launch Dragon One and Three, have Gold and Silver Wing on alert and Valkyrie Two on standby for airlift support," Ford ordered. "Give me one UAV into that AO*!" (*Area of Operations)

"Aye XO!" The operator replied and she quickly started to send out orders.

"Recall all combat personnel, bring us up to Condition Yellow!" Ford added.

-----

Sirens blared out in the pilots' ready room, where four alert pilots of Bronze Wing was lounging around. They jumped up and started grabbing their gear and helmets when the sirens went off in the room and rushed out towards the Hanger Deck of UNS Singapore.

Color coded techs ran a final check over the four Cobras parked at the internal hanger, while a few techs started to power up the engine starts, spooling up the Cobras engines.

The pilots climbed into the cockpits as the massive hangar deck doors started to yaw wide open, letting in a gush of wind.

A yellow jacketed tech started to wave his light wands, signaling for the planes to get into the position of launch. Once the lead Cobra was hooked into the catapult gear, the jacketed tech gave a salute and a sharp wave off, and the F/A - 1 Cobra was thrown out of the Hangar Deck with a loud roar.

"Whooooosssssssh!"

188 - A Wild Red Dragon Has Appeared!

The six alert F/A - 1 Cobras were thrown out of the flight deck one after the other while the rest of the Bronze Squadron scrambled into action. The roars from the propeller engines woke some of the city inhabitants that had partied all night as the planes flew over the city before grouping up and headed straight towards the source of the unknown contact.

Flight Sergeant Lightseer, wing commander of the Bronze Squadron lead the other five planes of his wing towards the north while forming up into pairs.

"Thunderchief, this is Bronze Leader, now maintaining angels 01."

"Bronze Leader, this is Thunderchief, you are under my control. Steer 040 maintain present angel. Over."

"Roger that, Thunderchief."

"Thunderchief to Bronze Leader, target position 030, range 90, attitude 1000,"

"Bronze Leader, Roger!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"XO!" The operator called out, "Airforce Command has no units out at that area, they are scrambling their alert fighters into the air now."

"Got it," Ford answered, "Tell Flight Ops to have the rest of fighters up on CAP* duty around the city." (*Combat Air Patrol)

"Has Bronze Flight made contact yet?" Ford asked the flight control operator.

"Bronze Leader, this Thunderchief, target dead ahead, 25. Do you have contact, over?"

"Bronze Leader. Negative contact. Request target attitude."

"Thunderchief, target no change."

Ford frowned as he looked at the radar signatures on the tactical plot. "ETA to city airspace?"

"10 minutes Sir!"

"Alert the wall defenses for a possible ground to air combat. Prepare to intercept!"

"Aye XO!"

-----

Skies over Northern Sector

Flight Sergeant Lightseer turned his head left and right in his cockpit, trying to spot the contact they are supposed to intercept, but he still couldn't see anything. He could only see a thick fog of smoke covering the horizon due to the forest fire.

"Bronze Six to all Alert Fighters, any visual over?"

"Negative!" Came back all the replies.

"Bronze Six to Thunderchief, negative contact. No bogey in sight!" He reported back to base.

"Target dead ahead 15, heading 190, attitude 1000, Speed 100, reduce speed!" The operator's slightly panicking voice came into his headset.

"No joy, negative contact! I say again no joy, request target position," Lightseer grounded his teeth in frustration as he tried to spot the target in the hazy skies.

"Caution! Almost same position, same attitude! Use caution! Bronze Squad Break! Break!" The operator was clearly panicking as she yelled out.

"Shit!" Lightseer cursed, "All fighters, break break break!"

He twisted his flight slick to the left, banking his fighter away from his current heading, and in the corner of his eye, he spotted a reddish shadow. "Did anyone see that?" He called out.

"Three, I see it!" A youthful excited voice yelled over the squadron comms network. "It's right under your bellies!"

Lightseer rolled his plane to the side and looked out of his glass canopy, seeing a rakish slim blood red dragon lazily flapping its wings just meters away from his plane. The dragon was almost two and a half length of his Cobra and with a wing span at least twice his plane's. Ridge spines and scale plated the body of the dragon, giving it sharp predator look.

The dragon suddenly looked up and roared, sending plumes of flames and smoke out of its nostrils and mouth. It rolled over and dived into the canopy, which appeared to wither and burst into flames as the dragon skimmed the tree tops.

"Holy mother of the heavens!" Lightseer pulled his joystick back, tilting his fighter away from the dragon. "Thunderchief! Contact identified! We got a wild red dragon!"

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"-derchief! Contact identified! We got a wild red dragon!"

The audio came in loud and clear over the speakers and Ford frowned. "What do we know about red dragons?" He asked the command staff around the bridge.

"Sir, according to the data entered by Magister Thorn, red dragons are similar to the Spitfire species, with the ability to spit fire," One of the tactical officers reported, "And wild or feral dragons are typically stronger compared to domesticated dragons."

"Bronze Leader, do we engage over?" Came the voice of the Bronze squadron commander over the speakers as he requested instructions.

"Chase it away," Ford said, after a pause. "Keep out of the city's airspace."

-----

Lightseer cursed when he heard the order. "Alright, Bronze Group, listen up, I want Three, Four, Five and Six to fire at its path, force it away from the city. Two, you be on my wing."

"Yes, Boss!" The other pilots replied and formed up over the dragon, before diving one by one and firing their 20 mm cannons in the path of the dragon. The heavy bullets exploding and ripping up the canopy in the path of the flying dragon, causing it to roar out in surprise as it verve away from the path of the exploding rounds.

The dragon huffed angrily as it flapped away from the strange noisy things that spat small fireballs like magic at it. It glared at the buzzing flying creatures and roared out a ball of fire at them, which they nimbly dodged.

To its surprise the strange flying noisy monsters did not attack it, they just buzzed around and spat those strange breath attacks in its path, seemingly like warning them away from where it wanted to go. It paused in its flight, flapping its wings mightily to hover in place over the forest, the heat from its body, slowly charring the leaves of the treetops.

To its expectations, the strange noisy creatures did not attack it, constantly circling around it while the dragon pondered on its next actions. Should it continue to investigate the strange lights it saw last night and risk those strange creatures' attack or should it back off and observe. Since it woke up, it hasn't seen any other of its kind and it was not sure how long had it slept.

It decided to observe after a while, it flared its wings and settled down on the canopy of the forest, turning the surrounding trees into firewood, sending sparks of embers and ashes into the air as it burned away a swath of forest and landed in the middle of the charred ground.

------

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain on the Bridge!" The Marine at the armored hatch announced as Captain Blake stepped through, waving off the Marines' salute.

"At ease, people," Blake swiftly mounted the steps up to the tactical plot table. "What do we have?"

"At the moment it's like a face off," Ford replied at the side, pointed to a patch of forest on the tactical plot map. "The dragon has landed and is currently holding its position here."

"What is it doing?" Blake looked up at the UAV feed being displayed on one of the screens.

"Nothing, Sir. It's just sitting there watching Bronze Squadron," Ford said. "We suspect this Red Dragon to be the cause of the forest fire judging by the amount of heat it is giving away from its body."

"What actions are have we made?" Blake continued to ask as he got updates from the command crew.

"So far we did not actively engage it," Ford replied, "We just forced it off course, all actions are to prevent the Dragon from entering the City's Airspace."

"Good, keep it that way," Blake frown, "What other assets are in place?"

"We currently got 1 Air Group over the target," Ford picked up his tablet and checked the deployments. "1 Air Group over the City, and another Air Group, Gold Squadron, ETA 8 minutes, inbound from Airforce Command with Valkyries on standby to airdrop infantry if needed. Dragon One is also inbound in 20 minutes with Dragon Three riding wing."

"City's anti air defenses are all manned and ready, civil defense forces are clearing the streets and ensuring everyone is in a shelter," Ford continued, "2nd Battalion is being deployed for city defense while 1st Battalion is standing by."

"This world is fucked up," Blake sighed while shaking his head. "Can't we have any peace and quiet for a few months?"

"Yeah, I get that too," Ford grimaced. "Well, at least the dragon doesn't seem hostile, rather more curious. I think it might have gotten attracted by our fireworks last night."

"Great, so now we can't have celebrations without attracting a dragon or two," Blake sighed again. "Any other information on the dragon?"

"Visually it looks like a between a med or heavyweight," Ford said, "Body is slimmer than Blue Thunder but longer than the Razorbacks we have. It is a feral beast that's for sure."

"I want 24 7 surveillance on that dragon, if it so much as take a dump, I want to know about it," Blake ordered. "Clear?"

"Aye, Captain," Ford nodded.

-----

The Colony, Outer Defense Walls, North Sector

Lieutenant Joesph rode the cage like steel cargo elevator up to the top of the North Sector Wall. The ride took a minute to reach the top with the clanking gears rattling away. As the elevator doors slid open at the sixth floor, a heavy gust of wind slammed into the open doors, staggering Joesph and his command staff.

He stepped out of the elevator and stood on the open roof of the walls that stretched as far as the eye can see. The width of the roof was roughly five meters wide, allowing plenty of space for the defenders to move on the walls while two rail tracks lined the city side of the parapet.

At regular intervals were dual .50 caliber machine nests protected by sandbags, or dual 20 mm autocannons serving as flak guns. Several Marines and Milita formed a line and started to transfer loads of ammunition crates out from the elevator and load them onto the rail carts next to the elevator. Once the carts were full, they were pushed along the tracks by a simple bicycle-like contraption to supply the defensive guns on the Wall.

Lt Joesph hopped onto one of the fully loaded ammunition carts and hitched a ride down the tracks. One of the logistic workers hitched the ladened carts to the velocipede and started to pedal, pushing the heavy carts along the track.

The heavy carts slowly picked up speed and soon zoomed passed the defensive guns that were pointed towards the sky. The train finally stopped before a 70 mm rocket battery manned by a couple of Marines, who saluted Joesph as he had gotten off the carts.

"All good?" Lt Joseph asked the two Marines manning the 4 x 7 cell rocket launchers.

"Yes, Sir!" The two Marines grinned, "Great view here!"

"Alright, stay frosty!" Lt Joseph grinned back, copying the hooman expression. The two Marines started to unload the crates of 70 mm rockets from the carts and storing them at the nearby protected ammunition bunker. He agreed that the view was stunning, the fields of cleared land laid out in the open in perfect squares and the blue forest in the distance while the horizon was dark with smoke from the raging forest fires.

Lt Joesph walked towards a staircase, where a guard unlocked the steel barred doors, granting entry to him after checking his credentials.

A couple of stories down, Lt Joesph pass by another checkpoint and after clearing security, he entered into the North Sector Command center. Another Lieutenant was in the room filled with support techs as they manned all the communications.

"Sir!" The young looking Lieutenant hopped up from his chair when he saw Lt Joesph entering. "It's an honor to serve with you!"

"Relax, Fairmont," Lt Joesph shook his head at the eager youngster, "We are all the same rank here."

"Yes sir!" Lt Fairmont gave a wide grin, "Well, I deployed all the reinforcements you brought to their respective posts." He pointed to the map of the Wall defenses, highlighting out each AA gun or artillery battery.

"No feral dragon is gonna fly into the City without getting shot at by at least ten dual .50 caliber heavy machines, four dual 20 mm autocannons and two 70 mm rockets batteries!"

189 - Dragon to Dragon Talk

Skies over the Northern Forest

Flight Sergeant Lightseer tapped his fuel gauge and triggered his throat mike. "Bronze Leader to Thunderchief, Bronze Group bingo on fuel, requesting for RTB(Return to Base)."

"Thunderchief, you are cleared for RTB, Gold Group inbound to take over CAP (Combat Air Patrol) over the Red," The operator's voice replied in Lightseer's headset.

"Bronze lead to Bronze Group, time to RTB," He ordered to the rest of his wing before casting a last glance at the Red Dragon curled up on the charred forest floor. "Damn, why HQ doesn't want us to just kill it and call it a day. Damn waste of our time!"

The rest of Bronze Group ceased their endless circling and formed up next to Lightseer's plane before they flew back towards the Castle of Iron's runway.

The dragon eyed the noisy creatures buzzing off away, back towards the strange place where it last heard and seen those strange fires over the night skies, wondering should it follow them, when another group of similar noisy buzzing creatures appeared over the skies.

It waved its serpentine tail against its nose and pondered what should it do about these strange creatures. It has lived for a long time and those noisy creatures were something it has never met before. At least before it went into a deep sleep, it never encountered such strange creatures before. What changes has this world gone into? It thought to itself as it tickled its own nose with the tip of its tail.

-----

The Colony, Outer Defense Walls, North Sector Defense Command

"Top!" Lieutenant Joesph greeted Master Sergeant Pike as he entered into the command post.

"Sir!" Pike gave a parade worthy salute to both the Officers inside and stood at ease next to the tactical tabletop. "Looks like our uninvited guest is pretty tame at the moment."

"Yea," Lt Joesph agreed, "What do think it is planning? Think we can communicate with it?"

"Sir," The other younger Lieutenant, Fairmont spoke up, "Why don't we just kill it?"

Pike patted the officer on his back and said, "Sir, if you noticed, that creature's presence just torched an entire forest almost 10 times the size of the city. Now imagine what will happen if you pissed it off."

"Oh... I s-see..." The young officer blushed in embarrassment. "I did not think of that..."

"Well, it's a learning experience," Lt Joesph winked at Pike, "You get wiser as you grow older! Ha!"

Pike grinned and leaned over the UAV video stream, "I think I better head down to take a look personally with the dragon. See if we can understand each other."

"You speak draconic?" Lt Fairmont was fairly surprised by Pike's words.

"Nope, but I got a Universal Translator..."

-----

Skies over Northern Forest

Blue Thunder flapped his wings mightly, his previous wounds mostly recovered and he was happy to be able to just stretch his wings out, rather than being cooped up in his pen.

"Blue! Don't over exert yourself!" The speakers next to his ears crackled to life, Flight Sergeant Stamford motherly voice sounding worried and tense. "Your wing tip bone just healed, I don't want you to fracture it again!"

"Yes, Mom..." Blue Thunder sighed, rolling his dinner plate sized eyes upwards while tilting his serpentine head back and replying to Stamford seated on his back. "You nag too much!"

"Yea right!" Stamford growled, stamping his booted feet against the harden scales of Blue Thunder. "Don't come crying to me when you break your wings again!"

Blue Thunder turned his head back facing the front acting like he did not hear a word from Stamford, and even tried to whistle innocently which he failed badly, much to the laughter of the rest of the crew.

Stamford gave a sigh at the childish antics of Blue, wondering why such a big and powerful beast like Blue could still act like a child. "Ok, war face time, we are nearing the target."

In the distant horizons, as they approached, the skies were dark and covered in a thick cloud of haze, were random erratic strobes of lightning and thunder could be seen and heard in the firestorm.

"I see Gold Squadron!" Corporal Barkley yelled as he peered through the thick haze, spotting the blue grey dots circling over an area.

"Damn, your eyes are sharp!" Stamford praised as he tried to pick out the aircraft against the gray haze in the skies. "I can't see shit in this haze!"

"I see them!" Blue Thunder gave a grin, displaying an array of scary looking sword teeth. "And I see the Red Dragon too!"

"Alright, bring us down nearby, but not too close," Stamford said, "I don't want you to get into a fight with it." He gave a stomp with his boots on Blue Thunder's back. "You hear?"

"Okay..." Blue Thunder sighed disappointedly. "It will be easy for me to win, you know? Its smaller than me and looks weak too!"

"Weak?" Stamford rolled his eyes upwards, "That thing set the whole forest on fire! Can you do that, you big idiot!"

"Cheh! It's just a small issue..." Blue Thunder tilted his head up in disdain. "I could flatten it easy with just one arm!"

"You better stop having ideas of fighting!" Stamford stomped harder against Blue Thunder's back. "We know that feral dragons are magically stronger than domesticated dragons like you! We don't know how powerful, but I am sure you can't win it with just one arm!"

"Hmph!" Blue Thunder gave a snort and kept quiet, flaring his wings as he came to a gliding descent.

As they came lower towards the scorched forest, they felt the temperature increasing rapidly. "Damn it's hot!" Dek yelled out over the roaring wind as Blue Thunder swooped in to land at the charred ground.

Blue Thunder gave a grunt as he felt a sense of unease at the temperature of the surroundings. "Hmmm... maybe you are right, we should be friends!"

The air was thick with smoke and ashes, and not long the men were sweating in their flight suits. "Look, it has noticed us but its just sitting there. Think you can talk to it or something?" Stamford asked as he cradled his shotgun, the metal barrel turning warmer by the second.

"I don't speak draconic if that is what you want me to talk to it with," Blue raised his head up, sitting up on his hindquarters and staring at the Red Dragon in the distance.

"What?" Stamford frowned, "You are a dragon and you don't know dragon talk?"

"Well, I grew up with people since I was born!" Blue Thunder raised his head up indignantly, "No one taught me draconic!"

Stamford shook his head helplessly, "Well, try something, make it go away without it getting pissed off with us, okay?"

Blue Thunder turned his head and stared wide eyed at his Crew Chief, "Seriously? You want me to growl or bark at it expecting it to understand that we meant no harm and just wants it to go away?"

"What happens if my growl means 'Fark you?' in draconic?" Blue Thunder hissed. "No way! You go do it!"

Stamford shooked his head again and turned to Dek their radioman, "Well, call it in, tell them we have a wee problem here."

-----

Northern Forest

The Red Dragon narrowed its golden eyes as it watched the blue scaled dragon landing at a short distance away and a few of those tiny inferior walking meat bags climbed down from the dragon's back and started to converse in some kind of crude language to and fro.

It hissed in agitation, sniffing the other dragon's scent and tasting its bloodline in the air with its tongue. After a while, it spat in disappointment, for it found the bloodline of the blue and red scaled dragon before it lacking, despite it having some bloodline similar to itself.

The Red Dragon cocked its head as it continued to observe the body language of the dragon that was larger but with huge inferior bloodline with the small group of walking meat. It found it strange that despite the weak bloodline of its species would listen and serve as a mount for the inferior walking meat bags.

It rose up to its full height and was about to interrupt the strange chittering conversation between the lesser dragon and the walking meats when suddenly several strange rumbling creatures came into sight and more of that skinny looking walking meats climbed down from the strange blue grey purring creatures.

-----

"Top!" Stamford called out in relief, "We got a small communication problem here." His face was slightly red and his flight suit was unzipped all the way down, as waves of heat could be felt radiating from the strange dragon.

"Damn its hot here!" Pike snarled, "Alright, boys, space out! Stop clusterfucking there! Firefighting teams to take their positions!"

A couple of trucks started up their engines and spaced themselves out. The men, some dressed in silvery full body suits while others in yellowish suits started to unroll deflated rubber hoses that were salvaged from the ship's firefighting equipment and repurposed into trucks. They quickly attached the hoses to the water tanks that contained a mixture of foam and water. The electric motors hummed as they built up water pressure and the firefighters formed an ad hoc perimeter around the Red Dragon.

"Sergeant Stamford?" Pike walked up to the sweaty Crew Chief and gave a pat on the snout of Blue Thunder as a way of greeting. "What's the situation?"

"Well, this fat lizard here doesn't know how to speak dragon!" Stamford gave a dramatic shook of his head, while Blue Thunder gave him an eye roll and a snort of disdain in reply. "So we can't speak with that dragon there."

"Not to mention, that thing is just too hot to approach," Stamford added, "We are like two, three hundred meters away, yet the heat waves its giving is pretty tough to handle without thermal insulation gear."

"Well, fear not," Pike grinned, "I brought some toys!" He propped the black carry case onto his knee and opened it, displaying a few sets of Universal Translator devices. "I got some techs on standby for IT support and we just hook this baby up to Blue's intercoms and we can try some basic communications with that Red Dragon."

"Why spend so much time for a dragon?" Blue snorted again, "It barely fit the standards for a heavy weight fighting dragon!" He puffed up his chest, and straightened its back, trying to make his shoulders as broad as he could.

"Don't jelly here!" Stamford slapped Blue's puffed up belly with barely an effect. "And stop showing off!"

"But its true!" Blue lowered his head, "Its just a feeble looking thing!"

"Blue!" Stamford snapped, "If that dragon beats you up, I wouldn't help you!"

Blue settled down on all fours and pouted at the side, "I'm just saying..." He spoke in a low voice to Bek and the rest of his crew who tried to control their laughter.

-----

The Red Dragon frowned as it watched the lesser dragon puffed up and glaring at it, but with a gesture of one of the meat bags, it deflated and appeared meek before it. Some of the walking meats appeared to be in the merriment of its treatment! No matter how weak its dragon bloodline has fallen, to be meek and controlled by those interior walking meats? What a disgrace to the great draconic race!

It roared angrily and with its head held up proudly, it strolled mightly and majestically over to the startled group of meat bags and the disgracefully lesser dragon, clearly a youngling from the way it acted and held itself!

I will teach this youngling what it meant to be the king of all beasts in the world! It thought as it stood before the clearly frightened and cowed meat bags. It radiated off waves of heat that instantly turned the surrounding temperature up by dozens and dozens of degrees before it opened its jaws and roared!

"RAAAAAAAAAAAWWWRRR~~!!!!"

"Give that fucking dragon something to drink!"

190 - Misunderstanding Dragons

"RAAAAWWWWRRRR~!!!"

The Red Dragon stomped mightly towards the pathetic meat bags and the confused looking youngling. It gave another roar, wanting to impose its dragon fear to the lesser creatures when suddenly a few jets of cold liquid and some thick foamy substance landed on its body.

Instantly steam erupted out as the water got into contact with its superheated scaled while the firefighting foam thickly coated its body. The Red Dragon gave out a yelp in confusion as tried to back off away from the water jets sprayed by those meat bags.

It raised its wings to block the water sprays and tried to spit some fireballs out only to swallow a large mouthful of water and foam. It started to cough and splutter in shock and distaste, and in its haste, it tripped over its own tail and flopped backward in a tangle.

Blue Thunder laughed and quickly muffled his laughter by burying his head with his wings when both Pike and Stamford glared at him. "Is it so funny?"

"BWAHAhahahaa!" Blue Thunder nearly rolled around on the ground in glee, "Serves it right!"

"Alright, cease fire!" Pike roared out, commanding the men to shut their hoses off. "We only got so much water to waste!"

The drenched Red Dragon sneezed and shivered, looking like a wet dog. The surrounding temperature had dropped drastically like someone just turned off the heater. It glared resentfully at Blue Thunder who quickly avoided its glare and swallowed the laughter boiling out of his throat. "Ahem..."

"Sooo... what do we do now?" Blue Thunder whispered, "I thought we are not gonna piss it off? It looks mightly pissed off now!"

"Can you just shut up?" Stamford felt a major headache coming and it wasn't due to the increasing humidity. "You are not doing any better!"

Blue Thunder covered his mouth with his wings and ducked low, "Sorry~!"

In the meanwhile, Pike had strolled up before the wet and indignation looking Red Dragon which was baring its teeth at him. Pike looked pretty chill and unconcern, while Blue Thunder whispered in awe, "Does Top doesn't feel the heat? Is he really cold blooded and made out of ice inside?"

Stamford gave Blue Thunder a 'wtf' look and asked, "Now where did you hear all that nonsense?"

"From the Marines!" Blue Thunder's eyes were as round as giant saucers as he gazed with awe and worship at Pike. "They say he once walk through hell and fire as if it was just a stroll in the park! Truly!"

"Stop listening to those Marine's housewives gossips and nonsense!" Stamford rubbed his aching head. "Gods... you are older than all of them yet you still are so gullible!"

"But they swear its true!" Blue Thunder gave a gulp, "I even remember seeing him at the walls! He ordered those firefighters to spray their magic at one of my old wing mates! Scary!"

Stamford shooked his head at Blue Thunder's adoration and awe to Pike, thinking that Pike was just wearing an environmental suit that regulates temperature underneath his camo fatigues. He didn't have the heart to break Blue Thunder's image of his idol.

"Stop listening to gossips! Or I cut your cheese fries rations!" Stamford warned sternly.

"Oh, noes! My cheese fries!"

-----

Pike stared eye to eye evenly with the Red Dragon and growled, "You bring the heat up again, and I get my boys to give u a nice dose of fire foam. You clear?" while he gestured to his men with the hoses.

The Red Dragon eyes narrowed and it followed the gestures of the strange meat bag to the sides were several more similar looking meats were holding on some long wiggling things. It remembered that they spray some sort of liquid and water that made it cold and wet!

It growled back at the strange unfearing meat bag, who alone stood before it speaking in some strange harsh language. Did this puny meat bag dare to try to threaten it? What insolence!

The Red Dragon braced itself back on its fours and was about to pounce again when the strange meat bag yelled something, and water sprays hammered it from several sides. It squeaked in surprise and discomfort, backing away from the water sprays before the meat bag gave a wave and the water disappeared.

Pike gave a sigh, "Blue! Go pin it down!"

"But... Sarge... I don't like getting very wet too!" Blue whined back.

"Blue... You wanna know how wet you can get when I get my hands on you?" Pike growled.

"YES SIR YES! Wait! I mean no, NO SIR!" Blue Thunder felt a chill down his spine and he quickly stood at attention, mimicking the Marines parade stance. "I go pin that dragon down, but please don't spray me too!"

"5... 4... 3..." Pike started to tap his feet in annoyance while looking at his wristwatch. "2..."

"I'M ON IT!" Blue Thunder cried out in panic and with a wooosh, he leaped over the heads of everyone and with two bounces, he landed on top of the shocked Red Dragon. "Excuse me!"

The surprised Red Dragon barely managed to resist when all 40 plus tons of weight landed on it. It screamed out in shock and pain as Blue Thunder tried to saddle on its back. "Keep still! And it will be over soon!" Blue Thunder roared as he tried to hold down the struggling Red Dragon without seriously injuring it.

"Ow!" Blue Thunder cursed as an errant red scaled wing slapped his face. "You nearly took my eye out! Urghhh!" The Red Dragon managed to squirm ontop its back. and face Blue Thunder, snapping at his face with its powerful jaws while Blue Thunder managed to pin its arms and legs with his own.

"Stop that!" Blue Thunder suddenly got enough and roared mightly directly at the Red Dragon, who surprisingly flinched back from his roar. "Stop... ?!"

-----

When that strange youngling suddenly landed on its back, it felt so shocked that it froze for a second which allowed the youngling to force it onto the floor in an embarrassing pose. When it finally regained its senses, it struggled angrily, thinking what a disrespectful youngling who laid its dirty hands on it.

But as it managed to flip itself over, the youngling had pinned its arms down with its superior weight and roared into its face! It looked at shock at the disrespectful youngling and growled, narrowing its eyes and a rumble rose from its chest as it prepared to unleash its breathe attack.

-----

"Oh fuck..." Pike watching at the side saw that the situation was going sour. "SPRAY THAT DRAGON NOW!"

Instantly water and foam were hosed directly at the Red Dragon's face, stunning it and making it choke as it unintentionally swallowed water and foam. It started to struggle wildly under Blue Thunder which tilted his head as far away from the water sprays as possible.

"Erm... guys..." Blue Thunder called out while holding firmly down on the Red Dragon. "I think that's enough water for the day? GUYS?"

"Cease fire!" Pike roared and strolled up towards the two Dragons once the water and foam had died down.

Blue Thunder gave a sigh of relief and peered down at the choking dragon underneath him. "I think it's dying..."

Pike took a look at the slumped head of the Red Dragon and yelled, "Blue, give it CPR!"

"CPR?" Blue Thunder looked at Pike in surprise, "What is CPR?"

"Urghh..." Pike frowned, "Forget it... Just use both your arms, put them like this and press against the chest of it." He demonstrated against the ground. "Press down against the lungs to force the water and foam out."

"Erm okay, I try..." Blue Thunder scratched his head and mimicked Pike's actions and press down hard on the chest of the Red Dragon. "HMMM?!"

"What is it?" Pike asked seeing the expression on Blue Thunder's face. It was surprisingly easy to read his facial expressions, thought Pike.

"Erm... I think its a female!" Blue Thunder appeared to look embarrassed. "Ehh... should I even be touching her... brea... I mean chest?"

"She is choking on the foam, you idiot," Stamford yelled as he came up next to them, "Force it out of her throat and lungs or she chokes to death, you big dummy!"

"Oh yes, of course!" Blue Thunder cleared his throat and went back to pressing the chest of the dragon.

"Roll her over to her side!" Stamford yelled, "Dek, grab the first aid box from Blue!"

Blue Thunder gently rolled the Red Dragon to her side, watching with mixed emotions as the Red Dragon coughed out large mouthfuls of water, foam and some blood. "Oh dear..."

"Since when you cared about modesty?" Stamford asked while he grabbed a listening horn from the first aid toolbox and held it against the heaving chest of the Red Dragon, listening to her lungs. "It sounds clear, might still have some water inside."

"Open her jaws, Blue," He ordered, and waited while Blue Thunder prised open the Red Dragon's jaws, "Massage her throat upwards, see if you can smoothe any trapped foam or water out."

"I watched enough drama to understand modesty and molest!" Blue Thunder snorted while he gently rubbed the dragon's throat, and after a short while the Red Dragon gave a mighty heave and vomited out another large mouthful of water and foam with some blood mixed together. "There now, all good now!" Blue Thunder gently patted the back of the Red Dragon. "I don't wanna get sued!"

"Phew, looks like its all expelled out," Stamford said, as he pressed the listening horn against the side of the Red Dragon which looked around her in surprise at the people and Blue Thunder patting her back. "Seriously, I am gonna ban all your dramas!"

Blue Thunder stuck his tongue out at Stamford before he gave his best dragon smile at the shocked and confused looking Red Dragon which stared wide-eyed back at them before her eyes narrowed in angry and she slapped Blue Thunder across the face with her wing and flipped him off her body.

She growled in anger and stared at the meat bags surrounding her and the disrespectful youngling that mounted her. "Filthy low blood! You dare lay your hands on me! Disgraceful!"

Pike frowned and stopped his men from spraying more water and foam at the clearly pissed off Red Dragon. The surrounding temperature was slowly rising again as the Red Dragon recovered her senses. Pike pointed to himself and said, "Pike." before he pointed to the Red Dragon who glared at his direction with hate-filled eyes.

She turned her head when one of the meat bags she recognized as the fearless one that approached and tried to threaten her with those magic water spells said something while pointing to himself. "Pi-e?"

Are they trying to talk to her? She thought. She knew of those hairless meat bags who used to offer her food and sacrifices in the past and in those days, only a handful barely knew enough of her tongue to communicate properly with her.

She glanced to the side, seeing those strangely dressed meat bags with those strange contraptions that barely gave off any magical powers but were powerful effect to suppress her fire element powers.

She also knew that she blacked out for a while, only to wake up to see them surrounding her and that... disgraceful youngling on top of her, rubbing and touching her body! As she thought of that scene, her anger flared up again and she gave off a growl at the clearly cowed youngling on the side.

She turned and look at the strange fearless meat bag who was called 'Pi-e' started to point at her without any respect in his posture and seems to ask what is her name.

"Rastraz the Red, Pride of the Volcanic Dragons!" She proudly puffed her chest out, despite the pain in her chest, which she did not know how she had gotten injured.

"Ra-taz... Rasta... Rastras?" The meat bag Pi-e, repeated and said. "Rastraz?"

Rastraz was surprised that he could pronounce her name properly after a while tries and nodded with approval.

"Good, you will make a good servant for me!"

191 - Here We Go Again ~

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

"Captain, Ground Team led by Master Sergeant Pike has established communications with the Dragon," One of the operators reported from his station.

"Great," Blake nodded from his seat, "See if he can entice the Dragon into our ranks. Failing that, make sure the Dragon does not approach within 150 kilometers of any of our outposts and the city."

Commander Ford raised an eyebrow and asked, "You wanna recruit that dragon?"

"Why not?" Blake smiled, "We have ample food now, what we are lacking is bodies."

"Another dragon?" Ford folded his arms as he leaned against the tactical plot table. "Seriously?"

'Yes, it's still a sentient being," Blake replied, "It might not be able to work in some industries but it can still be useful in the aviation sector. Not to mention their shit actually provides quite a bit of useful chemical compounds."

"Ha! If Blue Thunder and the rest of the dragons heard that you just hire them for their shit," Ford laughed, "I wonder what will they think about that!"

Blake grinned, "Well, we did mine the shit of their ancestors for saltpeter. Not to mention if this dragon can just produce thermal heat naturally, there is a lot of applications we can use it for."

"Sir?" A voice called out from the Command Bridge hatch and Blake saw Lieutenant Tavor from Intelligence making his way over. "I might have some bad news here."

"Damn," Blake gestured him over to the tactical plot table, "what is it?"

Tavor keyed his tablet to sync with the tactical table before he displayed several images. "As you know, we run a four-tier defense surveillance and detection network. The outer most layer is set at 200 kilometers. This layer is covered by our remaining UAVs."

"The second layer is covered by the Cobras on Combat Air Patrols roughly patrol around a 150 kilometer radius around our borders," Tavor continued, "The third layer is covered by the dragons, within a 50 to 100 kilometer band."

"And finally, our final line is covered by motion sensors seeded at key locations and Marine ground patrols," Tavor finished uploaded all the files into the system. "As with the incident with the Goblin invasion fleet a few month's back, I had tasked a UAV to do a recon pass every day."

Tavor selected an image and enlarged it on the screen, "This was taken 4 days ago, this 3 days ago and this was 2 days and this was yesterday." The images show goblins ships appearing on the wet docks of Goblin Island.

"This looks like a military built up!" Ford exclaimed. "Where did all these ships come from?"

"We suspect that they have some dry docks or construction slips hidden inside the sea caves dotting the interior of the cove, that is why we did not spot them earlier." Tavor explained, "This clearly shows that the goblins are preparing for something, and we counted roughly 30 'Dagger' class galleys and 10 'Sword' class sloops."

"It is way lesser than what they have thrown at us previously," Tavor said, "My department take on this is that this is a raiding party or pirates setting out for plunder."

"Any signs of our new friends from the Isles?" Blake asked, "Could the sea goblins be targeting them?"

"Most likely yes, but they might not be specifically aiming for our trade ships," Tavor said. "After all, we do spot one or two convoys of Isles merchant ships passing by us."

"The trade deal with the Isles still has a week or so before they are supposed to deliver their promise," Ford reminded everyone. "As for their payment of weapons and armor. We have them all ready and stored in climate controlled warehouses at Far Harbour. Even the glass they ordered is completed and is awaiting transportation to the warehouses."

"Put up more eyes to look out for the Isles' ships," Blake ordered. "Also continued keeping tabs on Goblin Island. When that Goblin Fleet sails, I want to know about it. Clear?"

"Yes Sir!"

-----

Northern Forest

In the past two days, several tents had sprung up among the ruined forest, where two disgruntled dragons laid watching each other cautiously. The temperature had returned to normal but the humidity was still high, making Flight Sergeant Stamford easily irritated.

"Come on, Blue!" Stamford stood before Blue Thunder with the top half of his flight suit tied around his waist, exposing a white tee while his arms were on his hips. "Keep talking to her! You know the translator will only work if you two keep talking!"

"But... she's scary!" Blue Thunder bowed his head low, "I meant, look at those eyes of hers! Actually its quite pretty but she wants to kill me!"

"For god's sake!" Stamford rubbed his sweaty face, "You are a goddamn dragon! You are a male and you are larger than her! How can you be so scared still!"

"But... females are hard to understand!" Blue Thunder whimpered, "I watched enough dramas to know that!"

"Alright, I'm cutting your hours on the Entertainment Rooms will be cut!" Stamford added, "Those damn soap operas are filling your bird brains with nonsense!"

"Nooo! I'm still watching 'Days of our lives'!" Blue Thunder moaned, "Please! I do it! I talk to her now ok?"

Stamford looked stunned for a while, "What the fuck? Why are you watching that shit of a soap opera?"

"It's interesting!" Blue Thunder grinned, "There's almost everything inside from love to family to death, even curses and vampires! Hehehehe! Great insight on hooman life!"

"Blue, I am gonna have a serious talk to you about what shows you can watch later," Stamford shook his head helplessly, "I wonder which idiot uploaded that series into the database..."

"Go talk to her now! Talk more!" Stamford yelled as Blue Thunder tried to creep away.

He whined, "Do I have to?"

"You want me to get Top over here to have a heart to heart talk?" Stamford decided to use Pike's reputation.

"Oh, it's okay, he's busy!" Blue Thunder moaned quickly, "I go right now!" And he hopped over towards the Red Dragon that was lying serenely on her side, watching the ongoing around her with mild interest.

"Hi, there!" Blue Thunder gave a forced cheerful greeting, as he approached the Red Dragon called Rastraz, who glared at him with her golden eyes. "Erm, how are you doing?"

Rastraz growled at the male youngling who came up to her without any proper etiquette and sighed inwardly. The young ones are always the ones that cause troubles. She had taken the past couple of days to assess her situation.

The strange meat bags appeared to be similar but there are actually two different races, the long eared people, and the short eared ones. She remembered encountering the long eared people many many moons back, and they worshipped her like a god.

It would appear that the descendants of her followers had probably forgotten her over time while she was asleep in the volcano if not those of her followers had passed on to the next life and these are of another nation.

These walking meats were so short lived, thought Rastraz as she glanced at the antics of these people around her. She turned her attention back to the youngling and wondered how did their proud race now willingly serve under those that once prey and worshipped them as gods.

Blue Thunder sighed and turned his head around and hissed to Stamford who was eyeing him like a hawk.

"She's not talking!"

-----

Highway to Far Harbor

Blake sat shotgun on the jeep as his driver gunned the engine down the super highway towards Far Harbor. The newly constructed work was like a miracle to the locals as they finished work on the road in just a month's time.

The freshly paved highway provided a much faster transportation route for the construction materials to travel up and down the Colony to Far Harbor while a split way links the highway towards the mines.

Several trucks rumbled passed the jeep carrying ores and other processed materials towards the industrial parks for the hungry factories to produce everything that they needed.

Blake smiled contently and felt that despite all, he had done pretty well for his people here. Just several months ago, when they first crashed landed here, there was nothing and now a thriving city and industries were built and the food was no longer worries on his mind.

In just another two more months, it will mark the 1st year anniversary of their crash landing on this planet, thought Blake. Damn, time flies.

The jeep soon arrived at its destination and Blake hopped off, leaving instructions for his driver before he headed towards a nondescriptive structure built alongside the harbor, with part of its structure out in the sea.

A couple of security officers saluted him as he approached and the sturdy looking metal door swung open to admit him in. Cooling air greeted him as he stepped into the building and out of the sun.

"Captain!" A youngish looking sailor leading a small party of other personnel stood at attention and saluted. "Senior Spaceman Mason, Sir!"

"At ease, gentlemen," Blake said after returning the salutes. "What have you got for me?"

"Come this way, Sir!" Mason gestured to Blake to follow him. "We have successfully tested two half sized prototypes and will be beginning to develop our third prototype following the feedback and test results from the first two."

"How much time is still needed before we can have a combat ready model?" Blake asked as they entered into a dry construction slip where two wooden speedboats sat on support moorings.

"We need about two months or so, at least," Mason replied as he did some mental calculation. "There are still some technical issues we need to iron out before we can start mass production of the boats."

"That's taking too long," Blake frowned, "Any chance of having the prototypes or a base model for use within a week?"

"A week?" Mason's jaws dropped slightly, "Sir, that is impossible. We barely just learn how to build a speed boat hull!"

"Nevermind, disregard what I asked, just continue with your work," Blake replied, "How about the wreck we salvaged off the coast?"

"Well, if you want that ship to commence operations," Mason brought Blake to another entrance which led them to the ship. "It's sea worthy now, thanks to Amar's skills. You know that ship carpenter we saved?"

"Yes, I remembered him," Blake nodded, "But he didn't return to his homeland with the Isles ships?"

"Nope, seems like he got nothing much there," Mason replied, "And the stuff we are doing here is more exciting for him too."

The wreck that Blake saw from the video and images taken were like two different ships. The rebuilt and reworked wreck now had a fresh coat of paint and a layer of steel plating covering its outer hull and the masts for the sails were all removed.

The top decks were remodeled and a superstructure now sits behind the forecastle and the quarter deck has a single black funnel jutting out. The wooden spars of the bowsprit and even the figurehead were removed.

The fresh coat of sea grey paint made the ship look totally unrecognizable as a former sailing ship of the Isles.

"This became Chief Matt and his department's pet project," Mason explained as he showed off the ship to Blake. "They are working on its internals now, giving it a powerplant and putting in that new techno-magic thingy that the Chief had worked out with the students from the magic school."

"Once it is done, it will be powered by a single 2,750 hp triple-expansion reciprocating steam engines with a single shaft propulsion system," Mason said, "It should give it roughly 16 knots (29.6 km/h) of top speed with a range of 3,500 nautical miles (6,482 km) at 12 knots (22.2 km/h)."

"Weapons?" Blake asked as he walked up the gangplank to the ship.

"Chief is looking at putting two of your new 3" 23s, one at the forecastle and one at the stern," Mason replied, "there will be cupolas mounts for dual 20 mikes on both sides of the ship and .50 caliber mountings for anti-air and anti-boarding actions."

"Where's the Chief?" Blake asked as he stood on the deck looking up at the two story tall superstructure.

"He should be down below the decks working on something," Mason said, "Need me to get him?"

"Of course, I want to get this ship up and running ASAP!"

192 - Chief of Naval Operations

UNS Singapore, Conference Room

"Alright, everyone please settle down!" Commander Ford clapped his hands together bring the meeting into order. "Quick summary for those not in the loop, we got possible goblin pirates that will commerce raids within our sphere of influence."

"Now this might not be much of an issue before," Blake spoke up, "But now we are looking to be trading partners with the Isles, therefore we need to combat piracy now to prevent it becoming an issue in the future."

"Now the thing is that we only have a single salvaged ship that's being converted into an armored cruiser or ironclad," Blake continued, "A single warship with mostly new and experimental tech with no support vessels and backup."

"Our fast attack craft concept will not be able to be implemented in time to defend against pirates and raiders," Blake added, "So the core of the fighting will be placed on the single ironclad we have now till we can produce more ships."

"Sir, how about we built some maritime patrol bombers?" Airforce Commander Tommy raised a question. "It can do coastal patrols and reconnaissance too. And if in the future if needed, it can also perform in anti submarine warfare."

"Sounds interesting," Blake replied, "Draw up a proposal for it. Good to have more cards in our hands even if we couldn't produce any of this equipment now."

"What else is happening now?" Blake asked around the table.

"Autumn planting will begin next week, mostly tubers and mushrooms types of crops which can survive over winter and be ready to harvest when spring comes," Princess Sherene gave her report. "The strawberries provided by you hoomans are also doing surprisingly well in the markets and also easy to grow over autumn and winter."

"This year it will be different than usual," Sherene smiled charmingly, "It will be a busy winter!"

"Why is that?" Blake asked.

"Well, previously, the farms could not provide any food during the cold months and most people stay indoors to conserve heat," Sherene explained, "Most people shut themselves in during winter, but with central heating, warm clothes, plenty of food and jobs in the factories and stores, people will be more inclined to work during winter!"

"I see, that is a good sign," Blake replied, "I guess."

"Well, a city that doesn't sleep is a thriving city," Ford said. "Now, since we have food production sorted out, I will the military side to report their progress."

Major Frank nodded and said, "Sir, currently we are preparing for the 3rd batch of Marine recruits to be processed and training will begin soon. But I think this will be the last batch of recruits we can recruit without putting a drain into our manpower resources."

"As of now, our current manning is at 842 combat operation Marines, with another 357 non combat support staff," Frank read out the numbers, "This upcoming batch of recruits will be roughly around 450 men, bringing the total military personnel at around 1,650."

"Our total population is holding at around 10k with the addition of 117 goblins and 268 slaves that joined us," Frank continued, "The Marines take up 1.6k of the total population and that is not counting, the Police, Air Force and the formation of the Navy."

"If we add the rest of the armed forces in, at least 40 % of our total population is allocated to the armed forces," Frank said, "Leaving us what? Less than 6,000 civilians, to support our industry and most of them are females?"

"We have less than 400 children of ages below 16," Dr. Sharon spoke up, "And our current birth rate is low, bloody low in fact."

"We need to introduce measures to increase our population for the next 15 years," Dr. Sharon said, "Or we will be reduced to an aging population in the future will no young adults to support our growing infrastructure in the future."

"Even if we mass recruit other races like orcs and goblins into our ranks, we still require people to make babies if we want to sustain the nation in the future," Dr. Sharon warned. "I will advise we implement measures to encourage people to start making babies soon."

"Got it," Blake nodded, "Major Frank, this will be the last batch of recruits, for the time being, only recruit later on to recover combat loses."

"And as for the population growth and babies," Blake looked at Sherene and Dr. Sharon, "Can both of you work out with Public Health services and City Hall to come out with incentives to entice people to start having families early?"

"Offer them government subsidies, housing, grants, education aid, medical, and what others you can think of without impacting our current industrial needs and workforce," Blake threw out some ideas to the both of them. "Set up a committee to oversee all these?"

"Ok," Sherene replied and nodded to Dr. Sharon.

"Now, baring all that," Blake continued on, "I want Chief Matt to led the project on fully restoring the ship to combat ready status."

"We do not know when the goblins pirates will act nor where will they hit," Blake said, "Commander Ford?"

"Ahem," Ford turned on the display screen which showed a coastal map of the region with icons of varies colors dotting the surface. "This is roughly the range we calculated a typical goblin raiding ship has." He highlights an orange circle around a skull, which had a text, "Goblin City".

"Now, these yellow dots are surface contacts, our radar has picked up over the past couple of days," Ford indicated another group of yellow dots scattered all over the area. "We believe that these are merchant convoys or ships. But it might also be pirates or other things that we do not know of."

"According to our investigations, the goblin sea has only two seasons that are suitable to sail and that is mid-spring to mid-summer and early autumn to end autumn," Ford explained, "Any other times, the sea is rough and covered with ship-killing storms."

"Now, the majority of these yellow contacts do not hug along the coast while the nearest ships still keep roughly a 100 kilometers distance from land," Ford continued, "Therefore we rarely spot any of them unless our recon flights spot them or the radar reports them."

"We estimate that our friends will be conveying the trade agreements to us within the next two weeks," Ford traced a line south along the coast to an icon that said "Far Habour".

"Therefore, to prevent any loss of deliveries, we need to ensure our ship is up and running within two weeks," Ford finished.

Chief Matt frowned, "Within two weeks to ensure everything is running and also completing ship trials? It will take a miracle to do that, Sir!"

"Chief," Ford nodded, "Yes, provided if you handle it only with your department."

"Yea, but who else has the expertise to work on ships here?" Chief Matt raised an eyebrow.

"We have some... people with skills with regards to that," Blake spoke up, "Goblins."

"What? You want to put goblins to work on the ship?" Chief Matt half rose from his chair, "This is obscene!"

"Chief," Commander Tommy injected, "They do quite well so far in my Air Force!"

"Still, we don't know what murderous schemes they might have in their minds!" Chief Matt growled, "We can't fully trust those things!"

"Chief, will I agree with your points," Ford stepped up and said, "But we do believe that with their help, they can vastly cut down the time needed to retrofit the ship since most of them have some sort of technical skills and are into machines."

"And if they proved themselves well," Blake added, "We can integrate them into ship construction work, which will help boost the industry."

"But Sir!" Chief Matt frowned, "I understand that we are lacking skilled work labor, but to use them to construct a warship which under the Military Code is classified as Top Secret and not to mention the same warship will be used against their own kind. Why would they be willing to help?"

"With the chances of sabotage so high, it will take double the time for us to conduct sea and combat trials as we have to double check and ensure everything that the goblins touched is clean!" Chief Matt continued to argue his points.

"I see," Blake frowned, "How about if we limit them to work in modular components?"

"Modular components?" Chief Matt repeated, "You want to install components in modularly?"

"Wouldn't it be faster to repair damages and losses?" Blake asked. "Plus if everything is modular, the ship is easier to upgrade in the future."

"But most of the ship has being nailed or welded down," Chief Matt replied, "Only parts that can be modular will be the superstructures, engines, and weapon systems."

"Than we do that for now," Blake said, "Let the goblins work on non combat systems and have a quality control team to inspect their work."

"Aye," Chief Matt nodded, "I guess we can do that."

"As for the Chief of Naval Operations," Blake grinned, "I am putting Commander Ford in charge."

"Huh?" Ford looked surprised, "You want me to be Chief of Naval Ops?"

"Yup," Blake continued smiling, "You do just fine, all the naval projects are now under your scrutiny."

"I..." Ford looked around the room, where everyone smiled and clapped. "Thank you, Sir! I will not fail you!"

"Good, then Project Ironclad is in your hands, CNO!" Blake smiled.

-----

Northern Forest

Blue Thunder's tummy rumbled as he laid with his nose sniffing before the cook wagon. "I'm hungry," He whined at the cook.

"Please wait!" The poor cook was terrified by the sword sized teeth filled mouth whining next to him. "It will be done soon!"

Blue Thunder sighed and settled down for a long wait, smelling the aroma of roasting potatoes waffling out from the huge specialized tumbler oven that looked like a twentieth century cement mixer.

"What- doing- you?" Rastraz spoke in poor English as she landed next to Blue Thunder who shot up in surprise.

"Ah?" Blue Thunder blinded his eyes rapidly in panic while keeping a safe distance from her, "I... am hungry..."

"Hun-gee?" Rastraz looked at Blue Thunder who shyly rubbed his tummy to mimic hunger. "Oh..."

She turned her head to look at the strange rotating drum where the even more terrified cook sweated under the waved of heat emitting off from her body. "What's that?" She pointed.

"Erm... nothing!" Blue Thunder turned his head away, "Nothing!"

Rastraz frowned and leaned closer to Blue Thunder who tried to edge away from her, "Noth-ing?" She noticed his teeth looked pretty clean and he doesn't have the overwhelming stench of rot coming from his mouth. "Hmmmm..."

"Erm... the potatoes are done!" The cook cried out and stopped the magic heat runes and used a long pryer and unscrewed out the bottom hatch, where a large wide barrel was placed.

Steaming potatoes rolled out from the tumbler and into the barrel, filling it up. Blue Thunder eyes went gooey as he stared at those creamy looking potatoes, a strand of saliva starting to dip from his opened jaws.

The cook and his assistant soon divided the hot potatoes into another barrel and started to mix in sour cream, yellow butter, and bits of fried lard. "Alright, it's done!"

"YAY!" Blue Thunder carefully picked up the hot barrel of potatoes and blew at it, cool it down before he started to feast on the baked potatoes, "Ooooo... will be nicer if it was fried and with cheese sauce!"

Rastraz blinked her golden eyes at Blue Thunder who happily chomped down the strange offerings the meat bags gave him, wondering what is it that made him so happy about. She gracefully stretched her neck over to the barrel offered by the meat bags who quickly made way for her and gave it a sniff.

It doesn't smell too bad. She looked at the presentation of the food which she assumed is something to eat and frowned, finding it lacking in colors and looks. Lumpy bits of cream colored things and bits of fats and oil are mixed in together.

She looked at Blue Thunder who was clutching the barrel with his arms and licking the insides happily and wondered if it really tastes that good. Blue Thunder noticed her hesitating and asked, "You don't want to eat it?" His eyes glowed with expectations.

Rastraz frowned again and carefully picked up the barrel, and closed her eyes before taking a bite of the unappealing food.

"OOO!"

193 - Project Ironclad

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor, Dry Dock 1

"One two, one two~" A couple of goblins bearing a piece of steel armor plating as large as them over their heads, marched off down the workshop to hand it off to the next station. Their short stubby feet matching in time with their chanting, "One two, one two~"

The shriek of a power tool screamed out amidst sounds of high pitched giggles and laughter made Commander Ford and Chief Matt glad they wore protective ear mufflers when they came into the assembly workshop for inspection.

"Looks like everything is going according to schedule," Commander Ford yelled over the sounds of heavy machinery, laughter and what suspiciously sounded like heavy metal music in the background. "All is well with Project Ironclad?"

"Yes," Chief Matt replied as he led Ford into a side office, the door shutting off the majority of the workshop noise. "In just three short days, since we allowed the goblins to work in the assembly yard, they actually proved to be much adept with working in the workshop."

"Seems like they are a natural in this field?" Ford asked as he watched the ongoings at the dry dock assembly floor from the 2nd-floor window of the office. "Any incidents?"

"A few minor injuries and lost fingers at the start with the goblins, but we knocked some sense into them and so far they are doing well," Chief Matt replied, joining Ford at the window. Teams of elves, humans, and goblins were welding and bolting plates of steel armor onto the decks and outer hull of the converted ship.

"We sealed the lowermost decks, turning them into watertight compartments," Chief Matt pointed out, "The belt armor starts from just above the waterline, at 5" thick and covers to the gunwale. The top deck armor is covered with 2" steel plates. Not to mention the existing wooden hulls and decks that were already in place."

"The interior ribs and structure of the ship will be braced and strengthened to allow the ship to withstand the recoils of the new 3" guns we will be putting in," Chief Matt gestured to a wireframe drawing on the table. "The original plan was to put two 3" guns only, but we decided to add in an additional in the mid structure, giving us a three gun broadside."

"Will the guns be in an armored turret or open air?" Ford asked as he leaned over the plans. "Can we have more .50 caliber guns too?"

"The 3" guns will just have a simple 2" thick gunshield," Chief Matt replied, "We only have so much time to work on the ship. As for the additional .50 caliber guns, sure, we can bolt in more mounts for them if you need more."

Ford nodded, "Okay, I guess we can only upgrade the guns when winter comes."

"So who's gonna be the captain of the Floatin' Wreck?" Chief Matt grinned.

"Floatin' Wreck?" Ford laughed, "Me."

"You?" Chief Matt raised an eyebrow, "You are the Chief of Naval Ops..."

"Well, well, I am the Chief of Naval Ops of a single ship," Ford grinned, "Besides, who else other than the Captain has any experience commanding a ship?"

"True," Chief Matt nodded, "Well if she's yours, you better look through all the specs and memorize everything bolt and nut onboard her then!" Chief Matt started to rummage through some documents on the table and handed over a thick stack of notes and papers.

"Start reading up on the new power plants and the magic heat exchange system that is installed, also I think you better start picking your crew soon," Chief Matt advised, "And check with Petty Officer Letts on where is your new office gonna be, I think you gonna need it pretty soon!"

"Damn, this is a lot of studies!" Ford frowned as he leafed through the stacks of manuals. "And most of these are just handwritten notes!"

"Well, everything is just jury-rigged and held together by grit, spit and a whole lot of duct tape," Chief Matt laughed, "Seriously, I won't recommend firing a full broadside till we have fully tested and trialed the system."

"That bad?" Ford winced, "I thought you braced the whole structure?"

"Yeah," Chief Matt nodded, "We did, but these ships are not like built like our 18th century black powder ships on Earth. The strain by the ballistas firing onboard the Floatin' Wreck is the most 1 is to 10 of what the 3" guns will be on the ship's structure."

"The steel bracing will help of course, but just try not to fire all three guns at the same time," Chief Matt cautioned again, "It might shake loose the structure and you might end up breaking the ship into two."

"Damn, that is quite a scary thought," Ford sighed, "How are the engines?"

"Here," Chief Matt flipped through the stack of manuals and pointed out one of them. "Double acting triple-expansion reciprocating steam engine. It makes use of the magic heat exchange system to boil water and is linked to the series of double-acting cylinders of progressively increasing diameter. These cylinders are designed to divide the work into three or four equal portions, one for each expansion stage."

"We decided against using the aero engines to power the ship as the triple expansion engines can have a smaller temperature range and reduced cylinder condensation. Also, the pressure difference is less in each cylinder so there is less steam leakage at the piston and valves. The turning moment is more uniform, so balancing is easier and a smaller flywheel may be used. Only the small high pressure cylinder needs to be built to withstand the highest pressure, which reduces the overall weight. Similarly, components are subject to less strain, so they can be lighter. The reciprocating parts of the engine are lighter, reducing the engine vibrations. The steam engine could be started at any point in the cycle, and in the event of mechanical failure the engine could be reset to act very simply, and thus keep running."

"All these advantages outweigh the use of the current aero engines we have," Chief Matt explained. "And the magic exchange system will draw the heat produced by the boilers and engine to generate steam. And it is all fueled by mana stones, which we can easily farm from the Dungeon and we do not need massive fuel bunkers to store the mana stones."

"Nice," Ford nodded as he flipped through the freshly printed manual with handwritten notes scribbled in here and there. "Single screw propulsion?"

"Yes, for now," Chief Matt nodded, "It's still new tech for us, so far the Experimental Group down the harbor had run some tests on it and it more or less work."

"More or less?" Ford placed the stack of papers down, "What if it breaks during high stress maneuvers?

"That's what the sea trials will be all about!" Chief Matt frowned, "Look, we have only so much time, manpower and expertise to research, build and implement without some goblins or Empire forces breathing down our necks."

"Chill Chief," Ford raised both his hands up, "I am not criticizing you, I am worried that if shit breaks down during combat, people die."

"Damn," Chief Matt rubbed his face, "Sorry, you are right, there are just so many projects to complete and everyone is expecting them to work 100% without any issues."

"Look, me and my team, we are not miracle workers," Chief Matt frankly spoke out, "Most of us are burn out from the stress and workload but none of the boys are complaining."

"I'm proud of them," He continued, "I know every one of them misses home and some loved ones on Earth, but they know they are stuck here forever and everything in this planet is trying to kill and eat them."

"But we can only do so much," Matt nodded towards the assembly floor and said, "Even working with former enemies that want to eat them is breaking their nerves. I don't know how long anyone can hold on to their sanity for much longer."

"Chief, I know the stress everyone has here," Ford sighed and watched the ongoing work over the ship. "Look, try your best to keep you boys happy?"

"I do," Matt replied, "I keep them busy as much as possible so that they won't have any idle time to think about other things. But this just can't go on much longer."

"I see what I can do," Ford promised. "Once Project Ironclad is completed, why not have the men off? We do have that R and R resort down by the coast."

"Yea, I get them to go for a break," Matt nodded, "Damn, I need one too."

"Yea, I will put you guys down for a week's vacation once we finish this," Ford grinned, "I know where the Captain keeps his liquor stash."

"Ha! I don't mind getting drunk for a week!"

----

Somewhere in Goblin Sea

Burning globes of fire hissed and splattered when they impacted the churning sea, throwing up clouds of steam and smoke. The lead merchant ship bobbed up and down in the waves as the ship's mage force more wind against the sails, desperately trying to increase the ship's speed.

The large merchant ship's sole escort nimbly dodged a heavy broadside of ballista bolts and flaming catapult loads from the small fleet of goblin raiders and swung in against the wind, coming alongside one of the goblin raiders and the ship shook as the four heavy ballista onboard fired.

The 12 kilograms wood and steel ballista bolts were flung out at a velocity of over 45 meters per second and traveled the short distance of 200 meters over the waves before depositing all their load onboard the unlucky goblin raiding gallery.

Screams and shriek echoed across the waves as the bolts dealt their deadly damage to the occupants onboard and the goblin ship suddenly tilted away from the chase and the other goblin raiders rapidly swerved to avoid ramming into the dead ship.

"Again!" The Captain of the Sea Stinger roared, "A gold royal to each man who hits their target!"

"YAAAAAAAAH!" The crew of Sea Stinger cheered as they put their backs into reloading the ballistas, readying them to fire another bolt at the persisting goblin pirates.

"Captain!" One of the lookouts on the crow nest yelled, "The Wave Dancer is making a run for it! Three raiders on her tail!"

"Curses!" The Captain roared, "Bring her about, we need to keep those pirates off the Wave Dancer!"

"Ayee~!" The crew quickly started putting on sails while the helmsman spinning the steering wheel, turning the ship back to the wind. The agile ship leaped as it completed its turn and leaped forward when the wind filled its sails.

"Send a bolt to those cursed creatures!" The Captain roared again, "Give them something to remember we are still here!"

The ship suddenly lurched and a bright semi transparent light ball covering the ship flared, and sparks of energy exploded over the sky. "Lucky spell!" The ship's mage cried out, "The shield still holds strong! No worries!"

"Damn," Captain Nemu of the Sea Stinger cursed, "Fire your ballistas as they bear! Two gold royals for any gunner who hits the goblin ships!"

The gunner crew encouraged by the increased promise of rewards worked harder at reloading the weapons and the chief gunners carefully sighted their weapons before releasing the bolt, cursing as they missed.

Just as the Sea Stinger slowly caught up to the three goblin pirates that were harassing the Wave Dancer, "Destroy those pirates! If our employer sinks, so goes our pay!" Captain Nemu yelled.

A screech screamed over the Sea Stinger, followed by a ripping tear of a canvas. Almost immediately the ship slowly, as a lucky bolt ripped the sails a large gaping hole. "Cut that sail down!" Captain Nemu roared. "Curses! We are losing the chase!"

The remaining two goblins raiders chasing after the Sea Stinger eagerly pounced forward as the Sea Stinger's speed dropped, their top decks filling up with giggling goblins hungry for blood.

"Prepare for repeal boarders!"

194 - A Good Place to Live and Die

The Colony, Academy of Science and Magic

Elizabeth Regnar, known as Liz to her friends, stepped carefully down the tiled hallway of the school which she was told to serve at. More like ordered, she thought as she adjusted her pace to match the female hooman who was bringing her to her new accommodations and start her servitude to them.

Her left leg felt itchy from the strange contraption they had bound to her ankle, the blacksmith stating repeatedly to her that it will know where she is at all times and should she attempt any means of hostilities, the anklet will self destruction with enough force to blow her leg away.

The hooman blacksmith further demonstrated its capabilities on a wooden mannequin and the wooden leg with the strange black anklet exploded spectacularly, much to her dismay.

She tried sensing it with Detect Magic and even apply her magic senses into the artifact but nothing was found. But she admitted that the hoomans tried her better than expected except for the horrible light cell, where the white lights and voices haunted her.

After she had agreed to serve the demons, no, hoomans as they called themselves. They put her into a more normal cell, with a cot, and iron bars imprisoning her in. Then the whole week was spent doing strange activities, like questioning questions on parchments which she found, strangely of superb quality.

She was taken in and out of her cell to another place where she was told to cast her most powerful spell at some mannequins spread out in an open field with strange markings on the floor. She conjured up her most powerful spell, an enhanced magic missile spell of 300 times, firing off 300 magic missiles at once and devasted the terrain.

But she noticed the expressions of the hoomans in grey and white clothes were barely impressed as they quietly watched and made notes in those flat brown tablets, making her felt like it was barely passable in their eyes. If she cast the same spell back at the Capital, the spectators will be cheering and commenting on her abilities and magic power.

On other days, a creepy looking soldier in those grey strangely cut uniforms will take her to visit a tired looking hooman who was called Doctor Sharon. The female doctor will start asking strange questions like if she wants something, will she take it using a soft or hard approach. And all the while the strange creepy soldier stood with his arms folded watching her with his sinister eyes.

She felt very uncomfortable under the presence of that soldier and was actually relieved to return to her cell. Next, during the evenings, she was taken to a class with other people to learn 'Basic English'. There she found Evelyn who appeared to be not her usual self, most likely she was depressed with the death of Dante. Evelyn barely spoke a single word and just stared blankly at the board. The teacher called her to pronounce words and she just stood up and repeated what the teacher asked without any emotion.

Liz tried to speak with Evelyn but Evelyn barely replied back, mostly in single words or with barely a nod or shake of her head. Liz felt frustrated and wondered if the had hoomans did something bad to her.

Now she followed another female hooman into this school which they named it as the Academy of Science and Magic. She saw several students dressed in long dark green skirts, pants and white shirts with a similar matching coat or jacket, presumably the academy's uniform.

The strange and scary soldier had taken her out of her cell and with a simple, "Follow me," and handed her a bag of clothes and other necessities and boarded the magical wagon they called a 'Jeep' and he drove her here.

He crudely listed down the terms and conditions for her limited freedom. She can only stay within the campus of the Academy. Leave the boundary of the Academy without prior approval will result in the anklet on her left ankle to explode. Any attempts to tamper with the device will result in the anklet to explode. Any hostile activities will result in the anklet to explode. Basically, he just told her almost every scenario that will result in the anklet to explode.

The pretty short hair hooman called Kristine brought her to a building wing away from the main campus of the Academy and said, "This is the hostel area for the staff working in this Academy. You will be living here for the time being till other orders come in for you."

"T-thank you," Liz stammered as she glanced up at the red bricked structure with perfect windows and tiny balconies lining the facade, thinking that her new environment wasn't so bad after all.

"You will take the role of an Associate Lecturer, which is to help the Lecturers prepare their class materials," Kristine said as she led Liz up the stairs to her room. "You will be dealing mostly with magical studies and also be helping out the magic R and D department in tests and trials with regards to magical stuff."

Liz frowned as she barely understood what Kristine was saying like R and D departments. What is that? She wondered but she kept quiet just nodding along. She sort of understood the Associate Lecturer title, which should be sort of an assistant.

"Once you settled down and is capable of handing a class by yourself, we will promote you to be a Lecturer, meaning you will teach classes by yourself," Kristine continued before stopping at a door marked '209'. "This is your room and your keys."

"Wait, you meant that I will teach a class by myself later on?" Liz asked in surprise, "But I thought only magister ranked mages could take students!"

"We do not have that sort of requirements here," Kristine replied as she leaned against the wall. "As long you pass your Advanced English, Maths and is a 5th level circle mage and also worked as an Assistant Lecturer or have prior experience in teaching, we grant the person a three month probation in teaching."

"I... see," Liz blinked her eyes in surprise, "But age?"

"As long you are above 18, you can work," Kristine continued to answer her questions patiently. "From what I read from your file, you will turn 18 before spring in a few months time."

"File?" Liz looked alarmed, "W-wait how did you know my age?"

"Nevermind," Kristine gave a creepy grinned which sent chills down Liz's spine. "You will get used to it later. Now put your stuff in the room, we still got a few places to go. I will show you the shower facilities, the cafeteria, the staffroom, and the classes. Also, I will introduce to you the teachers you will be helping out."

-----

Somewhere off Goblin Sea

"Put more sails!" Omaj yelled at his crew as he held on to the wooden railings on the deck. His ship, the Wave Dancer punched through a wave with a white splash of salt water. "More speed!"

He glanced to the rear, seeing the escort ship he hired falling behind as its sails got ravaged by an unlucky bolt. "Quick! While the Sea Stinger is distracting the goblins! We must get away!"

"Master!" The Wave Dancer's First Mate yelled out, "All sails are up already! We are already at full speed! Unless..."

"Unless?" Omaj eyes narrowed.

"If we lose some of the cargo?" The First Mate suggested.

"Lose some of the cargo?" Omaj cried, "You want to lose your head?"

"No! Master!" The First Mate looked horrified and ran off away from the helm.

"Mahel!" Omaj roared, "Make more wind! I didn't hire you to look pretty!"

The ship's mage sighed as he lowered his slim soft hands down. "Master Omaj, I have already done my best, the sails can only take so much wind."

"Damn!" Omaj cursed, "Wet the sails!"

The crew started hoisting buckets of seawater up from the sides of the ship, and splashing the sails of the ship, making the canvas wet. Wetting the sails down helps to hold more wind as the canvas fibers swell in thickness with moisture and wetting sails is one way of decreasing porosity and hence increasing effective driving force and making the sails stand flatter.

"It is working, Master!" The First Mate at the deck yelled as the ship picked up a bit more speed. The men were exhausted as they had to hoist buckets of water up constantly to the top of the masts and pour them down the sails which in the wind, evaporated quickly.

"Master Omaj! Look! The Sea Stinger!" A lookout from the crow nest yelled out as he pointed to the rear.

----

Captain Nemu cursed as the ripped sailed were chopped off by his crew and suddenly a laughing cry could be heard.

"Waaaaaaaakakakakaaa~~~" A goblin smacked against one of the undamaged sails, the fabric cushioning its fall and it slid down the billowing sails like a child's slide, landing on the deck while giving off a victory pose in the middle of the crew of dumbstruck sailors. "SUCCESSSSSS! SWEEE!"

"KILL IT!" Nemu roared at the stunted sailors who reacted a second slower than the happy goblin who cut down two of the nearby sailors with its rusty blade, turning the decks slick with blood.

"WEEEEEEEeeeee... Oh Noess!" Another goblin flew by, but it missed the ship and landed into the sea. "OOOPPPSSS!"

"Repel boarders!" Nemu cried again as more and more doped up happy goblins started appearing in the skies, launched by the goblin catapults from the raiders closing in fast like sharks. "Ballistas! Kill those ships now!"

"Captain! Beware ahead!" The lookout roared from above, gesturingly wildly to the bow of the Sea Stinger.

Nemu turned and saw one of the goblin ship chasing the Wave Dancer and turned about and was heading in a ramming course.

"Helmsman! Hard to starboard!" Nemu yelled as the distance between the two ships closed.

The helmsman desperately spun the wheel, turning the ship hard towards the starboard side and the Sea Stinger groaned as it slowly turned. The oncoming goblin raider under bow ram missed and the two ships passed just meters between their hulls. The gunners on both ships didn't waste the opportunity and fired their ballistas and catapults in point blank range.

Both ships shook madly as heavy projectiles impacted the hulls. The goblin ship floundered as two bolts punched hard and deep into the bowels, cracking the hull at the waterline, sending gallons of seawater into the belly of the raider.

The Sea Stinger did not fare as well as the ship was just a light vessel, its wooden hull barely 16" thick at the sides. The crudely built goblin ballistas had enough energy to smash through the thick hardwood, three bolts fired from the raider as it passed. As the raider sat lower in the water, the goblin gunners fired upwards at a slight angle and the three bolts exploded into the interior of Sea Stinger.

One of the bolts even upset a ballista off its mount, shattering the arms of the ballista and crashing several gunners under the weapon, while another bolt punched a quarter of its length through the top decks, its metal tip gleaming in blood.

The lower deck gunners and crews screamed as splinters the size of a man's arm exploded out from the wooden beams and hull as the bolts punched through the hull. The splinters acted as shrapnel and frayed everyone not protected, ripping skin and tearing body parts into bloody scraps in seconds.

Almost immediately, a quarter of the crew of the Sea Stinger was down. Nemu cursed as the deck under him quaked and he peered over the railings and saw the devastation wrought by the goblin raider against the side of his ship.

Suddenly, a three pong hook hammered next to Nemu against the railing. Shocked, he followed the rope that was attached to the hook and saw it came from the disable goblin raider that was slowly drifting away but still within range.

"Gods of the Sea! Here they come!"

195 - UNS Floatin' Wreck

Goblin Coast, Far Harbour

The loud wailing of a ship's horn blasted out as the UNS Floatin' Wreck left the mooring slips under her own power. Workers and staff lined the harbor watching the converted armored cruiser slowly made it way out of its dock with puffs of grey smoke coming out of its single smokestack.

Commander Ford stood inside the newly built wheelhouse and watched the small bridge crew of three, manning their stations as they slowly piloted the ship out to open waters. Ford finally released the breath he was holding in as the ship cleared the pier and was out in deep water. Most of the crew were from the original UNS Singapore crew, taking charge of the rest of the newly recruited elves and even a couple of goblins working in the boiler room.

Ford picked up an old fashioned handset and dialed to Engineering, "Grayson, how are the engines and boilers holding?"

"Looking good so far," came back the reply.

-----

UNS Floatin' Wreck, Engineering, Boiler Room

1st Lieutenant Grayson returned the handset back to the wall bracket. He was formerly in charge of Ship Operations & Maintenance onboard the UNS Singapore was recruited by Ford to be the UNS Floatin' Wreck's Executive Officer. He leaped at the chance almost immediately, preferring a command posting rather than working as the Operations Manager for the Colony.

Grayson watched the two goblins who chittered happily next to the magic heat exchange system inside the boiler room. He kept one eye on the pressure gauges and another eye on the two goblins who wore a cut down work overalls and a leather gloves and toolbelt armed with wrenches, spanners, and screwdrivers.

One of Chief Matt's underlings, a black male, grinned at the side to Grayson, "XO, don't worry about Bone and Razor, those two are pretty cool."

Grayson grinned back, "Still, keep an eye on them, Eddie, doesn't hurt to be extra careful."

Petty Officer Eddie had been assigned as the Chief Engineer onboard the Floatin' Wreck by recommendation of Chief Matt and he has been handling his duties seriously. The two goblins, Bone and Razor looked upon Eddie in awe, as Eddie's skin was dark chocolate, making the goblins yapped about him being some reincarnate of some pagan gods they worshipped and not to mention being a techie was more than icing on the cake to them.

The two goblins oversee several valves and dials while scribbling something down on a clipboard and scrambled over to report to Eddie, almost kneeling and bowing. They instead threw a salute and grinned happily, "Pressure good! Heat good!" Plenty of steam!" Bone grinned, showing off his broken tooth, while his topknot was tied with a piece of animal bone.

Razor had a missing ear, reported next, "Magic stones looking good! Plenty of magic, air is not too hot too!"

"Great work!" Eddie double checked their records physically, comparing the numbers they checked on the clipboard against the dials and grinned, "Alright! Keep watch, if the steam pressure hits the red bar, remember to release some of that steam! Don't let the pressure built up too much!"

"Aye aye Chief!"

-----

UNS Floatin' Wreck

The dull grey hull of the Floatin' Wreck gently crested a wave and a siren blared on and off. Crewmen rushed to their action stations while division heads yelled at the men to their stations. Ford stood inside the wheelhouse and watched as the crew reacted to the drills.

Several crew members rushed up to the 3" bow gun and removed the oilskin tarps covering the weapon. A couple of them started to unlock the ready ammunition lockers next to the gun and started removing shells, while the rest started to spin the cranks, turning the gun to the floating targets dropped overboard earlier by the ship.

The gunners pried open the breech of the gun and a shell was dropped in. The rammer shoved the shell into the breech followed by a thick circular wad of bursting charge and the breech was closed and locked. "Ready!"

The gun team stepped back, covering their ears, leaving only the gunner sighting the weapon. He raised his left hand up to signal to the Weapon's Officer that his gun was ready to fire. The Weapon's Officer stood on top of the wheelhouse, in the flying bridge, giving him a 360 degrees view all around. He turned to the back to look at Gun No. 3 and noted the raised hand.

The officer picked up the handset and spoke, "Captain! No. 1 and No. 3 ready to fire!"

Ford looked at his watch, timing the gun crews readiness and speed. He turned to Grayson and said, "Timing could be better, they took 6 minutes and 39 seconds to ready and lay the guns."

"Yes, sir!" Grayson nodded back, "Its the crew first time working onboard the ship out in the sea. They normally just drilled on a simulated popup of the ship and the guns on land. A few more drills like this, I am sure we can cut their response time by at least 50%!"

Ford nodded, "I understand, actually it's not bad for a start."

Grayson grinned, "Don't worry, Sir. I am sure we got a pretty solid crew here despite most of us are land lubbers."

Ford gave a laugh before he said, "Tell Weapons to give me a three round rapid fire for each gun."

"Aye! Rapid Fire, three rounds!" Grayson repeated the order and spoke into the handset. "Guns, three rounds rapid fire!"

The Weapons Officer, receiving the information, picked up another handset and passed on the order to the guns. "Three rounds rapid fire! Fire!"

The 3" 23 Mark I guns roared. The ship shuddered slightly from the recoil and the gun crews started to service the weapons, extracting the spent shells casing, placing a new shell and bursting charge before slamming both into the breech and locking it. The gunner laid the sights over the target and fired.

The targets were roughly 400 meters away, drifting along with the tide and waves. The shriek of the shells from No. 1 and No. 3 guns landed somewhat nearby the target, throwing meter tall water splashes.

The 2nd volley, landed closer to the floating target, made out of a few barrels and a big red painted rectangular board. The 3rd volley also missed the target, one of the shells landed close enough to sent sprays of seawater over the target.

Ford frowned as he watched the water splashes using binoculars. "Local fire control isn't very accurate." He commented.

"Yes, Sir," Grayson agreed as he watched the artillery practice. "Allow Weapons to control the firing?"

"Yea, let's just keep drilling them," Ford nodded, "Tell Weapons to switch to central control of the guns. Same as before three rounds of rapid fire."

"Aye!" Grayson replied. "Central control and three rounds rapid fire!"

The Weapons Officer received the order to switch to central control and he checked the laser range finder mounted on the pair of powerful binos. He keyed in the numbers onto his tablet, where a firing table and chart calculated the elevations and angles of each individual guns.

He spoke into the handset, directing each gun, giving the elevations and angles to set. The gunners quickly crank the wheels to turn the guns to the correct elevation and angle. Raised hands were soon seen by the Weapon's Officer indicating the guns are laid and loaded. He then yelled into the handset. "Three rounds, rapid! FIRE!"

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbor

The UNS Floatin' Wreck gently docked against the pier and the worker threw ropes over to the crew to tie the ship down. Ford stood at the gunwale watching the securing of the ship before the gangplank was laid down. He gestured to Chief Matt who was watching impatiently by the harbor and almost ran up the gangplank once it was set down, followed by his staff.

"How was it?" Chief Matt asked eagerly. "Everything working as it should?"

"Well, one of the two magic heat exchange systems broke down," Ford reported as they entered the wheelhouse. "I think we need a mage onboard to handle arcane stuff."

"I see," Matt nodded, "What other issues are there?"

"We barely topped 14 knots running at full speed, that's 2 knots lesser than what you promised," Ford read out from a note. "And we could only sustain that speed for 36 minutes before one of the magic heat exchangers blew. Lucky there wasn't any injuries."

Matt turned to his staff who nodded, "Got it, we will look at it."

"Next, No. 1 and No. 3 guns are working fine, but I think we need to reinforce the deck more," Ford continued, "The gun crews reported that the deck moved each time they fired."

"Got it, next?" Matt nodded.

"Steer controls feel sluggish like there is too much drag," Ford said. "Also I think No. 2 gun can be installed."

"Sluggish controls and installation of No. 2 gun..." Matt frowned, "OK, We will do a once over. The guns performance?"

Ford grinned. "Not bad, we manage to hit the targets we dropped over. I say with an accuracy of 40%."

"40%?" Matt frowned, "The 3" guns are pretty accurate."

"I know, but we are firing on moving targets on an unstable platform." Ford explained, "4 out of 10 shells hitting a target the size of a car is pretty good for a rookie crew, don't you think?"

"True," Matt conceded. "I guess more drills and training will be required yes?"

"Of course!" Ford looked at his crew being drilled by Grayson as they docked. "Training and drills keep the crew sharp and deadly."

-----

Southern Sea of the Isles

Fleet Master Dijon frowned as he watched pieces of wreckage and flotsam drifting up against the hull of his ship. Several of his crew were dredging the flotsam, trying to see if they could hook some up to identify which ship had been wrecked or destroyed.

"Anything?" Dijon asked as he walked back to the helm.

"Master Dijon," The First Mate of the Fury replied, "We don't know what ships were lost here, or who is fighting who."

"There is plenty of wreckages floating around and these might have being carried over by sea currents and waves," He said as he held a piece of broken wood, carefully giving it a once over before he tossed it over the side. "But it looks like maybe two to three ships worth of wreckages?"

"Order the rest of the fleet to close up and be ready for combat. And bring the cargo transports to the middle of the formation," Dijon ordered, "I want the fastest ship to scout ahead."

"Aye, Master!" The First Mate nodded and started to bellow at the signal boy who was in charge of laying out the signal flags.

Soon a flurry of colorful flags arranged in a certain order was flying from the tops of the sails. Dijon raised his telescope and watched the other ships in his fleet reply with a confirmation signal flag and the ships started to close up into a circular formation. The group of merchant ships carrying ore and grains for the rebels stayed inside the protective formation. The ships promised by Dijon to the rebels also took shelter inside.

"Master, at this rate, we will reach Far Harbor in three days," The navigator spoke up as he reviewed the sea charts. "As long as the wind holds and we do not meet any dangers."

Dijon nodded and kept his hands behind his back as he watched the drifting wreckage and flotsam slowly drift away. There was an occasional bump as a barrel or crate hit the hull of his ship and he frowned, wondering what has happened around these seas and the only way to know is to see which ships fail to report back according to schedule.

"Calm seas and fair weather..." He whispered softly to himself.

"What the thirteen hells is happening?"

196 - Your Navy

Skies over Goblin Coast, Southern Sector

The General Atomics MQ-242 "Owleye" reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle hummed happily as its glider wings were deployed, allowing it to maintain a power saving gliding attitude in the skies as it patrolled its designated sector assigned to it by its human masters.

Currently, UAV UNIT 03, nicknamed "Ozzy" by the crew was running on autonomous control, its electronic brain churning zeros and ones at a speed unmatched by anything this world could rival. It's highly sensitive multi-spectrum optics suddenly picked up movement under it and its electronic brain started checking its programming, following the correct lines of code and dialed in its optics at the movement spot.

It saw a cluster of tiny ships like objects moving under wind power and engaging in combat. In 0.2 seconds, its processor started to compare references from the installed Identification, Friend or Foe database, comparing the hull shapes and sizes with known ships while at the same time, a Priority Alert directive programmed in its core fired an encrypted compressed 18 kb communication data pulse to its controlling station onboard the UNS Singapore.

-----

UNS Singapore, UAV Control

UAV pilot and Sensor specialist, Seaman Rodney was half dozing off at his station. The bulbous front heavy UAV control headset covered most of his head and weight over 4 kg. He sat on his control chair, resting his head against special neck support that helped take most of the weight off his neck.

As he laid there for hours at a time with both his hands holding on to the flight controls on either side of his 'cockpit' chair, he had quietly set in a program for the UAV to run autonomously and it will alert him should it detect anything out of the norm.

It was a common practice done by UAV pilots and their superiors normally ignored it as long the UAV pilots don't ignore and properly check on the alerts reported by the UAVs. Military Regulations required a human operator to be overseeing autonomous AIs at all times, but it was not really rigorously enforced most of the time.

The United Nations Security Council has anonymously voted to not have fully self-aware AI constructs due to the French China Colony War in the late 2050s, when a nuclear armed UCAV (Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle) fired a couple of 15 megaton mini nukes on to a French Colony as the AI detected multiple hostiles inside the French Colony and its analysis was to destroy the Colony to prevent the French from expanding it into a forward staging area by adopting a scorched earth doctrine.

Later somehow Wikileaks managed to get access and leaked the records of the investigations and supporting data forensics of the AI which fired the thermonuclear missiles, It reported that the AI's core had calculated that killing an enemy civilian population of over a 100,000 to prevent the French from gaining a military foothold into friendly territory which has an 88.426% probability to change the course of the war towards the French's advantage. The use of nuclear weapons was justified by the Chinese AI's core analysis, prompting it to make its own decision to destroy all infrastructure in the area to deny the French forces.

The leak and general disclosure of the investigation had a massive backlash to the Chinese Government which prompted the end of hostilities between the two countries and also the 2061 Peace Accords banning the use of nuclear weapons on green planets and civilians. It also started a wave of anti AI sentiments and distrust among the populations in the outer colonies and also on Earth.

-----

Rodney jolted awake when UAV UNIT 03 pinged him. The loud ringing designed to wake the human mind continued to echo in his head even after he shut the alarm down. He quickly accessed the data streaming in from UAV UNIT 03, checking the live imagery being broadcasted directly. "Shit."

Rodney hit the alert button, which alerted the Duty Officer who came over and Rodney took over controls of UAV UNIT 03. Instantly his goggle's Head Up Display interface turned blue and a <CONNECTING...> message text popped up.

Once the link was established with the UAV, the blue interface faded away to be replaced with the view of UNIT 03's cameras giving Rodney a sense of vertigo as he felt like he was a bird flying in the air and looking down to the earth and sea.

He turned his helmeted head left and right and UNIT 03's cameras mimicked his actions, following his view, allowing him to see what is around. Rodney narrowed and focused his eyes on a spot under him, and the view zoomed in allowing him to see the area he focused on.

Micro sensors and monitors lined the interior of the UAV Control Helmet, which scans and monitors Rodney's irises for changes. These minute changes allow UAV pilots to control the UAV cameras like focus, change of spectrums and even target lock on using just their eyes.

UAV pilots had to train specificity and learn how to control their eyes and facial muscles to be able to pass the UAV piloting courses. One of the reasons why most people does not want to play poker with UAV pilots as they are very good at controlling their facial expressions.

"What is it?" The Duty Officer of the day arrived next to Rodney's station and glanced at the screens displaying the views of UNIT 03. "Wait, are those ships?"

"Yes, Sir!" Rodney replied as he deftly controlled the UAV to drop its attitude and trail the ships. "Looks like they are fighting."

"Damn, those darker ships look like goblins raiders!" The Duty Officer started to contact the Command Bridge. "Bridge? We got some situation here."

-----

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

Blake frowned as he looked at the list of reports coming in of pirate attacks. "How's work on the... Floatin' Wreck?"

Commander Ford and Chief Engineer Matt looked at each other and Matt spoke first, "Well, we are still working on some teething issues."

"And the crew is being trained and drilled on the job," Ford added next.

"When can the Floatin' Wreck enter service?" Blake asked as he looked up from the reports.

"Realistically?" Matt frowned, "I say at least two more weeks."

"Two more weeks?" Blake shooked his head and placed the tablet he was reading from in front of Matt. "Have you seen this?"

"6 reports of sightings of pirates over the past two days within 200 km of the Far Harbor," Blake growled, "Another 2 reports of pirates engagement with other ships spotted by UAV recon flights."

"That's a 400% increase in goblin naval activity in the week and at 200 km off Far Harbour, that's like within a couple of days of sailing," Blake continued, "If the Isles know that we cannot control the seas around our harbor, what do you think they will do?"

Chief Matt shrugged, while Ford gave a sigh, and said, "They will cease all future forms of trade with us."

"Yes, that is one of the scenarios that will happen," Blake nodded. "Not to mention we do not have a thousand UAVs to keep watch along the entire stretch of coast!"

"That's thousands and thousands of kilometers of probable landing zones for goblins raiders to drop off and attack our outposts and farms," Blake rapped his table while making his point. "Even the Airforce could not be everywhere to cover us."

"Well, Cap," Matt frowned, "The thing now is if the Floatin' Wreck breaks down, we got no means to tow it home. That's why we are running extensive trials to ensure that the ship will be able to operate in a combat environment, survive it and limp home on its own power."

"We don't need an indestructible ship here," Blake replied, "Ford, I know this is under your jurisdiction, but we need to have some form of presence out at sea."

"The number of pirates running about, frankly is quite alarming," Blake rubbed his chin. "If we are unable to stop the pirates, I am sure it will come to bite us in the ass in the future."

"Couldn't we send in the Airforce to bomb Goblin City?" Matt asked.

"We could, but the planes have not enough fuel to make it back home," Ford answered. "We could use the Valkyries but they are getting overworked now."

"Yes, Commander Tommy reported that for each hour of flight on the Valkyries they have to ground it for maintenance for four hours at least," Blake said, "And the Valkyries are being tasked as transports for the time being."

"Therefore, the fight with the pirates will fall on your shoulders," Blake looked at the two officers who grimaced. "It's a tough war, but I got confidence in you two."

"Sir, we technically could launch the Floatin' Wreck for pirate suppression duties, but I will advise limiting its range to with 50 kilometers of Far Harbour only," Matt replied. "While we do that, we could make some sort of a barge or tug using the plans from Project Fast Attack."

"So at least we have some way to at least tow the ship back or even conduct rescue work should the Floatin' Wreck breaks down within our waters," Matt suggested.

Blake turned to Ford and raised an eyebrow, "Your navy, your decisions."

Ford rolled his eyes before he nodded, "Do it."

"For the time being, I have the Airforce engaging any pirates within range," Blake said, "Far Harbor also needs an airfield so that they can support the Navy in the future."

"Got it," Ford nodded grimly. "I talk to Letts."

"Alright, you two," Blake grinned, "Enough with the glumpy faces, once all these shit is over, I got a nice bottle stored up for you guys. What say you?"

"Aye..."

-----

Somewhere in the Goblin Sea

Mad laughter woke Captain Nemu up and he found himself tied upside down and dangling over the rafters of a dark hold. From the creak and swaying of his surroundings, he knew he was in a ship and when the splitting headache passed, he slowly noticed that he wasn't alone.

Several other figures were tied and hang up in the same manner as him. He wasn't sure if they were alive or not, but he was pretty sure he got caught by the goblins as the laughter and screeching cries were made by them.

The hold smelt bad of rot and decay. Light penetrated from cracks between the hulls and from a tiny mage light glowing on the other end. Crates, barrels and other objects laid haphazardly all over the area and from the sounds of laughter, the goblins must be celebrating.

Suddenly shrieking voices were heard and a flood of light appeared that reignited the throbbing headache of Nemu. and a hatch leading above decks opened. Several child sized goblins appeared and they excitedly grabbed the nearest tied up body and started to drag it up steps, which woke the man who started to groan at the rough treatment.

"They are gonna eat him!" A voice suddenly spoke to Nemu from the side, surprising him.

The hatch slammed shut and the bright light and laughter got cut off. Nemu wriggled himself, making his body rotate to face the direction of the voice.

"So we are just rations for those cursed creatures?" Nemu asked as his body dangling by the ropes turning him around slowly and the person who spoke earlier came into his view.

"Yes..." A roughed up sailor, with a puffy face, came into view of Nemu. He was also tied upside down and swaying with the rise and fall of the goblin ship. His eyes were void of any life as he said, "I saw what they did to the rest..."

"First... they cut your limbs one by one while you are still alive." He whispered. "They drain your blood to make blood sausages with your guts that they remove from your slit bellies..."

"Than they roast your limbs in front of you and chop the top of your skull off and eat your brains raw..." The man shrugged as he recalled the grotesque scenes he witnessed.

Above deck, a scream rang out long and hard, followed by giggles and sounds of children like laughter.

197 - Good Intentions

UNS Singapore, Captain's Quarters

Lieutenant Tavor knocked on the hatch and entered, "Sir."

"Close the hatch," Blake replied as he saved his documents in his computer. "Sit down."

"Now, Tavor, let's start," Blake finished up his work and turned his attention to the Intelligence Officer.

"Sir, as of the past week, the Mage girl and the Hunter girl has not displayed any signs of rebellion," Tavor started his report. "We will continue monitoring their activities but I suspect that the Hunter girl might have some kind of mental block or issues."

Blake nodded, "Keep them under your eye."

"Yes, Sir," Tavor replied. "Here is the list for the executed prisoners."

Blake took a deep breath before he picked up the soft copy document. "Is this the only copy?"

"No Sir," Tavor replied, "I have the other only copy under lock and key in the secured vaults."

Blake nodded and leafed through the lines of text. "268 goblins prisoners executed under the context of being unfit for civilized duties. They have gone too far feral to be able to integrate into any civilized society."

"4 forest trolls and 2 rock trolls also terminated as they were also deemed too feral and dangerous to release," Blake continued reading. "The bodies were given to the Hospital for autopsy and harvesting of their adrenal glands."

"68 Empire prisoners of war executed for war crimes or deemed too dangerous for release," Tavor said coldly. "Also another 13 citizens imprisoned under the Sedition Act, all of them pro-Empire supporters."

"13?" Blake raised his eyebrows, "That's all? I thought we might have more."

"There are some, but most are just normal people with complaints and minor grievances." Tavor replied, "We interviewed them under the pretext of doing a simple survey and they were released."

"What do you plan to do with 13 hardcore empire supporters?" Blake asked mildly.

"Under the Sedition Act, sedition acts and speech, and the printing, publication, sale, distribution, reproduction, and importation of seditious publications that undermine the administration of government are deemed as traitors and criminals," Tavor cited the law by heart. "Such being found guilty will be punishable by death of a firing squad or life imprisonment."

"Than you better make sure you investigate thoroughly," Blake leaned back on his chair.

"Yes Sir," Tavor nodded, "As for HUMINT, I have recruited and trained several native operatives and had dispatched them to the town of Falledge."

"If all goes went, we can start seeing results in a couple of months," Tavor said. "The agents will be using a covert signal radio set for comms."

"HUMINT(Human Intelligence)?" Blake sighed, "Damn, sometimes I really wish for advanced technology with all our spy planes, satellites, and drones."

"I did take the liberty to see if we can access the two satellite survey probes that were launched before we landed here," Tavor said, "No luck. We would need a very powerful signal booster or direct laser the probes as they orbit over head."

"Then we will need to hack into their systems as we lost all the codes and access when we crashed the ship," Tavor added.

"The IT guys are still trying to retrieve and hopefully restore the damaged ship data core," Blake sighed, "But good work."

"It is my duty, Sir," Tavor replied without any expression. "Sir, I also like to inform you that Claymore One under the orders and initiative of Lieutenant Joesph has taken out a number of slaves that were sowing dissent."

"Oh, really?" Blake was surprised, "How did you find out?"

"Lt Joesph reported the incident to me and I covered up their disappearance to prevent anyone from finding out," Tavor replied.

"I see," Blake nodded, "Is that all?"

"Yes Sir," Tavor replied again.

"This meeting is adjourned," Blake stood up, "You know what to do."

"Aye Captain!" Tavor stood up and saluted before exiting the cabin.

Blake watched Tavor close the door before he picked up the stack of documents and reread everything. By the time he finished the whole report, it was late, with the ship's clock showing 2347 hours.

Blake dropped the whole report into the laser shredder, watching the paper report turn yellowish than black before turning into shredded ashes when the shredding jaws spun up.

He sighed heavily and poured a finger of scotch from his dwindling liquor store before downing it down in a single gulp, feeling his insides burning. He placed his glass down and picked up his communicator and sent a text message to Sherene.

<I miss you...>

-----

Northern Forest, Hydro Dam Power Station

Corporal Bartley frowned as he walked towards the makeshift pen for the wind wolf family. He saw two uninvited 'guests' looming tall and imposing over the fence and one of them seemed to be licking her chops at the wolves.

"What are you two doing here again?" Bartley asked as he stood before the two dragons, Blue Thunder and the female red dragon, Rastraz.

"Erm, just showing her the sights!" Blue Thunder rumbled good naturedly. "I heard that the Marines had adopted some Wind Wolves! So we came to see!"

"Didn't you guys saw enough in the past two days?" Bartley gestured around him. "You are scaring the pups!"

"Really?" Blue Thunder gave a surprised wide eye look at Bartley as he tossed one of the wolf pups into the air with his front limbs, making the wolf pup bark in happiness. "They seemed to like it?"

"Kids..." Bartley shook his head, "But the mothers don't like it. Especially with your lady friend drooling there."

"I not drooling!" Rastraz straightened her body, posing as majestically as possible with her massive serpentine body. "I- I'm just... hot, its sweat! No! I mean... Urghh! Why do I need to explain to a meat bag!?" Rolling her eyes she pouted her large lips and turned away in a huff.

Bartley shook his head and went to check on the mother wolves who welcome him by licking his hands. He pushed away the thick fur of the wolves to check their wounds and gave a nod, patting the sides of the wolf and said, "Good, looks like you two are healing well."

"Weeeeee ~" Blue Thunder tossed another pup up, while another wolf pup gnawed at his wings.

"You don't have to worry about them," Bartley assured the two mother wolves, "Blue is a good guy."

"Hehe," Blue Thunder looked slightly abashed, "You sure know how to make a dragon happy!"

"I think you are here for the food," Bartley retorted, "Aren't you on active duty now?"

"I am to escort and keep her highness company," Blue Thunder puffed up his chest proudly, "Besides, Marine chow is better than Airforce!"

"Please don't let your commanding officer hear that," Bartley whispered. "Anyway why come here? You can bring her to the Airbase or even Camp Alpha."

"I think it is something to do with negotiations?" Blue Thunder scratched his head while using his wing to fan the puppies playing at his feet.

"They want to recruit me or something," Rastraz gave a snort, her command of English was almost magical, most likely due to her racial traits or something. "As if I am some sort of object that can be easily bought!"

Blue Thunder gave a look at Bartley and did a very human shrug. "Oh well, she wanted to stay around the country side, and agreed to keep her powers down and not burn down the forest as long as we can keep her fed..."

"So... here we are!" Blue Thunder gave a big grinned and started to play with the wolf pups.

"I think... you wanted to play and eat more than anything..." Bartley frowned at Blue Thunder who acted like he didn't hear Barley's words.

"When's lunch?" Rastraz suddenly asked as she pushed away one of the pups that tried to lick her. "I'm hungry..."

-----

Goblin Coast, Far Harbour

A crane rumbled and the operator expertly lowered the 3" gun down over the superstructure of the Floatin' Wreck. A cluster of workers and techs reached out to grab the ropes and gently steered the gun into the No. 2 mount.

Once the gun was in place, the ropes were untied and a team of welders started to weld the gun into the deck while others bolted the mountings into place.

Commander Ford stood inside the cramped wheelhouse and watched the ongoing onboard his ship. "How long more before we can take her other for another sea trial?"

Lieutenant Grayson looked at his tablet and said, "Work is still ongoing to retune the engines, while the No. 2 gun should be installed within the hour, I say, before noon today, we should be able to depart for another round of tests.

Ford nodded, "Supplies and fuel?"

"Currently we have two weeks worth of food and water already stored in the new refrigeration holds for the crew of 85 including 11 officers," Grayson reported, "Ammunition for the guns are not loaded till before departure."

"We are currently carrying 79 kilograms of waste mana stones," Grayson continued, "These will be used for the Magic Heat Exchange System, and the Dragonite fuel bunkers are at 20% capacity."

The Magic Heat Exchange Systems uses waste mana stones that were either badly chipped or leftover parts after being cut.

"Due to safety concerns, fuel and ammunition will only be loaded when yard work and before departure only," Grayson said.

Ford nodded and turned around when a sailor knocked on the bridge door, "Sir, Air Force Commander Tommy is here to see you, Sir!"

"Where is he now?" Ford seemed surprised by the sudden visit and he gestured the sailor to lead the way. "Grayson, watch the ship."

As Ford walked down the gangway, he saw the skinny ex pilot looking up with awe at his ship which gave him a proud sense of ownership. "Tommy? What wind blew you here?"

"Ford!" Tommy turned from his gawking and grinned, shaking Ford's hand happily. "Nice ship you got there!"

"Thanks," Ford grinned back and lead Tommy away from the bustle and noise of the dry dock. "This way."

Ford led Tommy into a side office and they sat down and catch up with each other area of expertise before Tommy grinned and reveal why he came down.

"Look, I know the pressure is on the Navy now that pirates are pillaging all over the area," Tommy said, "And the proper air strip on Far Harbour is still months away from completion."

"My A/F-1 Cobras could land and take off from a flat grass field if needed," Tommy said, "So I am dispatching a squadron over to support you. I will put them under the Navy command, but you will need to pave the ground for the planes to land and take off and also provide hangers and bunkers for their ammunition, fuel, and spare parts."

"Thanks, Tommy," Ford nodded gratefully, "That would help a lot. I will get the construction crew to prioritize the basic airfield for the planes."

"No worries," Tommy smiled, "There is one more thing, I got a new experimental plane and I like the Navy to take it."

"A new experimental plane?" Ford frowned, "Why would Air Force give it to the Navy?"

"Well, it's just a simple redesign of the existing Cobra," Tommy said and he took out his tablet and transmitted a file over to Ford who opened the file and whistled.

"A sea plane version of the Cobra?" Ford looked at the plans and the specifications.

"Yup, The A/F - 1N Sea Cobra," Tommy cheerfully presented his new plane. "The wheels are replaced with hollow airtight floats, giving it the ability to land and take off from the water."

"This is still in an experimental phrase for this aircraft," Tommy warned, "So its max performance and stats are still under review and testing. But I think this will help the Navy in establishing its presence over the ocean."

"Damn," Ford's eyes glowed and he laughed, "I think the Marines are gonna be pissed, we took all the 3" guns and now we even got a new plane to play with!"

"Please don't break it..."

198 - Vacation

South of Goblin Coast, Goblin Sea

The Fury and her escorts steadily made headway, their sails filled with cold air blowing towards the continent as the season was changing. The ships spotted a massive sea creature out beyond the Goblin Sea, the creature hunting something as a deep wailing cry could be heard from afar.

The sailors made gestures to their gods and prayed that the sea creature will not come closer while Fleet Master Dijon ordered the fleet to bear away from the creature, keeping their distance from it, lest they attract its attention.

"Could the previous wrecks be caused by that creature?" The Fury's First Mate asked Dijon while they were inside his cabin.

Dijon frowned, "Maybe, maybe not."

"It will be wise to still keep the men at ready," Dijon said.

"But Master, the crew has been on cold rations since yesterday," The First Mate not daring to look at Dijon. The fire in the galley will be doused during ship actions and the men had to endure leftover cold porridge and hardtacks for meals. "They are nervous and grumbling!"

"Issue them another ration of mur," Dijon ordered, "The alcohol should keep them happy for a while but only for those on their breaks!"

"Aye, Master!" The First Mate gave a broken tooth grin and went off to issue the order.

Dijon sat down on his chair and opened a magically locked box and grinned to himself. Inside the box was a silver necklace encrusted with various precious stones and a centerpiece of a large heart-shaped emerald stone.

He admired the necklace under the glowlight and was pretty confident that the Princess would like it. He snapped the box shut and restored the spells on it before keeping it locked in his sea chest.

"Soon, I will see you again," Dijon smiled as he strolled back out of his cabin. "Very soon."

-----

The Colony, City Hall

Princess Sherene sneezed and rubbed her nose, wondering if she caught the chills. The weather had turned cold lately as autumn slowly seeped its way over the land. She was busy ensuring that the farmers had changed their crops and have the proper tools and equipment. Not only that, she has to add in a new fishing department to the Hunting and Forestry sector which will regulate the new fishing industry that is getting set up.

Sherene sighed at the amount of work she has to do and wondered why the hoomans have to be so detailed, even tho she acknowledges there were good points in being detailed. I think I need to hire more help, thought Sherene as she rubbed her eyes and yawned.

Suddenly a soft chime sounded from her computer and a message notification popped up. She clicked on it and smiled warmly as she read the message.

<I miss you...>

-----

Goblin Sea, Far Harbour

Captain Blake walked up the gangway of the UNS Floatin' Wreck with Princess Sherene to much fanfare from the crew and workers. Blake stood at attention and saluted the flag hung over the radio mast and asked, "Permission to come onboard?"

Commander Ford with the ship's officers and the crew turned out in their finest stood at attention and saluted Blake. "Permission granted, Sir!" Ford grinned and gestured Blake to follow him.

"Do you need to make it so formal?" Blake asked as he nodded and greeted some of the sailors as they headed into the ship.

"I wish I had a band or had time to train some of the crew to play something," Ford laughed at Blake's expression. "Seriously, its good for the crew."

"Welcome aboard," Ford gave a quick tour of the Floatin' Wreck. "Now, the ship is roughly there, I say another couple more sea trials and a few more fine tuning and debugs, the ship will be fully operational and ready for combat."

"I don't think we have that much time," Blake replied. "We picked up the convoy inbound to Far Harbour. They are roughly a day's sail away if the weather holds."

"Damn," Ford frowned. "I hoped that we have a couple more days to work out more bugs on the ship first."

"Well, you know what to do," Blake said, "Take her out and provide escort for the Isle's convoy."

Ford nodded, "Got it, I will get the ship prepped and ready to depart by today."

"I heard you got a new toy from the Airforce?" Blake changed the topic. "How is it?"

"The float plane?" Ford smiled, "Well its good to have some form of aerial support. The couple of prototypes Tommy dropped on my lap so far is doing great."

"We build a simple floating dock for the float planes using spare wood logs and barrels," Ford said. "Refueling is a bitc-, I mean refueling is still tricky." Ford gave an apology to Sherene who smiled back.

"We don't have to proper facilities to store the fuel tanks and refueling equipment out in the sea at this moment, so we are reduced to refueling by hand using canisters one by one," Ford explained. "Once the water hangers for them are built, we can do it more efficiently."

"But so far they proved to be pretty handly," Ford added. "As long as the seas are calm enough, they can take off fairly well."

"Good," Blake nodded, "Good initiative by Tommy to give you the seaplanes. Well, I hope to see some form of carriers in the future."

"Carriers?" Ford frowned, "If we can solve our manpower issues, that wouldn't be a problem I guess. Once we master proper shipbuilding techniques, I am sure we can build some."

"Great, I leave you on your work," Blake grinned, "And for god's sake, you are the Chief of Naval Operations, I expect you to lead the Navy, but not at the front lines."

Ford laughed, "Well, where is the fun in a desk job? Besides, if I don't take the chance to be a Captain now, I probably won't have the chance in the future!"

"True, but watch yourself," Blake reminded him, "You're a senior officer, we can't afford to lose you!"

"Well, Navy warfare doctrine which I am writing will be to engage the enemy from long range," Ford winked, "We just stay far away and pound the shit out of anyone!"

-----

"It's beautiful," said Sherene as she stood before a stretch of pristine clear water, her bare feet buried in fine white sand.

Blake smiled as he held her hand, watching the wind blow her hair messily. "You are beautiful!"

Sherene blushed and pouted, "I am talking about the sea!"

"Haha I know," Blake pulled Sherene down on the sand, cuddling her in his lap. The security detail that discretely escorted them melted away somewhere, giving the two of them some privacy. "We need to spend more time together."

"I know, but it's so busy at the City Hall," Sherene replied as she leaned into the warm of Blake's chest.

"We need to go on dates more!" Blake declared, "After all this is over, I am thinking of having a vacation with you!"

"But can we afford to take the time off?" Sherene sighed in Blake's arms. "There are so many people depending on us."

"A vacation is good," Blake replied, "Helps recharge the mind and body, if not we be too stressed out."

"Stress?" Sherene frowned, unfamiliar with the word.

"Yes, stress!" Blake smiled, "Stress can make you fat! Hair loss! Bad skin!"

Sherene startled as she clutched her tummy, followed by her hair than her face at each word Blake said. Her eyes were big and round as she stared worriedly at Blake who burst out laughing at her reaction. "Really!?"

"Hahahahaha, yes, in a way," Blake gave Sherene a tight hug till she squeaked. "That's why we need some time to relax!"

"YES!" Sherene nodded vigorously, "Let's go on a vacation!"

-----

Goblin Sea, 179 km from Far Harbour

The heavy twang of the ballista arms sounded loudly next to Fleet Master Dijon as he stood next to one of the deck ballistas. The sweaty bodies of the gun crews toiled worked the cranks, turning the gears to pull the wooden reinforced arms of the ballista back.

Dijon stood on the side and observed the arc of the heavy ballista bolt flying into the distance and saw a white splash next to the goblin galley. The gun chief yelled, "Give me three points to the right!"

The crew quickly lifted the rear of the ballista and reset its position on pre-marked notches on the wooden decks. Finally, the arms were cocked back fully and four men lifted the heavy bolt and slotted it carefully into the firing bracket.

"Stay clear!" The gun chief roared, "Ready? FIRE!"

Another heavy twang sounded, and the bolt shot out, flung by the still vibrating arms of the ballista, arcing its way towards the pursuing goblin ship. The bolt landed close to its mark, clipping the side of the goblin galley, shaking the whole ship and sending a small spray of lethal wooden splinters around the impact.

"Give me one more point to the right!" The chief roared and the crew labored to lift the ballista again.

Dijon grinned at the crew, "Good shot! Extra mur for you men!"

"YAAAH!" The gun crew roared out happily and with renewed vigor, they worked to reload the ballista again. "KILL!"

Dijon turned his attention to his fleet, watching his experienced ships forming up into a battle line, and ballistas firing, the dark bolts hitting the goblin raiders as they tried to close in. He frowned as this was the second pirate attack made by the Pirates over the previous day.

What is happening here? He wondered as he watched another bolt skewered another goblin galley sending tiny figures and wood flying. Why are there so many pirates at this time?

His fleet had formed up in a flying 'V' with the merchant ships protected inside the 'V'. A total of five battleships, including his Fury and another two scouting sloops of war which were harassing the wounded and stricken goblin raiders at the flanks.

Five large triple masted merchant ships carry each carrying 200 tons of metal ore and livestock followed by two beaten looking single-masted sailing ships with their deck stacked full of fishing boats. Those ships hurdled tightly together between the majestic warships like little chicks as the warships kept the marauding pirates away.

"Ahoy! Sails ahead!" The lookout at the crow's nest yelled down and the boy pointed forward. Dijon frowned and turned away from the side and followed the direction the boy was pointing. He pulled out his foldable telescope and adjusted the view until a blurry image jumped to his eyes.

Dozens of dark grey square masted sails could be seen in the distance. Dijon waved his First Mate and handed him his telescope, "What do you see?"

"Hmm," The First Mate peered into the scope and frowned, "Square rigs, looks goblin. Looks like they are trying to box us in."

"Curses," Dijon snatched back his telescope and peered through them again. "Damn green skins!"

"Order the fleet to tighten the formation," Dijon ordered, "We will break through the enemy blockade at full speed!"

"Order the sloop Captains to go into independent action," Dijon ordered next, "They are to head to Far Harbour."

"And any ships left behind is to rally at Far Harbour with all possible haste!" Dijon ordered, "May the Gods of the Sea protect us all!"

-----

Skies over Goblin Sea, 175 km away from Far Harbour

"Sea Wyvern One," The pilot hit the press to talk button on his mic. "To Poseidon, current position at Point Beta Six, I'm seeing a naval battle ongoing here, over."

"Poseidon, roger that, stay over the AO for observations, over."

"Roger that!" The pilot gently tilted the float plane over and dropped his altitude to get a close view of the ongoing sea action.

"Poseidon! This is Sea Wyvern One! It's the Isles convoy! They are under attack by a large fleet of goblin pirates!"

199 - Shock and Awe

Fleet Master Dijon cursed again and he spat a mouth of blood across the gunwale and wiped his mouth. Leaning against the gunwale he took into the situation of his surroundings and found most of the goblin pirates were dead or dying.

Some of the crew were tossing the bodies of the foul smelling goblins overboard while others laid down on the deck weeping in agony as their lifeblood slowly seeped away. The ship's surgeon and his assistants busied themselves over the wounded and dying, casting healing spells or applying salves.

"What's our situation?" Dijon asked his First Mate as the bloodied man panted his way over.

The First Mate with a torn scalp and his body full of sticky drying blood reported in pants, "Master, we managed to fight off the goblin boarders. We are still tallying the loses but we have many wounded."

"See to the men," Dijon nodded and dismissed him away. He turned towards the stern and glanced out to the sea, seeing his fleet getting tangled up with the goblin pirates. "Where did they learn to be so cunning?"

His fleet had formed up hours before and were charging forward with full speed directly into the waiting goblin ships. His flanks were hounded by more goblin pirates, exchanging ballista fire with his ships on the sides.

As they could not maneuver out of the encirclement, Dijon decided to use their larger and heavier hulls to plow past the more fragile and smaller goblin galleys. But he did not expect the goblins to have a trap set up for that.

As his fleet slammed into the goblin ships, a couple of the goblin galleys were smashed aside, the weaker hulls splintering and tipping dangerously over, spilling goblins and stuff into the dark sea. Suddenly, Dijon's ship the Fury shuddered wildly and came to a sudden stop. The sudden stop sent the cheering crew flying across the decks or into wood bulkheads and some even went flying off the ship and into the dark waters.

Dijon found himself sailing through the air as he was flung off the poop deck and over the stairs down to the top deck. Luckily he managed to land on a pile of ropes which barely broke his fall, suffering a dislocated shoulder as he landed awkwardly on his shoulder.

Roaring in pain, he climbed to his feet and stared around in surprise. While his crew recovered, he peered over the edge of the ship and found a glowing magic formation underneath the waters which had trapped his ship.

He quickly checked his surroundings, seeing every warship in his fleet caught in a similar trap while the merchant ships desperately attempted to maneuver away from crashing into the rear of the trapped ships.

Shriek screams and drums were heard as the goblin galleys making good use of the disorientated sailors to close the distance to boarding range. "Make ready to repel boarders!" Dijon roared. He grabbed a nearby crewman with his good hand and ordered him to help reset his dislocated shoulder.

A loud crack and harsh growl, Dijon gingerly rotated his arm and shoulder while he drowned a healing salve, feeling the numbing pain slowly fading away. "At arms! Come on! On your feet sailor!"

Giggling goblins soon flooded the sides of the Fury as two of the galleys crashed against its hull. Grappling hooks and chains lashed against the side of the ship and the crew desperately hacked and sawed away at the grapples.

The goblins dug into a small pouch made out of beast leather or elven skin and inhaled the handful of ash grey powder covered with specks of evil green glitters. Some throw the powders into their mouths and they chewed the dry powder while inhaling the power inducing drug.

The drug once inhaled into the goblins' system, almost immediately they felt no fear and pain. The colors and sounds of their surroundings became clearer and more vibrant. The pulsing blood veins of the long legs looked oh so delicious and tempting. Even the screams and cries of the long legs sounded so funny and pitiful!

"WAAAAKAKAKAKAKAKAAKAKAAA!!" The goblins giggled and crackled madly as they stormed up the grapples, so in their mad rush up fell off and despite that, they laughed more and ignoring their injuries, they attempted the climb again up the vertical hull of the long legs ship. "Nyahahhahahahaa~"

Dijon slashed at the dozens and dozens of dirty green fingers crutching on the railings, chopping them off like sausages on a chopping board. "Sunleo!" He roared at his ship mage. "Break the magic formation!"

"Yes, Master!" The mage cried back and he waved his staff in a series of complication gestures as he weaved a high level dispel spell.

"Cover the mage!" Dijon ordered his crew as more and more goblins swarmed up to the decks. "Protect him! He is our only chance of breaking out of the spell!"

"Awwwww~" A goblin gave a mocking cry as it cut down one of Dijon's crew in front of him and Dijon's saber separated its sword arm away, sending the goblin toppling back in giggles. "tis but a scratch!"

The goblin leaped forward with its good arm out wanting to claw at Dijon who side stepped away and hacked down, chopping the remaining arm off the laughing goblin, "Hahahaha, just a flesh wound!" The goblin giggled madly. "me bite your legs off!"

Dijon backslashed the loony goblin's head off and ending its tirade and moved in to help provide support to the besieged crew protecting the mage.

"Greater Dispel!" The mage cast the disenchantment magic and the magical shackles holding onto the Fury vanished and the ship slowly picked up speed as while dragging the goblin galleys along.

"Push the goblins back!" Dijon roared, "Destroy the grapples! Their ships are dragging us down!"

The crew with renewed vigor slammed with a vengeance into the goblins who thought it was pretty funny. The melee turned the decks slick with blood and gore, the goblins died laughing while the sailors died screaming and crying.

The last of the lines tying the Fury to the last goblin galley parted away under repeated assaults by the crew had the Fury gaining more speed as the strong wind filled its undamaged sails. Dijon took a scoop of cool water being handed out in buckets to the crews by the cabin boys and felt refreshed,

He glanced out to his fleet and wrenched in pain as he saw one of his ships catching fire. Thick black smoke billowed out from the holds and hungry flames licked the sails. Before long the burning mast unable to hold its weight anymore folded inwards and the ship drifting as a burning hulk.

"Damn the goblins to the thirteen hells!" Dijon roared, "Gods of the seas take them to hell!"

"Master! Trouble!" Someone yelled from the decks and Dijon turned his attention over, his anger temporarily forgotten. "More sails!"

"What?" Dijon made his way past the stunned crew and looked with his telescope. "No way!"

"How many ships do the damn goblins have?" Dijon fumed. "Arm the ballistas! Clear the decks! Signal the rest of the fleet who can still move! I want them to form up on the Fury! Quick!"

The crew quickly worked to clear the deck of bodies and clutter while the signal flags flew up. The few warships that managed to clear the magical traps turned towards the Fury while the merchant vessels and the two unarmed schooners had managed to dodge ahead of their escorts as they had managed to avoid the magical traps set by the goblins.

The two sloops of war had heroically charged in to protect the merchant ships, keeping the bulk of the goblins focused on them as they pursued the fleeing merchants.

"Master!" The First Mate cried out, "Our ships can't handle another magical trap! The merchants will drag us down, we can still turn back and retreat!"

"We can't abandon the merchants still!" Dijon frowned, "Not to mention the capital lost, if the crew gets picked up by the goblins, they will suffer a fate worse than death!"

"But Master," The First Mate frowned, "we lost a third of our strength just from that ambush! Now there is another fleet in front of us! We must turn back to the Isles!"

The merchant ships turned desperately away from the new goblin fleet as they spotted them, angling with the wind, hoping to cut away from the blockade. Dijon looked worriedly at the merchants ahead and back to his reforming warships. Only four out of the five of his ships survived and almost all badly affected by the trap.

"The merchants will not make it!" The First Mate cried as his experienced eye gauged the distance and wind. "The goblins will cut them off easily."

Dijon cursed and hammered the railing with his fist, angry that he was powerless to stop the goblins. What good is being a Fleet Master if he couldn't destroy the goblins attacking his ships!

Suddenly one of the goblin galleys appeared to shatter into flames. Small gout of flames and grey smoke rosed from the affected galley. A rumble and a faint thunder crack followed the explosion of the galley and that was not all as another galley went up in flames in the same way.

Dijon stood dumbstruck as he tried to understand what was happening. The goblin fleet appeared to be in disarray as they turned left and turn, seeming trying to avoid something and another galley blew up again. "What is happening there?"

"Master! What is that?" The lookout cried out and pointed. Dijon followed his pointing arm and with his telescope, he saw a strange object with smoke coming out from it. Sunshine appeared to glitter off its surface and there were several small pops of smoke appearing on its side.

"What in the heavens is that?" Dijon frowned as the strange grey shaped object appeared closer and closer at a speed that boggled his mind. He glanced briefly at the goblin fleet and saw that there weren't any surviving ships and he felt afraid of the unknown. What could have destroyed a pirate fleet of over 15 ships in a few turns of the glass?!

A low moaning cry seemed to come from the strange grey monster as it approached swiftly. It was fast enough that a bow wave could be seen from its bow and a large wave trailing from its stern. As it came closer, it looked like a ship but without any masts and sails.

Figures could be seen moving on its top and Dijon tensed up, "Ready the ballistas!"

"Ahoy the ship!" A voice suddenly blared loudly and clearly across the sea between the strange vessel and Dijon's fleet. "We are from Far Harbour!"

"What?" Dijon looked stunned, "What sorcery is that?"

"Fleet Master Dijon, I am Lieutenant Joesph, we met at the reception." A voice called out from the strange ship. "We are here to escort you."

-----

The scattered Isles' fleet slowly reformed back and the strange grey ship came alongside the Fury. Dijon stood at the railings and observed the rebel's ship with an experienced eye. The ship length looked similar to their twin masted ships but other than that, the ship was totally different. His Fury was longer in length and rode taller on the waves compared to the grey ship.

A large forecastle sat at the forward mids of the ship with a strange looking barrel that has a flat squarish flat covering. Another similar long barrel sat on the top deck while a tall sailless mast rosed from the midship just before a strange funnel-like tube that gave off smoke and steam.

Dijon gaped at the strange ship as he stepped on the deck and found that ship was cover in metal! A metal ship that sails without wind and can float on water? What kind of magic is this!

200 - Beginning of a New Era

Dijon stood stock still as he stared at the short eared creature before him, dressed in a grey uniform and wearing a flat sloping hat. His hand darted to his saber pommel only to find Lieutenant Joesph's hand gripping his in an iron grip.

Lt Joseph shook his head while preventing the Isles Fleet Master from drawing his saber. The bridge sentry Marines stood at the ready, their hands on the flap of their sidearms. Dijon looked around at the tensed look coming from the soldiers and he relaxed his hand away from his saber, putting his hands up in surrender.

"At ease, people," Commander Ford waved the Marines to stand down. "Let him keep his weapons."

Joseph nodded and stood at the side, placing his hands behind his back as he stood at parade rest, eyeing Dijon's actions carefully while the two Marines relaxed and returned to their spots.

"Welcome to my ship, Fleet Master Dijon," Ford gave a disarming smile. "Welcome aboard the Floatin' Wreck."

-----

UNS Singapore, Command Bridge

Blake closed the comms line with Ford that came from the Floatin' Wreck and traced the position of the ship on the tactical plot. The blinking green dot on the map showed its current location that was being relayed back to the computers by the UAV performing overwatch in the area.

Telemetry from the UNS Floatin' Wreck's surface radar had several other pings blinking on the tactical plot which the sensor operators had tagged them as ships from the Isles. Other unknown contacts were also tagged and the sole Sea Cobra flying in the area was being vectored in to investigate.

Blake keyed another line on his comms and the Princess answered shortly. "Hey, the Floatin' Wreck has met up with the Isles convoy of ships. They will be arriving at Far Harbour tonight."

"I got it," Sherene replied, "I will be on my way over from City Hall after I settle everything here, I will be there to meet them when they arrived."

"Okay, be careful," Blake ended the call.

"Ops, issue a tasking for Airforce Command," Blake said, "I want a full flight of Cobras over Far Harbour for security."

"Aye, Captain!"

-----

Goblin Sea, The Fury

Fleet Master Dijon stood on his deck staring at the metal ship that was puffing away in front of their formation. His crew was making signs to ward off the demons as their eyes fell on the demon powered contraption.

Dijon rubbed his tired face and sighed. He had wondered why the rebels were suddenly so strong and able to survive in the wildland. Now he knew why, as they had received the help of these strangers.

They looked like people except that they had short and round ears, other than that feature, they closely resembled people. But are they demons as the rumors said? He thought back to the conversation that occurred onboard that demon ship.

The strange short ear spoke in Common tongue with a strange accent and Dijon noticed the other people seemed to jump at his every command. Was the power of these demons so great that the rebels had to obey their commands so rigidly?

The demon said that they came to escort the Isles ships and offer friendship and protection as long as they are in these waters. Dijon frowned as he wondered why the rebels still needed to purchase ships from him if the demons were so powerful to even construct a ship out of metal and sail without wind!

The rest of the conversation with the strange demon was mostly about cooperation and ways to communicate. After that Dijon was dismissed and he returned to his own ship in a daze. Now, he watched the metal ship sail forward without any sails, easily keeping ahead of his fleet and he wondered if he has made a deal with the devil.

-----

Goblin Sea, UNS Floatin' Wreck, Bridge

Ford settled back on his chair and listened to the list of reports coming up from all the ship's departments. "Another rupture in the high pressure pipes and armor plates buckling on the forward aft of the ship." Lt Grayson said.

"The wooden undersupport for No. 1 Gun has cracked under the firing of the weapon," Grayson continued reading the reports and sighed, "Other than all that, ship is still seaworthy. We can still push her up to 14 knots per hour if needed."

"Keep it steady at 4 knots," Ford replied, "Them Isles ships couldn't make more than 4 knots. Just stay ahead and escort them back to Far Harbour while we see what repairs we can do for now."

"Make sure No. 1 Gun can be fired, make its repairs a priority!" Ford yelled after Grayson who left the bridge.

"Captain!" The radar operator called out, "Sea Wyvern One reports multiple sightings of goblin raid ships!"

"Where?" Ford asked as he sat up alert.

"North north west, 40 kilometers out," The operator reported, "Its the cluster of unidentified surface contacts we have on the radar!" The radar was taken from the dwindling UAV spares and installed onboard the ship.

Ford stood over the transparent map board where the radar operator had drawn a red 'X' of the sightings. He did some mental calculations and gauged that the goblin pirates will intersect their current course within 3 hours at their current heading.

"Tell Sea Wyvern One to keep tabs on their movement," Ford replied. "Notify me once they are within 10 kilometers."

"Aye Captain!"

-----

Hours later, a siren blared throughout the UNS Floatin' Wreck. "Action stations! Repeat! All personnel action stations!"

The crew having drilled rigorously over the past week, quickly and professionally arrived in the fastest possible time and manned their stations. In the horizon, dozens of grey sails appeared in a tiny line like magic.

Ford lowered his powerful binos and said, "Comms, inform the Fury that enemy sighted, bearing in from our port side."

The operator nodded and switched to the loud hailer and started to broadcast the message across the sea. Following that, the Fury ran up a series of colored flags and shortly after, the rest of the fleet formed into two lines.

The warships formed the outer line closest to the approaching pirates while the merchants and non combatants stayed in another line staying away from the fighting.

Ford nodded, "Looks good, they are pretty skilled."

"Alright, let's show these Islanders what our baby can do!" Ford grinned. "Grayson, take us out and engage the enemy at half range!"

"Aye aye, Captain!" Grayson replied excitedly. "Helms, give us full speed! Bring us to port, keep our distance at two kilometers away from enemy contacts!"

The Floatin' Wreck suddenly surged forward, leaving the rest of the Isles ships behind in its wave, its speed climbing up and holding at 14 knots, closing the distance between the two fleets rapidly much to the surprise and awe of the Islanders.

The ship charged forward and the navigator was calling out the distance for the pilot at the helm controls. "Now!" Ford ordered.

"Turn! 90 degrees starboard! Now!" Grayson yelled, "Ahead slow!"

The ship groaned as it tilted to its side as the rubbers forced the change in direction, making a large turn before it slowed down, and its broadside of guns facing the line of goblin ships.

"Guns! Give them hell! Independent fire!" Ford commanded.

"Aye! Independent fire!"

And the guns of the Floatin' Wreck roared.

-----

The empty shell casing sprung out from the opened breech and smoke followed the casing out. The loader holding 5.9 kg shell dropped it into the opened breech and another shoved a 0.56 kg propellant charge behind it, shoving both into the breech before it was slammed shut and locked.

The gun commander yelled, "Clear!" And everyone stepped away while covering their ears and opening their mouths yelling, "Clear!"

The gunner having laid the gun sights pulled the lanyard and the gun roared, throwing the 5 kg shell out at 503 meters per second. The barrel jumped back on its hydraulics which damped the recoil away.

The HE (High Explosive) shell screamed its way over two kilometers of open sea and impacted against the wooden hull of the goblin galley. The impact triggered fire runes wafers on the nose of the shell touched each other and ignited the 3.62 kg charge of black powder and mana dust.

Immediately everything around 5 meters around the impact point in a spherical wave was vaporized by the explosion. The shockwave grew out and turned nearby bodies in mush and broken bones and further cracked the wood hull and beams. Seconds later, another HE shell landed on the same vessel and totally obliterated the galley.

The Floatin' Wreck cruised slowly forward and its guns constantly fired, sending rolls of thunder over the stunned Isles fleet behind. Dijon glued his eyes on his telescope in shock as he watched the impossible havoc caused by the demon powered metal ship.

Each clash of thunder seemed to signal death on the enemy and at such range and accuracy! In the time his fleet caught up with the demon ship, there were only pieces of floating wreckage and dirty smoke over the area of the one sided massacre. Was this how the small group of rebels defeated the thousands strong Empire army? Dijon thought.

"Ma-master!" The First Mate stood in horror at the scene, "Wha-what are they? What powers are those? Is it magic?"

"I-I have no idea," Dijon found himself tongue-tied and he couldn't understand anything either. Even the ship's mage was shaking in both fear and excitement upon seeing those powers up close.

Suddenly a low buzzing sound rolled over them from the skies and everyone looked up and saw a strange oblong object with what appears to be wings circling over the fleet. The crew yelled out in fright and some even grabbed crossbows to defend themselves.

The strange flying object seemed to wobble in the air as it lined up towards the metal ship before it came roaring straight down and hit the water, bouncing up and down against the waves before coughing sounds could be heard and the roaring ceased.

It floated on the water next to the demon ship and the ship closed to it before something like a crane was lowered over the strange flying thing and what appeared to be a person riding the flying creature climbed out and took something from the crane and exchanges words with the crew on the metal ship before he ducked back into the flying creature and the roaring started up again.

The mind boggling flying thing rode the waves and charged off, seemingly to time its bounce into the air by hitting one of the waves before it flew off into the skies.

"What is that?" The crew was shaken badly by all the events today. Even fighting sea monsters and pirates could not rattle the veteran crew but after dealing with the metal ship and roaring flying thing, the crew went crazy. "Gods have mercy! Demons!"

The First Mate looked at Dijon with a horrified expression, "M-master? Ar-are we going to still follow them? Are we dealing with de-demons? Are they the ones that destroyed all the rest of the ships we encountered along the way?"

"I.." Dijon looked down at the pieces of floating wreckage hitting the side of the Fury's hulls and his brain seemed to have shut down as he could not process all the new things he saw and found out today. "Demons?"

Are these short ears friends or foe? What sacrifices had the rebels made to these 'demons' to be granted all these strange powers and weapons? If the rebels with these weapons and powers could stand up against the strongest Empire here, what will the future hold for these lands? What will we see and happen if we follow them back to Far Harbour? These thoughts raced through Dijon's mind.

"I-I thi-think, this is the beginning of a new era..."

----- End of Book 1 -----

201 - Invasion

The boy was dressed in a faded yellow tunic with sweat stains panted his way up the steep flights of stone steps before he nimbly climbed up the wooden ladder and took a second to catch his breath. He gazed out to the far distance over the fort walls and saw the dark blue squares of infantry appearing over the summer crops, trampling the unharvested yellow fields of grain down.

"Wake the fort!" An elderly sentry yelled below him, "Hurry!"

A tingle of dread, fear, and excitement ran down his spine as he reached under the bronze bell hanging in the watchtower and grabbed the wooden rod tied inside and struck the bell madly.

"TONG TONG TONG TONG TONG~~~!!"

The echoes of the bell woke the guardians of the fort who roused themselves out in confusion before their leaders and officers yelled at them to arm themselves with weapons and don their armor. It took the confused men sometime before they realized that the Empire was here at their doorsteps and they hurriedly sprung into action eagerly.

"TONG TONG TONG TONG TONG~~~!!"

Heavy footfalls echoed up and down the entire fort as the men rushed to their defenses. In less than a turn of the hourglass, the guardians were all up and ready, their sweaty palms gripping spear shafts and clutching shields while others held onto the risers of their bows and fingered the fletching of their arrows, making sure they are nicely straightened to ensure a proper flight.

Their sister fort, a few stone throws away, were the same, it's one thousand defenders rushing to make ready for combat as the Empire forces marched steadily towards the two tiny forward forts guarding the farming land.

The marching Empire forces clashed to a stop well before extreme bow range and the squares and lines of blue armored clad soldiers shook themselves into formations. Dozens and dozens of mantlets or portable shields made from wood logs were carried forward by Empire archers. They hide behind the mantlets as they cautiously advanced to within bow and crossbow range before slamming the sharp stakes of the mantlets into the ground.

"LOOSE!" The guardians of the fort released volley after volley of arrows at the advancing enemy that was hidden behind the mantlets who exchanged bow fire with them.

A horn blown by the Empire cut through the cries and curses of the guardians in the fort and the heavy marching of the Empire troops stormed their way step by step towards the two thousand defenders barring their way forward.

The Empire heavy infantry squares raised their shields to protect themselves from the rain of arrows but here and there, an arrow found an opening, sending a soldier to the netherworld. The archers behind the cover of the mantlets shot back at the defenders with equal results, dropping the defenders in ones and twos.

As the distance closed, mages from both sides started their spells while the defenders having an advantage of magical protection spells and formations carved into the stones of the forts. Bolts of lightning and balls of fire landed among both sides.

Empire mages split their duties in defending and attacking. Half of the mages in the infantry squares cast protection spells to block as much of the arrows and spells that were thrown their way while the other half focuses on attack spells.

A heavy ballista bolt hammered against the closest infantry square and the bolt splintered against the magic barrier. The barrier held for a split second before it collapsed, the mage who expended his mana, fell back as he convulsed from mana burn. The shattered bolt flung splinters as long as a man's arm into the infantry square, fraying any unlucky soldier who was exposed into a screaming bloody mess.

Each infantry square composed of over a thousand troops with its support of mages and other auxiliary troops. Six infantry squares were thrown forward with another thousand archers as ranged support against the two forward forts with a thousand defenders each of the Two Nation alliance.

The forward forts were built to provide a system of early warning for the cities behind them. They were built in pairs, each able to "flank" the enemies' attack on either fort. Should the enemy choose to attack a single fort first, the defenders in the other fort will be able to hit the rear and flanks of the besieging enemy while attacking both forts at the same time will split its forces thin, granting an advantage to the defenders.

Yet the enemy commander could not ignore the forts and skip past them as they can carry out attacks to his rear or his supply lines. Thus the forts had to be destroyed, delaying the main attack to cities, which granted the Two Nations more time and warning to prepare for an invasion.

The defenders were all volunteers as they knew that the forts were just a delaying tactic and they are selling their lives to buy time for their loved ones in the cities. The defenders roared as one as the Empire infantry slammed into the spike moat covering the forts and siege ladders slammed up against the stone parapets.

-----

The boy wiped streaks of tears off his face as he clung tightly to the buckling saddle of the sprinting war dragon. The war dragon's two feet kicked against the dirt path as the boy guided its movement towards one of the signal towers behind the forts and away from the madness.

The tower keepers hearing the boy's yells and reports of the Empire forces, turned pale before they quickly climbed to the top of the wooden tower and doused the dry straw and wolf dung with dragon oil and stuck a flint against a piece of stone, creating sparks which set the whole thing on fire.

Soon a thick smelly grey cloud appeared over the signal tower, which soon was followed by another tower and another as far as the eye can see.

-----

"Lord Rock," A fully armored soldier with a motif of a twin-tailed scorpion on his breastplate riding a war dragon, dismounted and saluted, "The defenders of the two forts have been destroyed. We have taken over five hundred defenders and another five hundred wounded."

"Kill the wounded," The bald muscular knight replied on his war dragon mount. "Keep the rest as slaves. Rotate the regiments that fought out and move the rest forward."

"Yes, my lord!" The soldier saluted again and dashed off back onto his mount and charged off to issue the orders of his lord.

The Rock sat upright on his war dragon as he glazed across the smoke tinted battlefield littered with dead and dying bodies. He turned and looked at the rows and rows of silent soldiers clad in heavy armor and touched the bloodstone amulet hanging over his neck.

They have wasted almost a day destroying the two forts, The Rock thought to himself. Its time for them to move before the enemy can react!

He gave a mental command and the silent soldiers moved as one, marching forward without a single word. The other soldiers strayed away from this group, whispering among themselves as they watched the eerily silent regiment marched over the trampled ground.

The Rock gave a wave and a horn blew across the fields and the tired Empire soldiers picked themselves up and formed into ranks before trotting across the broken fields, advancing towards their next objective.

-----

Windkeep Castle, Frontier City, Kingdom of Meccan, Two Nation Alliance

Hurried footsteps echoed down the marble-like flooring of the great hall as the courier half ran towards the Castle Lord's private study. The two guards gave way to the courier who had a red sash trimmed with gold diagonally over his shoulder which identified him as an important messenger.

The courier knocked on the thick double doors and not long the doors were opened inside by a manservant who led the sweating courier inside the study.

"My Lord!" The courier went down on one knee, "The warning towers... they were lit!"

The Grey Lord placed his quill down as he heard the news. "When was this?"

"Just earlier!" The courier, "No more than a turn of the glass! I came as soon as it was reported!"

"You may leave," The castle lord also known as the Grey Lord to the people here dismissed the courier who stood up and retreated from his study.

"Call all the commanders for an urgent meeting now," The Grey Lord said to his servant who disappeared out of the study behind after the courier.

It took less than an hour for all six of the commanders stationed at Frontier City to arrived at Windkeep Castle. The great hall had a massive rectangular table laid out by the servants with some light refreshments.

The Grey Lord sat at the head of the table, his long grey hair tied in a ponytail, while his thick bushy grey beard was combed neatly and tied with tiny gold bands. He looked to be in his mid-forties, with a wrinkled and sun-baked face, and deep grey eyes. Even his simple dressing was in grey-white tones.

The commanders arrived one by one, all dressed for war, as they filled up the seats. Other officials dressed like scholars and merchants also arrived and soon the table was fully filled.

"As you all may know by now, the warning beacons along the border had being lit up," The Grey Lord stated once everyone was seated. "I want all able men to be armed and ready for battle as soon as possible."

"Next, I want the farmers to move all the harvest in and burn the rest that can't be moved. I also want the merchants to provide all the carts and wagons they have to help out," He looked at the group of civic officials and merchants who nodded.

"I already sent out the messenger wyverns out to the next city and the Capital," The Grey Lord said next, "I expect reinforcements to arrive within two five days week."

"My Lord!" One of the commanders spoke up, "Will we be moving the troops to relieve the forward forts?"

"No," The Grey Lord shook his head, "The border forts could only buy us a day or two of time the most. By the time we muster our forces, the forts would have been lost."

"I want the soldiers to dig in and fight," He continued, "Frontier City has never been lost and we have fought off invaders ever since its founding as long as we stand strong behind its walls. Strong together!"

"Yes, my Lord!" The men echoed. "Strong together!"

-----

The city inhabitants remained calm and went on with their normal activities even as news spread of the coming invasion. The trust the inhabitants had to their city was immense as the city walls had never been breached since it was built a hundred years ago.

The city sat in a mild raise, with the south side facing the enormous inland freshwater sea, the source of all life on this continent, the Source Sea. Large swaths of farmland spread out from the city walls provided food for the sixty thousand inhabitants and soldiers living in Frontier City.

The walls that the inhabitants placed their faith in stood over 20 meters high. Made out of granite and magic, it held against dozens of invasions over the years. Massive siege engines sat on huge square towers covered the approaches to the city while dozens more of ballistas were hidden in embrasures within the wall.

Flags of red trimmed with gold and flags of purple were flying on the walls as soldiers dressed in tabards of either red or purple. The red represented the Kingdom of Meccan while the purple represented troops from the Kingdom of Foral whom both Kingdoms were allied as the Two Nation Alliance.

A grizzly looking soldier with a crude leather band covering his left eye spat over the battlements as he caressed the well-worn wood of the crossbow in his hands lovingly.

"Come on ye bastards! I'm waiting for ye!"

Table of Contents

- Table Of Contents -
1 - Journey
2 - Contact
3 - Engaged
4 - Boarded
5 - Overwhelmed
6 - The Jump
7 - Disaster
8 - Lost
9 - Crash Landing
10 - Planet Fall
11 - Blake's World
12 - Strange New World
13 - Numbers
14 - Numbers Part 2
15 - Giant Wolf
16 - Giant Wolves
17 - Manastone
18 - Needs
19 - Ruins
20 - Dungeoneering
21 - Trapped
22 - Boss
23 - MvP
24 - Loot
25 - Aftermath
26 - Ideas
27 - Ethics
28 - Stalker
29 - All along the Watchtower
30 - Clash of Giants
31 - Wheels
32 - The Empire
33 - Fugitives
34 - Help
35 - Mighty Magic
36 - Elves
37 - Disaster Relief
38 - The Hoomans
39 - Castle of Iron
40 - Sugar and Spice and Everything's a Lie!
41 - Kingdom of Goldrose
42 - Dragonslayer
43 - Are you...?
44 - A moment of Peace
45 - Battle of Sawtooth Pass
46 - Enemy at the Gates
47 - Alliance
48 - Counterstrike
49 - Infiltration
50 - Knights
51 - Tech vs Magic
52 - Recovery
53 - A time to Grief
54 - Goblins
55 - Pirates of the Goblin Sea
56 - Magic 101
57 - New World
58 - The Untamed Lands
59 - Survivor
60 - Return
61 - Green City
62 - Interrogation
63 - Dissent
64 - Guns
65 - Camp Alpha
66 - Recruits
67 - Boot Camp
68 - Bored
69 - After Action Review
70 - Promotions
71 - The Crucible
72 - Escape
73 - The Hunt
74 - When shit falls, it comes in buckets...
75 - Distractions
76 - Eye of the Storm
77 - War Drums
78 - Rematch of the Pass
79 - The Ritual
80 - Zombie Mode
81 - Night of the Living Dead
82 - War Plans
83 - What's Next?
84 - Arcane Tactics and Intervention
85 - Claymore One
86 - To Kill a Necromancer
87 - Angry Orcs
88 - Objective Beta
89 - Ride of the Valkyries
90 - Earth Magic
91 - Anti Dragon Warfare
92 - All Out Attack
93 - The Witch
94 - 26th Imperial Dragon Corps
95 - Rout
96 - POWs
97 - Post Victory
98 - Recruitment
99 - Dragonite Crystal
100 - Mines of Sea Cliff
101 - Dungeon
102 - Peace through Superior Firepower
103 - Golems
104 - Looking for Group
105 - Dungeon Level 1
106 - Waste Not, Want Not
107 - Clear!
108 - Boss Fight
109 - Rest and Recuperation
110 - Operation Dagger
111 - Talent
112 - Guns, Mushrooms and Explosions, Oh My!
113 - Falledge
114 - A Business Deal
115 - Officer Cadet School
116 - First Aerial Prototype
117 - Gunpowder
118 - Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)
119 - Level 2
120 - The Fog
121 - Bazooka
122 - The Return of the Goblins
123 - Goblin Fleet
124 - The Goblin Beach Landings
125 - Unto the Breach
126 - Author's HP 46.7%
127 - Picking up the Pieces
128 - Freed
129 - Green Troubles
130 - It Ain't Easy Being Green
131 - The Council of Masters
132 - Magic Appraisal
133 - The Appearance of a Hero!?
134 - Supplies
135 - Stressed Out
136 - Operation Chaperone
137 - The seeds of a Nation
138 - Troubles
139 - The Evil Within
140 - See no Evil
141 - Hear No Evil
142 - Speak No Evil
143 - Tears of the Sun
144 - Sum of All Fears
145 - Rearguard
146 - Yo Mama...
147 - The Cavalry has Arrived!
148 - Eye of the Sun
149 - The Long Walk Home
150 - Chocolate
151 - Far Harbor
152 - Wings of War
153 - Rendezvous Point Yellow
154 - Dog Fight
155 - First Air to Air Dragon Combat
156 - I FOUND YOU~!
157 - Cobra Down
158 - How to kill a Hero
159 - Dante's Inferno
160 - End of a Hero
161 - Regrets
162 - Sunblock
163 - Holidays and Festivals
164 - Friends from Afar
165 - Trade Talks
166 - Story Telling

167 - The Things We Do for the Greater Good...

168 - Awakenings
169 - I Spy with my Eye
170 - History and Wrecks
171 - Lost
172 - Chains of Command
173 - Meetings
174 - Getting Out
175 - We All Float
176 - Deja Vu
177 - Decisions, Decisions...
178 - Doctor Strange
179 - Welcome To The (Concrete) Jungle
180 - My Soul!
181 - Home
182 - Running and Choices
183 - More Running and Choices
184 - Gods and Burgers
185 - Gone Rogue
186 - Wolf Whisperer
187 - Summer Festival
188 - A Wild Red Dragon Has Appeared!
189 - Dragon to Dragon Talk
190 - Misunderstanding Dragons
191 - Here We Go Again ~
192 - Chief of Naval Operations
193 - Project Ironclad
194 - A Good Place to Live and Die
195 - UNS Floatin' Wreck
196 - Your Navy
197 - Good Intentions
198 - Vacation
199 - Shock and Awe
200 - Beginning of a New Era
201 - Invasion