by Rick Scott
Crap…Just like I figured. The numbers are lower than from the one that hit before. It’s clear. We’re slowly losing this battle. And if we run short of nano or any of the other resources we need to keep the giants at bay, we’ll lose it even faster.
This can’t work.
“Guys, we need to do something,” I say through the chat. “At this rate, a dozen more hits and they’ll be through the perimeter wall and halfway through the main one.”
“Can it repair any faster?” Aiko asks, suddenly appearing next to me. She’s been in stealth for most of the time, using her keen senses and night vision to act as a spotter.
I shake my head at her. “It’s maxed out. And we slow down every time we have to rebuild a Ballista.”
The sounds of battle rage around me as I look at the numbers helplessly. We need to come up with a plan and fast.
“We’ve got to destroy it,” Maxis says. “Find wherever the heck it is and take it out.”
“Destroy what?” I ask. “Their catapult?”
“Yeah.”
The idea had crossed my mind, but I didn’t think anyone else would be crazy enough to come up with the same idea. The again, it was my brother who spoke. I look at the catapult below us as Val Helena cranks it for another volley. The thing is huge, as big as a bus. And the one Aiko saw was made by giants, she said.
“Do you think it’s possible, Aiko?” I ask. “You saw it, right? How big is it?”
She shakes her head. “Too big to blow up with one of my bombs, that’s for sure.”
I squint at her. “You have bombs?”
“Another trap ability. Nothing that does a huge amount of damage, though. Well…not that huge.”
“How far away is it?” Rembrandt asks as he scoots below the rampart and then crouches against the wall beside us. At first I think it’s one of his clones, but when I check his name I see it’s the real him.
“Less than a quarter mile maybe,” Aiko says. “Why?”
“If we upgrade our catapult to a trebuchet, we might have the range to hit it.”
I look down towards the catapult. “You think so?”
“We’re on a bit of a hill,” Rembrandt says. “The physics should work in our favor.”
I check on the unit cost through the upgrade options.
Catapult Options:
(1) Demolish:
Labor: 100
Recover: 150 Wood, 10 Iron
(2) Upgrade to Trebuchet: Attack: 1000 Range 1200
Labor: 600
Wood: 500
Iron: 80
Resources:
Wood: 844 units
Stone: 169 units
Iron: 90 units
“We can do it,” I say, my eyes aglow with my HUD. “But it’ll drain us big time. We won’t have much left afterwards.”
“That’ll mean we won’t be able repair the Ballista or anything else,” Maxis says. “And we’ll be out of iron for more bolts, too.” He shakes his head. “Sounds too risky. We still need to hold out for two more hours. And if this doesn’t work we’ll be doubly screwed.”
“If we don’t try something we’ll be screwed either way,” Becky says. “I can’t keep popping this nano forever.”
“She’s right, mates,” Rembrandt says. “My clones are barely keeping up, too. And, honestly, I’m not far behind them.”
Darn. I didn’t even think of how mentally taxing remote controlling all those copies of himself must be for Rembrandt. I check the numbers again.
(1) Stone Perimeter Wall
West (45%) [Auto-Repair]
(1) Reinforced Stone Wall
West (73%) [Auto-Repair]
Resources:
Wood: 844 units
Stone: 169 units
Iron: 90 units
[936/1000 Nano-Fragments]
The next hit from that giant catapult will have us down in 30% range for the perimeter wall.
“Becky’s right,” I say. “We need to do something.” I then look to the cyberpunker. “Okay, Rem. If we go for it, how do we make this work? Can you even see it?”
“Not from here,” he says. “But if I can get close, I could target it and then Val can aim with my directions.”
“What do you mean?” Val Helena says from below.
“I could run a chain of clones and report back with PMs, the same way I’m doing now with Gilly. I just need to get to where I can see the target.”
“How the heck are you going to get your clones past all that?” I ask, jerking my thumb over the wall.
Rembrandt grins at me. “Actually. I was hoping you’d be able to assist me with that part, mate.”
* * *
“You’re going to do what?”
Gilly’s reaction to my telling her the plan is nothing I didn’t expect. I’d be freaking out too, I admit, but I had to tell her anyway. The last thing I would want, would be for her to check up on me and find me missing.
We’re in the main cavern below the keep. The sounds of battle are muted and only a faint hiss from the drilling rig, somewhere far out of sight down the escape tunnel, echoes around us. Gilly’s exasperated expression matches her worn and disheveled attire. She’s drenched in sweat and soot and smells like a chimney. Her face is haggard and while her eyes are still clear and bright I see huge bags under them.
She’s been working like crazy down here and all on her own.
“Rembrandt says it will be a quick in and out,” I say trying to reassure her. “We’ll skirt the long way around. I just have to keep his clones invisible with Shadow Wall till we get there.”
She frowns glumly, but I can see she understands.
“Take Aiko with you as backup then.”
I shake my head. “We need her on the wall spotting and plus she needs to take over from me and Rembrandt. He’ll only be able to keep a couple of his guys going in the keep while we’re doing this.”
“Guess I’ll really be down here all by myself then,” Gilly says with a sigh. “It was nice having one of Rem’s clones with me. Even if he couldn’t afford to say too much.”
My heart aches a little when she says that and I’m reminded of when she shared her loneliness of being an only child with me. I pull her into a hug and kiss her gently on her sweaty forehead. “I’ll keep in contact with you if I’m in range, okay?”
She nods wordlessly in my arms and I give her another squeeze.
“Oh!” she says, pulling away and the spark returns to her eyes. “Take this.”
Something opens in the party chat and when I access it a map appears along with a red dot.
“What is this?”
“I set a map marker on the drill, so now you guys can see exactly where I am.”
“How much further to go?”
She grins. “Check the map, silly.”
I do so and see there’s less than 100 feet between the red dot of the drill and the red X of the target destination.
“When you’re out there, see if you can check on our exit point too. Would be nice to know the bad guys won’t be around when we pop out like prairie dogs.”
I laugh at that.
Gilly…you could never keep her spirits down for long.
“Okay, get going!” she says, becoming no-nonsense again. “I’ve got a tunnel to dig and you’ve got a catapult to destroy.”
Chapter 44: Black Ops
Getting Rembrandt’s clones over the wall becomes something much harder than I anticipated. Without Ninja skills or his advanced acrobatics from his Gunslinger class, we have to resort to building a makeshift bridge between the two walls using planks of wood. And then we have to lower each clone down via a piece of rope, which Becky crafted from some worm skin, to reach the ground below.
Rembrandt assists in carrying out the painstaking operation while I keep both me and the three clones cloaked with Shadow Wall. We’re on the east wall and in the distance I see the light of campfires a couple hundred feet away. They’re spaced equidistantly, n
o more than fifty feet apart and while I’m not certain what kind of forces are around them, I’m sure someone as experienced as General Lyons would make sure to place whatever troops necessary to make any breach through those gaps impossible.
It’s a reminder of why we couldn’t all just escape the keep this way, to simply climb over the walls and run back to the caldera. The only reason we have this opportunity at all, is because our friends are still putting up heavy resistance on the western wall. Even now I can see them laboring away—faint silhouettes against the flames of the burning logs which keep piling up with each catapult strike.
My brother, Maxis, is manning one of the Ballistae and Aiko the other. Six of Rembrandt’s clones keep constant pressure on the masses with pistol fire, while two others support Aiko and Maxis. In the courtyard, Becky keeps up her healing routine, casting on whoever needs it. Val Helena is stockpiling rocks for ammo while her main tool of destruction goes through a metamorphosis.
The catapult is now slowly transforming into a Trebuchet. It’s nearly double the size and the single rotating beam, that’s over forty feet long, is fitted with a huge counterweight for maximum hurling effect.
“How easy will it be for you and Val Helena to aim that thing?” I ask Rembrandt as his three clones prepare to make the traverse across the planks.
One of his clones, Foot Soldier 13, takes a second before responding.
“She’ll load smaller boulders first. After a couple trial shots we should be able to tune it in.” He then points to the large log that Val Helena was tossing against the wall. “When we’re ready, she’s going to douse that with worm oil and set it alight.”
I nod. “Hopefully that’ll be big enough to do the trick.”
“If it doesn’t, I’m hoping the fire it starts will.”
I like the sound of that.
I cast Shadow Wall and cloak us before hoping onto the rampart and jumping across the gap to the perimeter wall beyond. I wait on the opposite side of the plank-bridge, which creaks as the clones make their way across. Each move is slow and deliberate. Even though we’re invisible, there could be scouts keeping an eye on the walls and any sudden movements or sounds would surely draw their attention.
I secure the worm rope and Rembrandt lowers his clones down one by one, again moving slowly as to not give away our presence. Hopefully it’s far too dark for anyone to see anything from a distance anyway, but we move cautiously nonetheless. The darkness will be a bit of a problem for me too, but the moon is now out and Rembrandt has his mirror shades to lead the way.
I follow after him down the wall using Wall Run and refresh Shadow Wall when I hit the ground.
“You ready?” I ask through the party chat, consisting of just me and the three clones now.
“I’m good,” Rembrandt says. “Number sixteen will lead the way.”
I can’t exactly see his clones as we creep through the snow, but I can keep an eye on relatively where they are by observing their footprints. We have a rough idea of the location of the giant catapult thanks to Aiko, who updated our maps with a waymark. We spend the next couple of minutes heading as far away from the keep as possible towards the south until we see more campfires in the distance.
The air is cleaner here, upwind of the smoke from the logs still burning between the damaged walls of the keep. From this distance I can see Camp Star Fall in its entirety. It looks small and vulnerable compared to the massive army laying siege to it. The sight spurs me on to get done what I need to do. My friends are still trapped in there and fighting for their lives and they’re counting on us to ensure our escape.
We take a turn west and head for the location Aiko gave us.
The forest is relatively quiet and the sounds of battle drift on the wind. Every now and then a flaming log hurtles through the air and hits the keep walls with an explosion of brick and fire. Rembrandt uses those moments to fine-tune our location and adjusts our trajectory to head in that direction.
We travel another couple of minutes until he stops.
“Got to leave one here,” Rembrandt says. “Reached the limit of my control.”
The clone drops out of stealth and hunkers down in the snowy underbrush.
“Will he be safe there?” I ask.
The clone answers me back. “No idea. But the sooner we get this done the sooner it won’t matter.”
That was true. One advantage of heading out with just the clones and not Rembrandt himself was that once this was done, he could just recall them instead of trying to get them all back. That would leave just me to break back into the keep.
But as a Ninja, something like that is easy.
We continue on for another five minutes in silence and drop off another clone. Anxiety builds within me with each step as we get dangerously close to the ring of campfires on the outskirts. My pulse throbs in my ears and I force my breathing to a minimum to avoid it frosting. Thankfully the clones don’t seem to breathe at all, but they don’t have high stealth skill like me either. Even with just one of them left, I cringe each time he takes a step ahead of me.
I check a visual for the keep on my HUD and see the integrity of the wall is worsening.
(1) Stone Perimeter Wall
West (25%) [Auto-Repair]
(1) Reinforced Stone Wall
West (53%) [Auto-Repair]
Resources:
Wood: 186 units
Stone: 325 units
Iron: 10 units
Darn. Down in the 25 percent already.
“We need to hurry it up, Rem.”
“I think we’re almost there.”
I keep refreshing Shadow Wall and eventually we see another ring of campfires. On my map I take note of where they are in relation to Gilly’s tunnel, as well as the exit. By the red dot of the drill, she’s just about to cross them now and we should be a good hundred feet beyond that line if we can buy her the time she needs.
I try giving her a PM.
Me: Gilly?
Gilly: Hey!
Me: We’re outside now.
Gilly: Are you okay? D:
Me: Yeah, we’re good. It’s quiet. Your tunnel is working great.
Gilly: Is the exit clear?
Me: It should be.
Gilly: Should be?
Me: Will be, I think. Just keep going.
Gilly: Is it making a lot of noise up there?
I’m honestly too far away from the actual dot to even tell, but I don’t sense anything obvious.
Me: I don’t think so. Keep going. We’re almost to where that catapult is.
Gilly: Okay! Be careful! <3
Her heart emoji makes me smile.
Me: I will.
We travel on, creeping through the snow.
A much brighter light illuminates ahead of us, and I freeze. My heart rate soars as my stomach twists in knots. I expect the light to head towards us, a scouting party or something, but then it shoots into the air and sails toward the keep.
Bingo!
I follow it and it crashes into the western wall of the keep for another massive hit.
“We found it!” I say and check the damage.
(1) Stone Perimeter Wall
West (13%) [Auto-Repair]
(1) Reinforced Stone Wall
West (46%) [Auto-Repair]
Resources:
Wood: 186 units
Stone: 325 units
Iron: 10 units
Yikes! One more and that will be it!
“We can’t let that thing take another shot! Are you close enough, Rem?”
“Little closer,” he says.
My heart jackhammers in my chest as we creep towards a huge shadow looming in the distance. The shadow moves and I realize we’re looking at a giant. As my eyes adjust, I see the massive catapult behind it. It’s as huge as Aiko said, bigger even—an entire hundred-foot-tall tree makes up the main boom. The rest of it is made of crudely fashioned tree trunks as well, like a roughly put together log cabin.
The giant, which looks far bigger than the others we’ve seen, stomps around the device and begins cranking a large wheel to lower the boom back into firing position.
I check the giant.
Witgar
Legendary Monster
Level: ???
The Giant Master Builder Witgar is said to have been tricked into building the home of the gods, with the promise of the goddess Selena as his bride. When the gods were not forthcoming after his labors, and granted him a different wife instead, he swore vengeance, but was then banished to the realm of men. Now he takes his vengeance on any and all who cross his path.
Holy crap! An LM?
Something pops onto my HUD.
A new Quest is available: Giant amongst Men
Defeat the legendary builder Witgar to receive the favor of the gods.
Rewards: 200000 experience points, Favor of the gods
“We need to hurry, Rem,” I say.
“I’m relaying the instructions to Val now.”
Agonizing seconds go by as the boom lowers foot by foot.
Something whistles over our heads followed by a crash and the snapping of branches. The giant stops, looking in the direction of the noise.
Oh crap…
“Don’t worry,” Rembrandt says. “I’m adjusting the trajectory now.”
More tense seconds go by as the giant glances back and forth, as if deciding if he actually heard something or not. Eventually he decides not and begins cranking the wheel again.
Come on, Val…
In the distance, I see the trebuchet’s arm whip into the air, releasing its payload. About five seconds later the ground right beside the giant explodes in a hail of dirt and snow. The giant lets out a surprised roar and immediately climbs up the side of his catapult and peers into the night.
He mutters something in a language I don’t understand, but I get the hint of both shock and disdain. He jumps down, shaking the ground and runs back to the wheel, cranking it twice as fast.