by Tao Wong
I cough, bringing her attention back to me.
“No. Can’t do it. Don’t have the materials. I could cobble something together with what we have in a few weeks once I’ve researched it, but it wouldn’t be as good. This is very nice work.”
I sigh, nodding. For all the advantages of owning a settlement, getting free bullets doesn't seem to be one of them. Not yet at least.
“Can I keep this?” KC says, holding up the pieces of the projectile.
“Sure,” I say, shaking my head.
KC grins, walking away while muttering to herself as she stares at the projectile, abruptly leaving me alone in a warehouse filled with ammunition.
“Well done, boy-o. A real charmer you are.”
I grunt, shaking my head, and walk out. Best get to my next project.
***
I knock on the door of the apartment building gently—mostly because I spotted the pair of high-explosive mines hidden in the wall. Between that, the surveillance cameras, a shield enchantment, and probably a few more toys I haven’t seen, this building is probably the most well-defended in the city. Which isn’t surprising, considering who lives here right now.
“Redeemer,” the Hakarta greets me, his face solemn. I notice he’s standing almost at attention. “Is there a problem?”
“No, no problem,” I say, frowning. “Why would you think there’s one?”
“I did not. Are you here to speak with the lieutenant then?” the Hakarta says.
“Well, I…” I consider my answer and finally nod. It’s obvious the private I’m speaking to would prefer I speak with his boss. “Yes. Please.”
“Very well. I shall lead you to him,” the private says, letting me in before closing the door and resetting their security precautions. After that, he leads me upstairs a couple of floors and to a corner apartment, where he knocks on the door before gesturing for me to stand to the side. “Wait here please. I shall inform the lieutenant.”
Once the lieutenant is informed, it takes only a minute to get the formalities out of the way, leaving me with him in the comfortable living room filled with a beige L-designed couch and lounging chairs. I absently note that all the family photos are gone, stacked in a corner, while the Hakarta reside here for now.
“How are you doing, lieutenant?” I say.
“We are well. There are no complaints, sir,” Lieutenant Nerigil says. “Major Ruka briefed us on what to expect beforehand. And your… commander is competent and willing to listen to suggestions.”
“Good. Very good,” I say, nodding. “I understand he’s got you guys on guard duty mostly?”
“Yes. Our contract only extends to the direct defense of the town. While it could be argued to include the hunting of your harassers, it was decided that our strength was better used in town, providing guard services and occasional training companions,” the lieutenant answers stiffly. “If that is acceptable, Redeemer.”
“Oh, I’m not here to meddle,” I say, waving away his words. “I’m actually just checking in on you guys. Making sure none of my people have started fights because you… well…”
“We look like your orcs.”
I cough, nodding slightly with embarrassment.
“It is understandable. My people’s major occupation does place us in an antagonistic position with most settled races. We have fought against, and fought for, most races. It is no surprise that the Mana Leakage you experienced cast us as a warlike race,” Lieutenant Nerigil says.
“Ah… I’m glad you understand,” I say, smiling. The lieutenant nods and I get up before shaking his hand in farewell. “Well, I won’t bother you on your day off anymore. I just wanted to make sure you guys are doing well.”
“Our comfort is well within the parameters of the contract,” the lieutenant confirms and sees me out.
It’s only when I’m out of the building that I realize he never did say if his people had gotten into any fights over our impression of them as orcs. I turn around to knock again, a bit annoyed at being blown off like that.
“Leave it, boy-o. If he didn’t want to say, that’s his problem. You did your part.”
“But...” I feel guilty. For what? The entire human race? For racist or idiotic assholes? Maybe it’s the Canadian in me that feels the need to apologize.
“Leave it. You’ve got your own battles to fight.”
I sigh, giving up. Ali’s right. I’ve got a lot more work to do, more people to check up on, more training to conduct. More Levels to gain. A few hurt feelings and broken noses, if there are any, is something I can leave for others.
Chapter 13
It’s been eight days since we returned from Vernon. The refugees have settled down, mostly, with many taking part in the development of our city. It helps that there’s enough vacant real estate that rent is still incredibly cheap. Even if large swaths of space are owned by me directly, there just aren’t enough people to actually populate most of the locations. The small increase in population barely makes a dent.
Eight days and the Sect has not stopped launching probing attacks. Current consensus is that they don’t have the manpower to actually take Kamloops—at least not without losing more people than they’d be willing to risk. Between the Hakarta, my team, and the combat Classers from Kamloops and Vernon, we’ve got a sizeable force in an entrenched position. While we don’t have the resources to upgrade the town as much as I’d like, our defenses do give us a bit of an edge, especially since Benjamin is working on the approaches. Some of the things that mind of his has come up with are nasty. And innovative. Still, letting the Sect past our shield is the last thing I want to do.
Mel has been keeping our combat teams sweeping out to the south of the Thompson River to harry our attackers, the group playing hide-and-seek in the lands around. Between Class Skills, technology, and forested areas, the hunting groups are just as likely to stumble across an opponent by chance as find them with Skill. It does mean that we have the north of the river to continue to run hunting and Leveling though, which is nice. It allows some groups to Level in more controlled environments while others gain experience in real combat. Like everyone else, I’ve been sneaking out to Level too, making use of my greater Constitution to squeeze in grinding sessions late at night and in the early morning. Unfortunately, stuck as I am at Level 39, the monsters available are a drop in the bucket.
My musings, mostly procrastination as I go through the morning mail from Kim / the Settlement is interrupted by a call.
“John.”
“Mel. What’s wrong?”
“We need you at the gates. There’s… something weird. We’ve got the shield up just in case, but you’ll want to see this.”
“On my way,” I say, dismissing the notification and heading out.
It takes me only a few minutes to arrive on Sabre and I find myself joining Mel and Mikito and another teenager at the edge of the settlement shield, staring through the shimmering force field at the blood-covered sole survivor of a group. As I walk up, the exhausted brunette outside the shield looks up, eyes locking with mine even as she cradles her stomach.
“You’re here,” she says with relief.
“I am…” I glance at Mikito and Mel. “Why aren’t we letting her in?”
“She’s got a weird Status effect,” Mikito replies.
I actually look at her and her status, noting the woman’s injured condition and another that I’ve not seen before. Blood Vector.
Carla Flowers (Level 28 Wisp of Flame)
HP: 44/490
MP: 210/210
Conditions: Injured, Blood Vector
“Class Skill. She’s infected. If we let her in, she’ll explode and spread the disease to everyone else. As it is, she’s dying,” Ali explains. Even as he speaks, I see her health drop a little.
“He let me go,” Carla Flowers says softly. “After he killed all of my team. My friends. He took his time, pinned me to the ground while he cut them apart, again and again. Said that he w
anted you to know who is killing us.”
“Who?” I say.
“Utrashi Wyt,” the survivor answers, her voice coming out softer, weaker. “Promise me. Promise me you’ll kill him.”
I grit my teeth, rage flaring. I walk forward, stopped only by the shield, as I meet her eyes filled with pain, despair, and rage. Her hazel eyes are filled with the knowledge that she’s dead already and won’t be able to enact her own vengeance.
“I promise. I’ll cut his head off.”
When she hears my promise, Carla smiles slightly. She raises her hand, calling forth her Mana, and fire comes, so hot and so fast that she probably doesn’t feel it. Much. Mikito lurches forwards for a second and then stops, held back by the shield and good sense. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the stranger standing next to Mikito step backward, face pale before turning away and refusing to watch. Mel’s lips tighten but he doesn’t look away. Neither do I.
I watch her burn until there’s nothing left of her or her equipment. We watch in silence, my stomach churning with the acidic knowledge that I can do nothing but witness her death.
Only when it’s done do I speak. “What happened?”
“The Blood Warrior—Utrashi—was hiding in the group they attacked. Just waiting for them,” Mel says, shaking his head. “My fault. I should have expected something like that. We’ve been seeding the beasts and Mikito among the hunter groups. Should have realized they might have done the same.”
I turn to Mel, my eyes glowing with anger. His fault. Her death, their deaths, was his fault. I open my mouth and Mikito steps between us, the tiny Japanese woman craning her neck upward to meet my eyes. The teenager shifts slightly too, his hand falling to the katana at his side. I glance at Mikito automatically and she stares at me, daring me to speak.
“Not your fault,” I grate out, not needing Mikito’s reminder. I’m angry, but I understand we make mistakes. For that matter, any of our groups without Mikito in it probably would have died too. Even one with the pets. “Mikito, we should let Lana know. Her pets…”
“Already done. We’ll group her pets up more, keep them in tighter groups,” Mikito says, understanding my hesitation. Neither of us wants Lana to lose another pet. For all her strength now, she’s still somewhat emotionally fragile from losing her brother.
“Who’s the kid?” I tilt my head sideways.
Mikito looks uncomfortable for a second before her face turns placid again. “This is Lee-kun. I’m training him as an Aonisaibushi.”
Lee turns to me, bowing slightly, and I have to keep my face from twitching. It’s weird to see a blond-haired, blue-eyed teenage male bowing while wearing a katana.
“Aoni…” I give up. Mikito said it so fast and fluently, I had no chance of repeating it after her. “That was your Class before, no?”
“Yes.” Mikito nods.
“You can give it?”
Mikito glances at Ali, who sighs, looking at me.
“Not exactly. With certain prestige Classes, you can train others in it. Not all Classes, and not all people, but if you managed to achieve a rank higher than the one you’d like to train, it’s possible,” Ali explains. “It’s still no guarantee the kid will be able to get it, but it makes it possible.”
“I can only take three apprentices at a time,” Mikito says, waving at the kid.
I nod, noting that his Class hasn’t changed from Artist yet, which I assume means he’s still learning under her. Still, knowing Mikito’s Class, I can see how upgrading someone could be useful.
“Drawbacks?” I say. There has to be some.
“Experience. He doesn’t lose his old Class. This one just replaces it eventually and he restarts at Level 1. However, his experience requirements to go up to Level 2 are the same as his previous level,” Ali explains.
I can see how that’d suck, but with his Level only at nine, the kid isn’t likely to be hurt much by this.
“Thanks,” I mutter to Mikito for her explanations. Then I turn to Mel, who was patiently listening. “All right, tell me what you plan to do about this.”
***
Later that evening, Lana finds me lying down in the old office leading into the core room, staring at the ceiling. Ali’s disappeared, driven off by my silence and grumpiness. I never bothered to replace the furniture in here, so lying down is my best option. It’s not even dirty—the building modifications keep the floors and ceiling so clean you could eat off them.
“Missed you at dinner,” Lana says, taking a seat across from my prone form, sweeping aside a discarded chocolate wrapping paper. The timer before it gets absorbed runs out a few seconds later and the wrapping paper dissolves into nothingness. Such a useful feature, though some people turn it off as they don’t want to inadvertently lose something important.
“Didn’t feel like the company,” I say, continuing to stare at the ceiling.
“Brooding?” Lana says, a half-smile on her face.
“Thinking.” A shred of self-honesty forces me to admit, “Maybe brooding a little. Labashi mentioned we should be on the attack. Throwing them on the defensive, rather than stay on it ourselves. We failed, rather spectacularly, at trying that the last time.”
“We couldn’t just leave the refugees in Vernon,” Lana says pointedly.
“Really?” I say, frowning. “I don’t think that’s right. We could have passed right through the town, hit the Sect in Kelowna like we’d planned, or at least met their planes in the air. But we decided to stop, take the town because it was offered to us, and we fell for their trap. Then we lost people trying to cover the civilians rather than concentrating our forces and hitting them hard. We might have killed that Rock Thrower in Vernon, but we should have finished off that Blood Warrior.”
“You’re saying you’re regretting saving their lives,” Lana says warningly.
“I know. But if we had hit them hard, focused on killing their people rather than playing defense, maybe they’d have gone on the defensive too. If we’d pressed the matter, left the civilians to evacuate themselves and pushed against the Sect’s forces…”
“You don’t think they’d have sent more help?” Lana says.
“I don’t know.” I exhale roughly, shaking my head. “I’m not a general. No tactician. I just wonder if we could have done something else. And now, we’re here. We’re back to playing defense when they were meant to be on defense. It can’t last. The Sect must be sending people over, or consolidating their people, or something.”
“So you want to go attack them again?”
“Yes. But we’ve got to keep the city covered too. The Hakarta aren’t enough, not anymore. Not after the losses we suffered early on. And we can’t afford more,” I say, shaking my head. “That means keeping the team here. They’ve moved enough people up that if we left, they might be able to take the town. Maybe do some real damage…”
“Worried they might destroy the town?” Lana says softly, concern in her voice.
“Yes. They’ve shown they’re willing to kill civilians, and while it might be frowned upon, it’s not entirely taboo. No UN here to stop them. Not that it did much good in our world…”
Lana sighs, squeezing my hand, and I return the squeeze. The losses during the fight weighs on all of us, even if we’ve had experience losing people. Too many empty homes and abandoned buildings on our trip down, too many people we couldn’t help, no matter what we did. For all that the System has changed us, we’re still human.
After a moment, Lana lies down, resting her head on my stomach, and holds out a hand to me. I frown, then pull a chocolate and hand to her. We lie in silence, ruminating on our losses and what we can do. Still, with her silent presence, it doesn’t seem as bad.
***
Alarms, deep in the night, wake me from dreams I’m thankfully unable to remember. I jerk awake, staring at shrill noise, as Lana does the same. Without asking, Ali’s already displaying a map, showing the attack on the settlement’s Shield.
“Who is
in charge?” I say, hands flicking as I pull clothing from my storage and dress.
“Not sure. Mel and Mikito are asleep,” Ali says, frowning. “Ah… Leopold.”
“Who’s he?” I say, glancing at Lana.
She’s already up and dressed fully. She gives me a nod, moving toward the door and leading the way to the attack.
“One of the residents. Has some prior military experience, which is why he was chosen,” Ali says, eyes flicking as he reads his screens. “He’s ordered the hunting parties to converge. Should we countermand the order?”
I grunt, staring at the cluster of dots. Just over sixty Sect members with some assault vehicles are opening fire, hammering the settlement Shield. Not enough to take it down immediately, but if we leave them at it, it’ll go down in four or five minutes. On the other hand, we’ve only got two hunting parties—ten people—out there, and who knows how many other hidden attackers are on the Sect’s side. For that matter, I’m curious how they got in so close without alerting us. Behind the Shield, the guards are gathering, over thirty of them already there and more streaming in.
“Let them close in but don’t engage. They’re dead if they do,” I say, rubbing my chin. “Can the beam weapons help?”
“A little,” Ali says, shrugging. “They’re still liable to be destroyed the moment you open the shields.”
“Damn it,” I growl, running down the streets. We really need to figure out a better option for those guns. “Patch me in to Leopold.” Once Ali gives me the thumbs-up, I say, “This is John Lee. What are your plans?”
“This is Mel. I’ve taken over for Leopold,” Mel says. “Once we get a critical mass behind the shield, we’ll lower it and hit them hard. Everyone has been given specific targets. Our goal is to kill as many as fast as possible.”
Too bad we can’t continuously raise and lower the shield. It’d give our people even more of an advantage. The shift costs a lot of Mana, and if we did that, we’d weaken and eventually destroy the Shield ourselves.