The Space Pathfinder:
The Baron
16.6.876 K.L.
As the small engraved stone door swung closed, I let go of the public façade of pleasantries. I take a sidelong glance to either side of myself, updating myself on the status of my two crewmembers that came with me for the meeting; they're standing firm, looking pleasingly disciplined, even Doc.
"You broadcasted that you had a contract for us?" I say taking an unconscious step towards his masterpiece of a mahogany desk that dominated the small windowless room.
"Yes, yes. I like that, straight to the point!" The squat man on the engraved marble throne beyond the desk jiggled with a jolt.
My inner eye rolls as he gracefully tries to recover from his surprise at my change in tone. One of the two guards standing sentry at either side of the door shifts his weight to his other leg. His? Hers? I really don't know..
"Yes, as you may have noticed when walking through our workshops, our main trade is from our mining operations. Without our mines we would last a little over a year-and-a-half before we riddle ourselves with starving families. With that in mind, we have been successful at tending this settlement to fruition over the past twelve years, and as a result of our success, as you can imagine, I find myself with distasteful responsibilities at times. Now with a thriving city of two-hundred-and-fifty-seven souls I find myself at one more of those distasteful times." He pauses, leaning slightly forward, his chin downturned, eyes looking up into mine with a certain resigned serious shade over his face.
My mind automatically starts analyzing escape routes. A door to the throned man's left, unknown what is through it. And the only other door, we came in through, I glance over my shoulder behind us towards the door. The door is flanked by identical guards in full steel plate mail, one brandishing what seems to be a silver maul, the other a steel two handed battle axe. This room happens to be in the center of the city. This harsh planet keeps its civilizations punished yearlong with the dangerous native wildlife, so even exiting this defensive, militaristic city will be a hassle. Thank god they're not too technologically advanced.
Not to mention we're around twenty stories underground.
"I'm afraid to say," He continues in an authoritively sorrowful tone, "That our miners have been on stand still over the past four months. Our ore supply has recently run out, and our marble supply will soon follow. Half our workshops are not operational. The next trade caravan scheduled to arrive in two more months will find us with barely a craft to sell. Our farmers won't receive our usually imported seeds, and the long process of starvation will be underway." He pauses for what I assume to be a suspenseful moment for him. "With the lives of everyone within this city in my hands, I simply cannot allow this to happen. The mines must be re-opened. I understand this is an unusual request, but regretfully, for the sake of my cities security, I cannot give you more information until you agree to help. But I am hoping that given our past relations, I can trust you, and you me." He finishes up his obviously rehearsed theatrics.
I sigh inwardly "We do not work that way, my lord. It would be unprofessional of me to agree to those terms. I simply can't promise you my crew will be useful in this situation without more information. And without us knowing what we're up against, no contracts will be signed, no mutual benefit will be found." Such a change of posture, similar to the contrast between sun and moon, the squat man suddenly appeared quite ominous for his small stature. The shadows behind his throne seemed to grow to engulf more than half the room; His skin seemed to pale to a dull grey, his back impossibly straight for his rounded figure.
With his faced downturned, in the softest voice I had yet heard from these rumbly voiced people, "Are you sure I can't ask for your help in this matter? You will be well rewarded."
I close my eyes, with my face downturned I solemnly say, "I'd be more than happy to help. But no, not with what little information you've given us. Not for any price."
The good Baron's face looks up into mine, a placating expression on his face. "I assure you, if you are successful, you will be forever treated as kings here! We wouldn't let you leave without as much as you could carry in anything we can provide! Our entire city depends on this! It's too short notice for the Kerolos mercenaries to be called, we will be starving by the time they arrive! And our own military is already stretched too thin!" He ends this tirade with short breath, and an open mouth, staring at me.
"In that case all that needs to be done is for you to show me the contract, With ALL relevant information." I say stoically.
With an exasperated sigh, the Baron waves to a guard who pokes his (her?) head out the door. After a moment an intimidating figure in blue tinted full plate, with a similar tower shield on his left arm, and a short sword on his belt entered the room.
A low vibratory bass rumble takes the room by storm as the blue-clad man opens his mouth. "Sire?"
Doc, for some reason seemed to be losing his cool. Eyebrows slightly raised, Doc stared at the blue-tinted metal. I glance at my other crewmember to see if I'm just missing something, no, Ted doesn't seem to notice anything amiss.
Before my thoughts could go further into the mystery of 'what could trip up Doc?' The Baron spoke up. "This is my Champion; Alycres Lem, The Gushes of Winding. Alycres, tell them of the mines."
"Three months before we closed off the mines, we found an adamantine vein. We started plans of mining the vein immediately. Our entire city celebrating for months, but before long our miners reported having broken into an eerily silent, seemingly bottomless, expansive cavern near the bottom of the vein, pitch black even to our eyes, we wondered about this for a few days, but then shifted our attention back to the adamantine.
Then they came.
Grotesque misshapen creatures, all resembling unique mixture of different life, by wing they got themselves into our adamantine tunnel and soon spread throughout our other mining operations. We have a security checkpoint where the mines attach to the rest of our city; we had to seal the mines. Many miners as well as our security response team were sealed in along with those things. We haven't dared open the gate with our military this thin, and no noise has come from the other side for several months now." The Champion takes a step back as if stepping off stage.
"So," The Baron's voice was like the lightning to The Champion's thunder, striking me out of my reverie. "Now that you have the details, what say you? Will you help?"
I take a minute, trying to look politely deep in thought, but already knowing my answer.
"No, what you need is an army or a miracle, my crew is neither. I wish your people the strength to overcome this. Thank you for your hospitality; with your blessing we will take our leave."
"No, you do not have my blessing." The Baron thunders suddenly, and then seems to gather himself. He continues in a more refined voice, "I'm afraid that I cannot allow you to leave. Not with our situation so dire and now with what you know of the adamantine. No, you will not be leaving. We will provide you with anything that will help you towards opening the mines. But you will not be leaving until they are opened to the miners."
"My lord, please reconsider this decision." I stammer, feeling cold inside.
"That is all! Guards, show them to Numis Manor. They will be our guests for a while. Do not fear, you will be well treated." The Baron finishes up, as if to move his attention on to other matters.
Numb.
With a deafening boom amplified by these small confines, the room lights up with the muzzle flash of my 50cal handgun as the Baron's face implodes and his body bucks back into his throne. My crewmen finished the guards before his body even slumped over. As if in the same motion I send another bullet screaming to meet the beginnings of a battle scream coming from The Champion's open faceplate.
"Get a grenade through that door." I motion unnecessarily towards the door we came through. Doc was already working the pin. With a messy crash, The Champion slams to the ground.
Walking towards the door, "Open, close and hold!" I say, and we do just that. Ted opens the door a crack, Doc tosses the cooked grenade through and a spear comes through the small opening, stopping us from closing the door. I get my handgun into the crack and pull the trigger repeatedly in adrenaline saturated panic. The spear drops to the ground and Ted wrenches it into the room, with that out of the way the door slammed shut. Now we all hold the door shut against the pounding of the guards outside. The three seconds of waiting seemed like an eternity as I keep eyeing the unknown door to the right of the throne dreading the worst to come through. I notice my hands are done reloading my handgun just as a boom followed by the sharp sound of shrapnel and stopped-short screams reverberates from the room beyond.
"Waste no time." And we didn't. Spent no time getting through the door, ignore the gore and move out through another door into one of the main hallways of the city. Ted has his MP7 with a silencer at the ready, I notice his magazine has a brown strip on the side, good, we need the fire power. Doc has his 9mm sidearm in hand.
Luckily this happens to apparently be the hallway that goes off to most of their subterranean farms, because as we burst into the hall, farmers scattered. Obviously they hadn't expected this and were not prepared; I see no soldiers throughout the length of the hall.
Time for back tracking.
We turn right and pull ourselves to full reserved throttle, moving along quite quickly down the hall at a pace we could keep for two or three days.
"This is going to be the hard part. We're approaching one of their gigantic dining halls, which just happens to act as a central hub for this floor." Doc says to us, his memory sharp as usual.
After traversing a good distance, we approach a large opening on the right side wall that leads to the dining hall, just as we can see through it several soldiers appear running towards us from further down the hallway.
"Ignore them, save ammo for what is in our way." With that, I let myself lead into the dining hall. "Make this fast!" I say before starting a sprint across the hugely populated hall filled with dining tables and chairs. I slow down only to take shots at any figure I see wearing armor. This becomes too much of a blur of panicked faces for me to keep track of every person I shot at; all I know is the stairs are somewhere ahead.
I finally reach the bottom of the stairs. My momentum carries me up the first four steps, I take a second to pulse check my crew's progress across the hall.
"Huh." There are a lot more civilians downed then I remem- "oh." My eyes finally caught sight of the group of soldiers that had evidently come through the opening we came through. Five soldiers carrying crossbows were standing under the arch of the opening, three reloading and two aiming towards my crewmembers getting civilians caught in and out of the crossfire.
I started up the stairs as Doc and Ted bring themselves up the first few steps. After quite a few flights and small bouts of fire at intercepting soldiers, we finally reach the landing we had entered the stairs from when we had first arrived; a large roughly dug out cavern filled with workshops. On the far side are the stairs to the surface that we had entered by.
When I stepped foot onto the landing two things rang in my head. One, they are ready for us.
Two, I don't know if there is another way to the surface. These thoughts complete a split second after eyeing the forty-plus steel clad figures standing between us and the surface access stairs. So much adrenaline and clarity came to my mind all at once, that I could even pick out the slight sensation of my left eyebrow quivering over the roar of my thoughts.
"This way!" And with that, I turn left and run sidelong the soldiers. Blundering through a few workshops, I throw what seems to be a carpenter? Out of the way. Ok, I didn't see any doors in the surface buildings when we arrived. Hopefully they're accessed from underground. Sounds like a plan, roof access, then grapple down. My legs were already leading us to a niche in a wall of the cavern as my mind completely ignored the pursuing soldiers.
Ha! Stairs going up! With success pumping through my body, I reach the small staircase sprinting up. Huh, only goes up one floor. I stop in my tracks as I reach the top; we're still underground.. Dirt walls, civilians scattering, doors at regular intervals on either side of the hallway, littering of worn or moldy clothes lining the floor, did we just enter the slums?
The hallway goes straight or left, I only took a second to decide. Straight we go. As we run on down the hall, I wonder what made me so sure straight was the way to go.
We get to a ninety degree bend in the hallway turning right. Without stopping I turn right and continue on.
Oh I remember, if we had gone left that would be away from the surface buildin- "Oof!' The wind is knocked out of me as what feels like a wall broadsides me from my left, smashing me into the opposite wall, where I drop and come to a rest on the dirt ground. While gathering my spinning senses, I hear an MP7s lengthy burst as if from a distance, followed by the force of what has got to be a couple tons of said wall laying its weight on my leg. Then probing hands yanked me up to my feet, wrenching my leg out from underneath the weight.
We are already back on the move. Ted isn't letting me fall, or stop to rest. But even with my head spinning, my curiosity can't be overcome. I look back over my shoulder, There lying right where I had been was a massive dead civilian, passed him was the approaching wall of pursuers. I must have been tackled on my way by one of those side rooms. "Thank you, Ted." I say, tapping him to let him know I don't need his support anymore.
My weight goes to my legs as he lets go, I almost buckle from the pain. A couple ribs must be fractured or broken, Thank you adrenaline. I continue on, now at the back of my crew. Down the hallway passed them I see a nicer door than the rest where the hallway ends.
A few moments later, we burst into what looks like a barracks. Four cots set up in the far right corner, dining table with four chairs to our right, an armor stand and weapon rack on our left, a door opposite of this one, and stairs! Going up! We run over to the far left corner where the stairs are and waste no time in starting our climb. Ha! The next flight has no landing, but the walls are smooth stone now, similar to the surface buildings. The next flight was the same, but when we reached the landing after, we found ourselves on the top of the smooth stone curtain wall overlooking the inner wall and keep. A guard with a crossbow watching out towards the wilderness not ten steps away glanced our way and started. Ted fires, sending the guard out between the buttresses falling over the edge. I run over to the spot he was standing and get started finding a good anchor for the grapple.
Doc goes down the rope first. I hear a shout. Looking towards the source of the noise, I see another guard further along the wall taking aim.
"Ted, you next." Ted starts getting his harness attached to the grapple, and then he takes a crossbow bolt to the back of his shoulder. As if it was happening in slow motion, I took three hurried steps towards him, reaching for him. But he was already teetering over the edge.
Ted fell.
The rope held no weight; he didn't get his harness attached. I stare, registering all this as I hear a sickening crunch.
Time to go.
I get myself behind a buttress just as a bolt flies overhead. The first of our pursuers were just coming up the stairs.
Holding myself in place, I attach my harness and drop. Doc was busy, leaning over what must be Ted.
"Doc, hurry it up, we're leaving."
With that, we grab what we can of Ted's equipment and start sprinting towards the line of trees.
There were only a few bolts that whizzed by us on our way, most just sticking in the ground short of us, but none getting too close.
I touch my com. "Steven, we need a pick up. Same place we were dropped off."