The Tale of the Devourers
1
Locust
Empire of Negramstia, Greenwich village, on the borderlands…
Locust waited for the old man to finish speaking, even if he kept making glances at the rest of his company, waiting for him to finish business. The Skeleton sighed. The things he did for gold and iron. The old man was the mayor of the village and he was begging for aid against…
"Excuse me, a people hunt?" Locust asked.
"Aye...sir." The old man said. "We are a small village, hardly noticed by the Great Empress of Negramstia and yet she takes those who intrigue her. She seeks the finest slaves. I beg of you master, you must protect us!"
"He means slavers boss." Locust turned his head slightly to Cricket, his unflappable and capable second in command. Like Locust and his officers' cadre, he was a STM model of Skeleton, normally unsuitable for frontal combat but necessity and the harsh brutality of the wastelands of their homeland had made them adapt. Cricket was one of the best and did not shirk from violence.
"Slavers, yes!" The old man nodded frantically. "They'll-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah...I get it." Locust interrupted the old mayor. "So...how much?"
The question seemed to have sailed over the old man's wrinkly bald head. "I-I beg your pardon?"
"How much are you gonna pay?" Locust asked again.
The old man looked desperate. "P-P-Pay?" He gasped.
"I don't work for free, human." Locust said, arms crossed as he loomed ominously over the old mayor. It was an intimidating sight, for the Skeleton was covered head to toe in masterwork Samurai armor. The emotionless face armor and crested helmet made it hard to make eye contact. "So...Like I said, how much are you gonna pay for protection?"
The old man sagged. "...I...The village doesn't have much." He whispered.
Locust nodded as if he was agreeing with that statement.
"Cricket! Get everyone gathered up and ready to move out!" Locust snapped. "We're leaving!"
Gasping and holding his chest, the old man sagged to his knees and held on to the leg-plates of Locust's armor but before the Skeleton could kick the human away, he said something interesting.
"Please! Please, master! I-I'll pay anything!"
"Anything?" Locust looked down at the old man. "Are you sure? It would be easier to leave you all to the slavers but…"
The old man let go and looked distantly ahead as he realized that Locust was not joking. The...machine was as unfeeling as the steel that composed his body. "A-Anything...lord. Please…"
Locust would have smiled if he had been physically capable.
"Anything, you say?" He said, making a rumbling sound that hardly resembled a chuckle.
"Anything, I swear. I swear on the Goddess…" The old mayor sobbed. "My daughters...My daughters do not deserve this…"
Locust reached down and tilted the man's upwards, forcing the man to face him. The Skeleton's blank countenance was terrifying even during a sunny day such as this.
"Good news for you then. My interest is piqued." Locust said cheerfully now. "So...shall we discuss these slavers? I don't like walking into a fight blind after all…"
It was a clear night, with nary a cloud in the sky. Locust enjoyed the sight of all the stars in the sky, something that had not changed even back home. Much lore had been lost but sometimes Locust could trace a shape or two between the stars he could see.
"Well, aren't these guys hardasses."
Katy-Did's offhand comment caused some chuckling as the Devourers watched the column of riders coming in down the path.
"Can the chatter, Did." Beside Katy-Did, Roach looked down at the narrow valley they were going to use to ambush the slaver column. The slavers were forced to march single file, devastatingly stupid in these kinds of close quarters. The riders wouldn't be able to get out. Locust unsheathed his weapon, a large Nodachi variant known as a Topper. The blade was top-heavy, hence its name. The Meitou forged blade was a personal favorite of Locust's.
"Bonebrew and Bonedrew won't fit in here will they?" Cricket asked Locust, crouched alongside him.
"That's what Grasshopper says." Locust answered. "It's just us and the crossbows. As soon as they start firing, we go in swinging."
"Sir." Cricket unlimbered his polearm. Locust shook his head imperceptibly, wishing Cricket would drop the 'sir' shit. It had been centuries since he had been a knight in service to the Second Empire, the good old days...
Locust waited, then turned his eyes to their crossbowmen. Their leader Genderghast had them all on one side, ready to shoot down into the column of riders from above. Locust had split his company into two groups. The Chosen were many Skeletons who fought directly under Locust and his cadre of officers. They were hardened veterans with heavy armor and masterfully crafted weapons. They would die for him, if he but asked, and Locust kept that thought at the forefront of his mind each and every day. He made it his responsibility to preserve his powerful troops.
Slavers. What a joke. He had heard of such bands who claimed ties to the Night Empire of Negramstia but if they thought those claims were going to stop him from earning pay then they had another thing coming. Still, Katy-Did had a point. These men had decent weapons and armor. Not much up to Mempo's or Kabuto's standards but still.
"Steady, steady…" He heard Katy-Did and Roach speaking to the others. Locust knew Grasshopper and Tree were heading back to their own positions.
The column got closer...closer...closer…
Soon enough they were in the perfect position for the ambush. Locust locked optics on Genderghast, and nodded.
"Now!" Locust barked and dropped into the valley, first in as always while the crossbowmen fired down into the ranks of the slavers. He was on the first horseman, cutting a leg off of his mount and stepping back. The slaver was screaming, his leg shattered and trapped underneath the animal's screaming and thrashing form. The rest of his Chosen followed and the night's peaceful serenity was shattered by the sounds of steel clashing, and the screams of men dying as eighty well armed and heavily armed Skeletons went up against a number of Slavers more than twice theirs. Above the valley, Genderghast and his crossbowmen maintained their fire, adding to the chaos with precision shots at a rate and accuracy no human archer could match.
Locust ducked under a slaver's swing at his head and threw the man over his shoulder. He saw Katy-Did taking on two at a time, wounding each one with one swing of his saber. He heard a scream, then watched callously as Cricket impaled a man to the valley wall with his polearm. Some riders had managed to break off but the crossbowmen took care of that; Locust turned and took a hit to the head from a slaver's sword. The weapon cut a shallow notch into his helmet but failed to penetrate further. Locust cut the man's head off in retaliation and stomped onward, killing as he went. That pissed him off, he had gotten his helmet repaired recently damn it!
There was a reason why his band of Skeletons was called the Devourers. Locust had led these Skeletons, at first a band of five former Second Empire soldiers who were exiled, all over the lands of the World that Was. They had faced everything the savage lands could throw at them. Yet, it was not enough. His band spent most of their time raiding the ruins of the ancient civilizations that once dwelt in the savage lands, and the influx of ancient science and research made them stronger. With the technological discoveries they had made Locust and the Devourers soon completed a work no one thought they could pull off…
An actual sailing ship. Locust had no fondness for his homeland, and instead wished to create a community of his own...for his band of Devourers to have a home for themselves away from the petty wars of the United Cities, the Holy Nation and the Shek kingdom.
He would create that community. He would make his own place in these lands...
And death to all who would oppose him.
The ambush was a success. Locust wiped his blade off as he surveyed the slaughter he and his warriors left behind. The Thralls were already finishing off the wounded and the dying slavers, packing up whatever weapons and armor they could use for salvage. The Thralls were Skeletons without heads, programmed as labor units and scavengers. Once serving their abusive cutthroat con artist masters in Venge, the Devourers spent much of their time reprogramming many of them for their own purposes.
Locust watched pitilessly as a Thrall encountered a prone man trying to crawl away. The Thrall cut downwards with its polearm, cutting the now screaming man to pieces. When the damned human finally expired, the Thrall turned him over to start looting. Each Thrall was armed with a polearm and an iron club wrapped in cloth. Unlike many in the Devourers, their equipment was standardized with armored rags and rusty chainmail. They also carried an improvised metal barrel as a backpack to carry salvaged weapons and armor.
"Boss!"
Locust turned his head, then looked downward. It was Kabuto, the Devourers' armor smith. A mechanized Hiver work drone Kabuto also did engineering work back in their homeland and coordinated with the lead researcher, Terran, on what else was needed. Terran in return was the acting commander of the Devourers' Home Guard, the supportive foundation of the Devourers that did most of the logistical tasks but were more than capable in a desperate scrape or two.
It was rare for both groups to fight together, unless it was to defend their outpost from dire threats, but here on this new continent to which they sailed and landed in they had no such home.
Yet.
"Kabuto." Locust nodded at the Hiver. "What is it? A casualty? Someone lose another arm or leg?"
"No sir. But Terran says the Sailbacks are almost full of salvage." Kabuto said. "That and, well he's getting impatient. Says he's got a bunch of research that still needs doing."
Locust sighed. "Tell him we're almost done." He answered. "No need to get his parts in a twist."
"HAHAHA! CYBER BEEP IS THE STRONGEST WARRIOR!"
"GRUUGH! RARRGH!"
"CYBER BEEP AND AGNU! STRONGEST WARRIORS EVER!"
Locust sighed again as Kabuto shook his head with a chuckle. The Hiver gave a salute as he went to convey Locust's wishes.
Of course those two would get started with celebrating. Still, he was amused. Cyber Beep and Agnu. They were considered the mascots of the company, and their endless optimism often contrasted with the efficiency and cold-blooded natures of the other veterans of the Chosen. Locust was fond of them as he was of any of the Devourers.
Locust wiped his blade off of one of the dying slaver's backs and sheathed his sword. The mayor better be true to his word. He didn't like being stiffed out of payment. There were many fools who tried to stiff him back in the day. None of them lived for very long.
Alderman Jacob Evans had been the mayor of Greenwich for many good years. In the midst of the expanding influence of the Great Empress Radomira and the Nigh Empire of Negramstia, he had done his best to lead his village and by the grace of the Goddess they had managed to avoid the attentions of the decadent country.
That had changed recently as he had been forced to give up unwilling slaves, separating daughters from families, to the slavers who claimed allegiance to the Great Empress. He rubbed his white hair as he felt even older than he already was. He was very unpopular now, and though his daughters did what they could to help him...he did not want them to suffer for his mistakes.
Now, as he shuffled out the door to meet with the...metal men he sighed tiredly. He hoped that his two daughters were asleep still. He didn't want to face them today, at least not until he had negotiated with the metal men who-
"Father?"
"Daddy?"
Jacob closed his eyes briefly in pain. He faced his daughters, both of them standing at the bottom of the stairs. Their home was once filled with laughter, but since the death of his wife quiet was all that was left. He smiled, trying his best to reassure his two daughters. The elder, Anna, already on the cusp of womanhood at seventeen. Her hair was done up in a bun to keep it out of the way as she worked in the bakery while his youngest, Sarah, was a small, lithe thing with her own curly hair flowing down her shoulders.
"My dears...I thought you'd both be asleep." Jacob said.
"Please don't leave daddy," Sarah pleaded. "You don't have to talk with the bad men."
"I have to, my little dove." Jacob told Sarah. "I was the one who hired them."
"At what price, father?" Anna asked, adding to the burden already on Jacob's shoulders. "We cannot continue like this anymore."
Aye, we can't. Jacob thought as he walked closer. Sarah immediately clung to his leg and he stroked her hair. But what choice do I have?
"I know." He said to Anna. "I know, my dear. But I have to try anything. I could not-I am not willing to let the slavers dictate how things are done. I cannot let them take any more."
Again, he plastered a smile on his face. "Wish me luck, my dears." He said, trying to sound more optimistic than he felt.
/
As he stepped out beyond the gates of Greenwich, Jacob saw who was waiting for him. There was the leader, arms crossed. His helmeted head locked onto Jacob and stared even as the mayor walked closer with growing dread. He saw that some of the villagers had been out, and were whispering. Jacob could have ordered everyone to stay inside but he didn't bother. They knew he had to kowtow to the slavers for many years.
What was one more overlord to bend the knee to?
"Human." The metal man said dispassionately.
"Lord." Jacob returned hesitantly. "I...assume that you were successful?"
The response was the metal man tossing a severed head between them. "Quite successful," The metal man said. "Now...Let's get to business. You mentioned being willing to pay any price?"
Jacob tensed as he saw the severed head of the slaver, then looked back into the face of the metal man. "Yes, lord."
"Ah...Sorry, human. We should have introduced each other." The metal man apologized.
"I am Jacob Evans, lord. Mayor of Greenwich." Jacob bowed his head. "May I ask for milord's name?"
"Locust. You may call me Locust."
"I do not wish to be cruel. Neither do I act with cruelty for its own sake. If it does not serve my interests then I shall take no action. However, you have continued to push me by attacking my trade caravans. I can be reasoned with. I would prefer to discuss things but you choose not to do so and yet you have the temerity to speak out against my forces being marshaled against you. Curse you for inconveniencing me." - attributed to Locust, speaking to Lord General William Bright during the massacre at Levin Garrison.
Locust. Warlord of the Devourers. The Iron Baron.
He has many names, but that doesn't matter. He is the leader of the Devourers, the hand that guides the cutting blade. Locust is a dreaded figure, feared for his mercilessness and hated for his callous disregard for the people of the Holy Alliance and the Empire of Negramstia.
Hailing from a land they only call 'The World that Was', the Skeletons of the Devourers are utterly loyal to Locust. He was the one who turned the band into the mighty faction that it is today. Though it is a small community, Locust has managed to create a small city-state for his people and those desperate enough to travel there.
Locust is the warlord of this small state, and he suffers no interference in running it. Reprisal from the Holy Alliance and the Empire have met with failure. There are those who say that he takes advantage of the conflict between the Alliance and the Empire in order to profit over the salvage he can gain from the battlefields in order to cement his position.
As the Grand Master of Kimia, I sought to chronicle their stories and deeds. History has a way of repeating after all, and there may be lessons to be learned here. We already had a walking legend in Direc Rond. Now we must deal with the Warlord of the Devourers and I am seeing that he is a more different, terrifying opponent compared to the master of the Black Dogs.
-Taken from the book of Grandmaster Astrid Flamel, the Devourers...
So this is just a proof of concept that I wanted to put out. Yes, I play Kenshi and every good Kenshi player knows that it can and will consume your life much like many games such as Project Zomboid, Mount and Blade which i want to get, and others. There was a challenge up much like Wimblegurk's by Desir D'amour although it has some rules. This isn't a response to the challenge, i'm just writing as I go along.
Yes this is based on my current modded playthrough of Kenshi, set a few years after it when my faction manages to create a ship to sail to another continent. Skeletons FTW.
