Chapter 45: "Priority: A Spark of Fire"
-UNE Embassy, Rondel-
It is the next morning right after the beginning of the survival round of the tournament. The garrison commander is with his lieutenant, and a group of 10 town guards and a mage, heading towards the gate of the embassy. Only the commander is riding a horse. He watches closely at the gate for any suspicious sign or hint, and so far, he saw none. Just 3 UNE soldiers, 2 in the gate booth and 1 is patrolling along the gate, guarding the entrance which is perfectly normal.
While ambassador Noah is well aware of the intention of the garrison commander, the guarding marines are not. The UNE prefer nobody to know about GIA's spying activities, therefore, they insisted that the ambassador to prepare for it but not tell anyone. Despite his strong objection and warning that this could potentially spiral out of control, the order was given and he must follow.
Stopping in front of the gate, the lieutenant starts walking towards the guarding marines while the town guards are forming up into 2 lines behind the commander. The patrolling marine stops and turns towards the town guards while the 2 marines in the booth also walk outside.
"Hello, this is the UNE embassy" the marine says as his TAC suit scans the armed men in front of him then continues "Is there a problem, sirs?".
In a rude and arrogant manner, the lieutenant replies "We are here to search this building, you better stay out of the way".
Maintaining professionalism as training, the marine ignores his tone "I'm sorry but we were not informed of this visit, you will need to get approval from the Rondel council in writing or have your superior contact our ambassador for permission to enter. Until then, we cannot let you get past this gate" he says, not looking at the lieutenant but looking at the garrison commander.
The lieutenant looks back at his commander, and after receiving a slight nod from him, he turns back to the marine and speaks in a calmer voice "This is the garrison commander, he oversees the defenses and security of this city. His word is as good as the council's, you must comply".
"With all due respect, it is not in the agreement that the council signed with our government. I must ask you to keep away from the embassy for now" the marine replies.
"Then we have no choice but to force our way in" the lieutenant says then takes out his sword and ready his shield.
The town guards also do the same as the lieutenant. Their swords were unsheathed and shields at ready. Unlike the Imperial legionnaires rectangle shield that is made from 3 sheets of wood glued together and covered with canvas and leather, similar to the Roman's scutum, the town guards of Rondel use metal oval shields in combination with full body armor. Without the need to arm millions of soldiers, a rich city like Rondel could afford to fully arm its garrison with the best possible gear. In addition, the lack of need for long marches mean that their soldiers could wear heavy armor and shield for better protection.
Immediately, the marines raise their rifle against the group of town guards. 6 combat drones are launched from their port behind the wall and hover above the marines with their weapons pointing toward the potential hostiles. A few more marines run out of the embassy and take up their positions as the alarm is going off in the embassy. There are more marines taking up positions at the windows of the building.
"Put your weapon down, now!" the marine shouts commandingly.
Having never directly fought the UNE before, the town guards of Rondel have only heard rumors about these UNE soldiers. If the rumors are only half true, getting into a fight with these people would be a really bad situation to be in even when a battle mage is with them. Seeing faceless UNE soldiers in their full body armor with the matte color matching the marbles of the building, the town guards can't help but wonder, how do they see? How are they so agile in full-body armor? Are they even mortal or are they beastly creatures? And then their weapon, there is neither a pointy end nor a sharpened edge if visible, and there is no typical glowing of any kind of magic orbs or runes, what do they do? Why are they holding it like a crossbow, but there's no cross or string? And those flying beasts as well.
Intimidated by the sight and uncertainty, the town guards are somewhat hesitant in their manner. The commander, however, is not afraid. While he is, like his men, uncertain that they would win in a fight against these soldiers, he also knows that they would not attack first. Killing him and his men in broad daylight would equal to sending a wrong message to the population of the city that they are trying to annex.
"Stop!" the commander shouts his command to his men then ride forward and addresses the marine "Soldier, I understand that you are just doing your job. You must also understand that we are also doing ours. It is not good for both of us to kill each other here, so, how is this? You use your…whatever you call it, to call your ambassador out here and I will ask him for permission personally".
Just before the marine answer, ambassador Noah speak to him over the radio "I'll talk to him".
"It's called radio, and he will meet you. Please, standby" the marines replies then mute his suit's speaker and talk in the radio. This means that anyone without a radio or a TAC suit will not hear what he says "Put a white suit on him and escort him out here" he says.
"Thank you" the commander nods.
The alarm is now turned off but the marines and drones are still in position ready to fight. After a loud beep sound, the bulkhead that seals the embassy door opens revealing the glass with a wooden frame door behind it. Two marines open the door from inside and walk out first, follow is ambassador Noah in a white suit. The front cover of his helmet is set to transparent so that the others could see his face.
After the initial mess, the surrounding area is now empty and quiet as most have fled or gone into hiding in their house. The garrison commander gets off his horse as he sees Noah is coming up to him.
"Good morning, commander, how may I help you?" Noah says.
"Greeting ambassador" the commander replies, he bows then continues "I must ask for your permission to allow my men to search your embassy"
"I see, I there must be a reason for this sudden search?" Noah asks.
"There have been mysterious missing children all over Rondel. The first of such case started very soon after your establishment here" the commander says in an intimidating voice, he looks around the embassy and then continues "I'm not implying that you are responsible for the missing children. However, because you are the strangers, some very important people have raised their…concern, therefore, by allowing this search and prove you clean" he presses the word clean, pause very briefly, and then continues "will put their minds at ease and gain you some creditability as well as goodwill".
Noah knows immediately that the commander wants to corner him into letting his man in by using the political situation. However, there is a lot of sensitive information and technology inside the embassy that the UNE could not simply let the local authority see. Some of these documents contain information on the cooperation between the GIA and the Foreign Relations Department which would ruin everything they have been working for if it gets out.
In addition, the embassy's ground is considered UNE's territory, albeit, temporarily. Noah could not just let anyone gets in and poke around anytime they like.
"I see" Noah replies "I have no problem with proving us innocent. However, the embassy is considered UNE territory. I cannot let you search it without discussing it with the Rondel Council first. Once I've talked to them and agreed on a searching procedure, you are welcome to come in and enforce it".
Seeing that his intimidation tactics did not work, the commander talks in a calmer voice "Ambassador, me and my men swore an oath to serve with honor and dignity, we will respect your men and assets inside. You have my word for it."
"With all due respect, commander, I must insist that you wait" Noah replies, calm but insisting.
The commander looks around one last time, every marine, every strange weapon that is pointing at him and his men. Leaving now and come back later only to perform a limited search would be against the purpose of the investigation. However, this conversation is not moving forward and it looks like he will have to fight through them if he wants to get in now. He decided to not push this matter further to avoid trouble and bloodshed.
"Very well, we will wait for the council's order" He replies, bows then return to his horse and ride away with his men.
In a corner not far from the gate of the embassy, a drunken man sitting on the ground against the wall of a tavern seems to be sleeping. But he is not, the man heard everything that had been said and he smiles, an evil, mischievous smile.
-Somewhere in the Kark forest-
Skipping to the next two days after the beginning of the survival round. It has been a smooth run for the SIFs. They managed to avoid most of the beasts and only did run into one other team which resulted in a short skirmish. The SIFs lost no one but managed to eliminate one member of the other team before they retreat. No other of such encounter since then.
The sun is setting on the horizon, its last rays of sunlight is peaking through the clouds creating a beautiful orange sky. However, it is much darker on the ground because of the thick vegetation. At night, the temperature in the forest could get as low as 5 Celsius (41F), however, they do not set a fire. During the first night, the fire they set attract beasts like bees to a honeypot which they were luckily get away unharmed. Since then, they only dig Hàng Cầm stove to use for cooking and a little warm. Invented in 1951, during the ancient war called Vietnam War or Resistance War Against the U.S, it was designed to diffuse and dissipate smoke and hide the light of fire from cooking. It is very useful to hide camping locations against primitive detection technologies. The heat from the cooking makes the surrounding ground warm which the SIFs could lay on to fight the cold.
Each of the SIF has already made their own rough version ghillie suit using everything they could find. While the suit is not very comfortable to wear, it gives them some form of camouflage and it keeps the heat in so they don't get too cold. The genetic enhancement allows them better cold and heat resistance but it is still better to shield themselves from the environment.
"We should be there tomorrow, right?" Ava sits down next to Rob who is staring at the stars to make sure they're on the right track.
"Yes, commander, we'll be there by noon if nothing happens. I suspect we're going to more likely run into other teams the closer we get to the flags, so, there's that" Rob replies.
At the same time, just at the edge of the forest where the mages and their apprentices in charge of monitoring the teams through their magic stones are staying.
"Hey, hey, wake up" one of the apprentices shake another up.
They are both sitting in the tent where all the orbs acting as monitor are.
"Whaaaat~~~~?" The other apprentice is annoyed.
"All the orbs went black" the apprentice says.
"What do you mean all the orb went black?" the sleepy one replies
"It means they all went black" the apprentice says then forces the sleepy apprentice's head towards the table "Look!".
Rows of transparent orbs that used to display the persons who wear the magic stones are now displaying only a pitch-black color.
"By the gods what is happening" the sleepy apprentice says with a terrified tone "Go get the masters".
The other apprentice nods and then rushes out of the tent to get his master.
It is now almost midnight, the SIFs are sound as sleep except for the 2 are on whose guard shift. One of the guarding SIFs wake Ava up to report a strange fog that is approaching their position.
"Commander, ma'am. Wake up, you need to see this" he says.
Ava opens her eyes and immediately awake from her deep sleep thanks to SIF training. She nods and then sit up to look at the direction that the SIF is pointing at. It is really dark, the sky only got darker when the planetary shield was turned off, but thanks to enhanced vision the SIFs can still see in the dark barely. At first glance it is nothing, but when she looks more intensely, a strange dark fog, yet familiar somehow, is approaching. Her guts scream something is unusual about this fog. In the dark, there are something, growling, familiar growling sound that she had heard before. Then it occurs to her, she knows where she saw and heard this, it was in Icia.
"Wake everyone up, quietly" Ava orders, almost whisper.
She shakes Ashley up and point at the direct of the dark fog which is slowly creeping towards them "Hear that?" she asks.
"Yes, same thing in Icia?" Ashley immediately realizes what is happening. After Ava's confirmation nods, she continues "That's the direction of the flags, is this some kind of test?".
Just as Ashley finish her sentence, they hear a man screaming and running towards them from inside the fog. A darkish axe flies out from deep inside the fog, it misses the man and strike a tree near the SIFs. Soon after, another axe hit its mark and stick right through the man chest. He falls face first onto the ground and choking on his blood. Something drags him back into the fog and silent him.
"Yea, I don't think so" Ava replies.
"What do we do now?" Ashley asks.
"We get out of here using these magic stones" Ava says while using hand signal to tell everyone to gather up "If we activate the TAC suit, we violate the rule then the stone should teleport us back to the edge of the forest".
"How do we know the fog wasn't already there? For all we know Rondel has fallen and this fog came from there" Rob says.
"It is still better than staying here. At the very least we can contact the fleet or Alnus Command to find out what is going on" Ava explains "Alright everyone, activate your suit".
What supposed to happen when they violated the rule did not happen. All of them are now in TAC suit and they are still right where they are.
"Ooooookey, what now?" Jimmy says, confusingly.
"Incoming!" One of the SIFs shouts as the undead begin to charge.
They immediately spread out and start shooting at the fast-approaching hostiles. Now with the TAC suit activated, they could clearly see the enemies' position and take extremely accurate shots. It's just a small group of undead which is taken out quickly by the SIFs. However, these undead are unlike the ones back in Icia. They are just skeletons as these are what's left of centuries of explorers, adventurers, monster hunters and beasts from back when Kark was still a dangerous forest.
"Clear!" One of the SIFs reports, and another one on the other flank also reports "Clear!".
"Commander, there's no comms link to the fleet or Alnus Command. No connection to anything except us, for that matter" Rob reports.
Ava nods then turns to David "David, get to the top of that tree and give me a sitrep".
David leaps up the tallest tree that is nearest to their position and quickly climb to the top of the tree. But as soon as he reaches the top, he bumps into some kind of barrier.
"Commander, it's that magic barrier thingy that Lynk and his students put up during the Battle of Sadera, but this one is only tree top height. That's why we have no comms. They must be at the center of the barrier like last time." David reports.
"Roger that, taking this barrier down is now our objective. Can you see where it is?" Ava asks.
"Negative, commander, it's pitch black. The objective must be outside of our suit's sensors range" David replies.
"Alright, the fog came from the direction of the flags. So, that's where we're heading. If they're not there then they should be nearby" Ava says then orders David to get down.
"Commander, you remember back in Icia their shadowy weapon pass right through our armor?" Ashley says.
"Yes, what about it?" Ava asks.
"Well, come look at this" Ashley is standing next to the shadow axe that missed the stranger and hit the tree "They don't pass through wood, we could cut some of the trees and make ourselves some medieval-style shields"
"That in combination with our speed would give us more fighting chance when we run out of ammo. Good thinking, LC, get your men right to it. Squad one is going to keep watch" Ava replies as she tabs Ashley's shoulder.
"Remember people, we don't have replicators with us so make your shot count. Use your speed to your advantage if they get too close. Keep your eyes keen and don't stray too far from the platoon. We're moving out in 1 hour" Ava gives the order to the platoon.
-UNE Embassy, Rondel-
Noah has spent the last two days discussing the terms for the search of the embassy. While 2 out of 3 councilors are in favor of joining the UNE and the other wants to remain neutral, they all want to maintain a good diplomatic relationship with Earth. Therefore, it was agreed that the town guards can search most of the embassy except for a few sensitive areas. The garrison commander is not very happy with this decision of the council, yet, he has no choice but to obey.
It's early in the morning, the garrison commander is once again approaching the UNE embassy with his men. This time, he was expected and Noah is standing in front of the gate waiting for him. The ambassador is wearing a civilian formal suit this time to welcome the expected search party.
In a corner not far from the embassy gate, that same drunken man from 2 days ago is watching. He is wearing a black hood and carrying a brown bag. In side the bag is a few living rats which will be the source of his magic. One of his hands is in the bag, the other hand is reaching out at the direction of the garrison commander. He mumbles the spell that allow him to take control of the mind.
The commander after getting off his horse, he feels like there's a cloud in his head. Something is wrong but he shakes it of as it is the result of all the managing work he has to do for the city. Try to focus on the job at hand, he walks towards the UNE ambassador and extends his hand for a handshake as per their custom. His head gets heavier with each step forward, the cloud is getting darker and, all of a sudden, it is all blank after the handshake. The commander is no longer himself but is under the influence of the dark mind control magic.
Seeing that the commander is staring blankly at him, Noah asks "Are you ok, commander?".
Right after the question, the commander draws his sword and stabs right through the ambassador with ease. In a split second, a marine shoots the commander in the head. The heat of the plasma melts a quarter of his head and drops him dead immediately. The alarm is raised and drones are launched as a medic drags the ambassador back inside the embassy for treatment.
The dark mage immediately shifts his spell to the lieutenant of the garrison commander to take over his mind as well.
"They killed the commander! Make them pay, attack!" the lieutenant shouts under the control of the mage.
Feared and afraid but honor bounded, the town guards charge forward at the marines with sword and shield. They are quickly cut down with ease in mere seconds. The mage that was with the town guards managed to fire a few bolts of fire at the marine causing explosion and catch some of the decorative trees in the embassy's square on fire. Hearing the explosion, town guards that are on patrol around the city, to keep order, immediately rush towards the source of the noise.
Just as a group of town guards pass by, the dark mage runs out to the middle of the street, amid the chaos he shouts "They killed the garrison commander! They want to take the city, they're going to kill us all. The other worlders are going to kill us all! Defend yourselves, defend your loved ones, push them out of our city!".
Some are still running away, but many are not. Those with magic ready their spell, those without pick up sticks, pitchforks, knives, anything they could find and they all start to turn towards the embassy with the intention to kill.
"Shit" The first lieutenant that is in command of the marine platoon stationing in the embassy says "Shield up, close the gate! Sergeant, get on comms with Alnus Command tell them what's happening and ask them for order. Where the fuck are the SIFs?" he shouts his orders.
Coughing off blood from his mouth, Noah pulls a marine down and tells him "Recall…Rory and Kaian…tell them…get…Cato and Lelei".
The marine nods and leaves to do what the ambassador asked him to.
-Council Chamber, Rondel-
The alarm bell is being sounded as the guards discovered the lifeless body of the dwarven councilor, Oasar. He was discovered dead in his seat with a quarter of his head melt by a powerful heat source. It is the law that if a council member is murdered, the city will stop at nothing to find the one who is responsible. The barrier that normally blocks access to the Grand Library of Rondel will be extended to the entire city. No one will leave and no one can get in until the murderer and any possible associates are found and charged.
Rondel is now plunged into complete chaos as the barrier extends to the outline of the city. The news of the death of a councilor quickly spreads and many believe that the UNE is responsible because Oasar has been the only councilor the favor Rondel to remain neutral. Those who favor the annexation blame the others for trying to prevent the talk by killing Oasar and putting it on the UNE to swing public opinion. The city is split and guilds are ready for battle with each other.
A hooded figure is standing on top of one of many towers in Rondel looking down at the chaotic city below as fire and smoke begin the spread from building to building.
With an evil grind and a wicked voice he mumbles "And so Rondel burn".