Paula rushed from her room to the living room quickly putting on her swordswoman outfit designed for the patrol.
Her father was spooked by her sudden entrance “What's the rush?”
Paula fastened her belt holding a basic sword hilt “Clara just gave a message there's a small group that just passed the village. I got to join the patrol in case they get closer to the citadel.”
Her outfit looked like a basic adventuring outfit. though it was made of far better materials than any town could make. Underneath it was her trooper jumpsuit. She figured she could probably fight with just that. But they were trying to approach the adventurers not instigate a fight and the jumpsuit didn't look proper. even many troopers wore something over it.
Paula rushed out the door “see you later dad.”
Dave waved her off “safe adventures.”
Paula rushed to an elevator that was marked with a red light. Clara had prepared it for her. She entered and the elevator went down to a floor containing an emergency shuttle. Stepping out the elevator she heard Clara's voice come from a metal box with windows. “take a seat here paula!”
It looked like a smaller version of the tram that shuttled people over the ship. With still enough room for multiple people. She sat down and fastened her seatbelt as the door closed and the tram moved towards the military hangar.
Clara popped on a small dashboard in front of paula “can i ask what safe adventures means to you locals? I understand it's some sort of sendoff.”
“basically like it sounds. We wish someone a safe adventure. but it's usually said to actual adventurers and not soldiers or guards.”
“I guess your father considers you an actual adventurer.”
Paula nodded as she realized they were just making small talk *better get serious* she thought “so, what can you tell me about the patrol?”
Clara showed some footage a drone had captured at the ruins of the old outpost “we spotted them in the town taking a break. 2 male, 2 female. their class: 2 swordsman, a mage and an archer i guess”
“you guess?”
“It's a guess since I can't pick up their core signal that far from the ship.”
Paula looked at the group “I think one of them is a rogue, the other a paladin. one is dressed in dark colors. Most rogues tend to do that. usually darkish blue like that. so unless he's something of a dark knight...no he’s too lightly armored for that. as for the other paladins tend to wear white indicating their proficiency in white magic.”
“color coded armor?”
“I’m not sure if that's a rule. I've seen knights wear white without being a paladin.”
They arrived in the armory hall. Paula jumped out and stepped up to the desk. The man behind it was a bit chubby but a cheerful man “Paula right? not hard to miss with your hair.”
He brought some weapons from under the desk and summed up “earpiece, med-set, one pistol, 4 clips, small shield and a one handed sword”
Paula put the earpiece in her ear and the man chuckled “this has got to be the strangest loadout i've supplied so far.”
Paula hid the pistol in a holster hidden under her jacket. She grabbed the shield and sword, thanked the man and rushed to the main hangar while putting them away. There she saw Bertha in her mech attached to the back of a mechdropper. She gave Paula a thumbs up as she closed her mech. She boarded the mechdropper just like she was taught yesterday.
There Natlee greeted her in a similar looking outfit across from her were 3 more soldiers. They were there as backup. a sniper, a medic and a regular trooper. Paula heard Bertha over her earpiece -“you nervous pinkie?”-
“How could I not be? first real quest... I mean mission.”
“quest, mission, same thing isn't it? name's Erix by the way” said the sniper for this mission.
To which the medic responded “mine is Sanie and I think quests are taken and missions are given.”
“I agree and I'm Jaro. you met our captain yesterday.” said the last man on the team.
Natlee nodded. They took off and Clara appeared on some screens with the commander in a screen behind her “alright Clara quick rundown.”
Clara nodded “There's 4 locals getting close to the ship. approach them and find out their intentions. depending on that either convince them to turn away from the citadel or recruit them for intel. any questions”
Paula put up her hand “what's intel?”
-“Short for information. basically anything you don't know, they might.”- Bertha responded.
Erix raised his hand “Same deal as last time if they're hostile?”
The commander responded this time -“preferably not but don't take any chances. if that mage starts throwing fireballs at the team like the last one, snipe her and attempt to subdue the rest. also one local noted it is rare for other classes to also use magic like that but not too uncommon so stay on your guard.”
“should i have brought extra burn cream?” Sanie asked jokingly.
A little while later Paula could feel Bertha's mech detach followed by the loud thud of it landing. The dropper went low to a clearing to let the team out. Paula, Natlee and Bertha entered the forest with their backup following a distance behind them. with Clara's guidance they quickly found the party. The mech was surprisingly quiet for its size but it wasn't what you'd call stealthy. The party had heard it land and was getting nervous hearing its footsteps get closer.
Blast stepped out in front of the party. Crushing a fallen tree in the process. to which the ranger immediately fired an arrow that just bounced off the mech's armor. Bertha had expected something like that “Rude... I'll ignore that. Unless you try again.” she said.
Natlee and paula stepped out “hold it we're not here to fight”
The paladin of the party was the first to calm down “oof... you might want to keep your strange golem closer. how did you talk through it?”
The rest of the party calmed down. the ranger that shot came up to Natlee “sorry about shooting your golem. we were alerted when we heard it earlier. Did it jump or something?”
Natlee waved it off “It's ok but what brings you this deep in the forest?”
the rogue of the group explained “you've seen the destroyed town nearby? Well there's 2 days left for adventurers to find survivors and bring them back safely to st Baalz. we thought some might have run more towards the desert. I assumed you two were here for the same thing.”
Paula had a hard time not revealing she was a survivor and had no intention to go to st Baalz. but she had to ask “Who put up the request?”
“Some marquis who said he was worried for the people.”
“Do you trust this noble?”
the party laughed “Trust him? hell no. who trusts nobility?” the rogue scoffed.
The paladin elaborated “we wanted to check if there were survivors and find out what happened.there's big rewards from the guild for that. if the survivors don't want to return... Well, I guess we'll at least guide them out of the forest.”
“From there they can head to St Baalz or Dagos. I'm curious what the noble would've done to the prince and the villagers though.” the archer added.
“what do you think is the most likely?” Natlee asked.
“I'm guessing the noble killed the prince and wanted to silence the village that witnessed it.” the paladin responded.
The mage that was still entranced by the mech “that's a lot of mana.” She snapped out of it and turned to Natlee “Wait why do you sound like you haven't visited the city in days? Did you guys get lost?”
Over the comms Paula and Natlee could hear Bertha's instructions -“Backup be ready. Paula, can I ask you to tell them what happened? only until before our ship crashed. can you manage?”-
Paula gave a slight nod to blast and stepped forward “actually. I'm a survivor. I escaped to the mountains near the desert where I met Miss Natlee. The passage to the desert is blocked though. must've been the earthquake that day.”
Natlee picked up on the idea “in short the town was sabotaged by the prince. He tried to enslave me for... my big friend here.”
The party was taken aback. “You killed the 3rd prince?” the paladin asked.
The rogue just muttered “I knew the slimeball was up to no good.”
The mage and the ranger just backed away a bit and asked “why would you tell us that?”
"calm down Odores. It might be because she trusts us I guess.” the rogue said.
“tell me what do you plan to do knowing that?”' Natlee asked them.
The mage fell over while backing up. while the paladin tried to calm her down he asked Natlee “nothing much we can do if you wiped out the prince's troops. but it seems you want something from us. Do we need to guide the girl out of the forest?”
“I have no plans to go to the city.” paula snapped “In fact Natlee and I are getting to the bottom of this. If you want to join us you are more than welcome. know however we won't be returning to the kingdom to live under the rule of the current monarchy.”
Bertha had helped her come up with that last part. The party looked at her considering the offer. the mage stood up holding her staff “I'd like to return to my family. unless you plan on killing us if we decline.”
“We'd prefer not to kill you but we'd also prefer you didn't tell anyone about us.” Natlee responded.
The paladin wanted to know the truth so he agreed to join them, the rogue was intrigued and agreed too, the ranger turned out to be the rogue's lover and would follow him. Since only the mage left they guided her back to the edge of the forest.
When they saw the fields a small distance away Paula asked the mage “Are you sure you don't want to join?”
“no thank you. I promise I'll keep our meeting a secret but I can't just vanish and worry my mother like that.” She assured them while she said goodbye to the rest of the party. A little worried about them As she left for the city across the plains shouting “and if you have to do anything in st Baalz i'll be happy to help.”
The rest returned to the forest. After an hour they arrived back at the ruined village.
“last chance to back out. there's a whole lot to unpack.” Natlee announced.
Once they confirmed they would not back out Bertha opened blast up shouting “wooh! Are you guys in for a ride.”
While the party was surprised by her appearance Natlee shouted into the forest “good job team! gather up!”
The others came from the forest “I was close to shooting that archer when she fired her arrow” Erix shouted prompting the rogue to respond “I knew I heard something”.
Seeing the party's confusion Paula explained “yeah, i've been surprised like that too. They are people that came from the stars. they landed where the passage to the desert was. it's a lot to go over but they'll explain everything at the citadel.”
The mechdropper arrived landing nearby. Bertha closed her mech and approached the mechdropper “hold onto your butts new guys. you're going to see some amazing shit.”
Comments (0)
See all