The arrow was more of an announcement than anything. Tarphus looked up from his gun. Surprisingly he did not feel scared, more annoyed as he spotted several points of dust and dirt on his rifle. 

Then he and his squad heard from the nearby tree, "You of the Federation are not welcome in the lands of the kingdom, give me a reason to not slay you." Tarphus sighed; he turned to his troops and said, "Stand down, we are to engage the foes at the front, not here." 

This caused some grumbling; the newcomer was silent, then continued, "What are you doing here." Tarphus then looked towards the voice, only seeing the trees. However, with the help of his mechanical eye, he then noticed that the leaves around fifty feet away from him were disturbed; it was where the voice and arrow came from.

Tarphus responded calmly. "We are going to the front and provide our firepower against the Green wave. It will be valuable for my squad to earn their experience and gain coins along the way. Now I have a gun to clean."

Tarphus started applying his cleaning kit to his Autogun once again, blatantly ignoring the person. This apparently served as a shock to them as silence reigned once again in the forest clearing. However, this was not to last, "You say that you and your kin are mercenaries?" 

Tarphus was almost done cleaning his gun, so this interruption was more annoying than anything. Finally, however, he heard something in that voice. Hope, this person was desperate, of that there was no doubt. Tarphus listened to this before; Ethira taught him how to see it and exploit it.

Tarphus pondered, "I can only take a contract from someone I can see, and I cannot see you." There was silence again as this being mulled over its options. Then, finally, Tarphus blinked, and there in the place of the disturbed leaves was someone he did not expect, a dryad. 

This did not make sense as the kingdom swore to defend the magical creatures of peace and justice. This was just to get the creatures of magic in one place, or so his father believed; however, the magical creatures agreed. Yet this Dryad was outside their sacred and sanctioned forest; this is interesting. If he was still Tarphus Cullivan, he would have to bring her back to the sanctuary.

He moved his hand in a circular motion prompting her to continue her explanation. Her eyes narrowed, but her desperation was now apparent in her eyes. "There is a bandit camp nearby, and they caught my sister. So if you get my sister back here, I would be very grateful." she bats her eyelashes at him. Turning her body suggestively, she was quite the looker too, tall and slender the green body might disway some but in the moonlight was… 

"Ouch!" Tarphus felt something zap him on his shoulder; he turned and saw Kit on his shoulder, then he looked back to the Dryad she was not as attractive as before. "Never do that again." 

The servo skull dipped its head, and she looked confused; Tarphus then placed his hand on Kit. "Not you; you did well. I was talking to her using a charm on me." Tarphus then turned to the Dryad with his face void of emotion.

"Next time you do that, I will make sure that you get a bullet in between the eyes." She frowned and was about to comment; however, Tarphus raised his hand, interrupting her. "However, my men are bored and need training, so I shall let it slide on the condition that I gain whatever is inside the bandit camp beside your sister." 

Tarphus smiled coldly at the Dryad, who looked at him with uncertainty. Tarphus could see the conflict in her eyes, wondering if there was a catch, but then there was that hope. Right there in her eyes, there was that thought that maybe, just maybe, this human would allow them to flee.

The Dryad turned to him and asked, "How can I trust you?" To which he nodded, he then turned to finish cleaning his gun. "You cannot. However, I will tell you if you accept my offer. I will ensure that you will have plenty of time to evacuate your sister from a distracted foe."

Her eyes widened in shock; she paused, pondering, then nodded. "Alright, they are to the Northeast, on a small plateau. I will guide you to the camp, but it will be you who distracts them." To that, Tarphus nodded, then said, "We will be resting here tomorrow will be the time the traitors burn."

She tried to argue, but Tarphus would not budge on it. His squad needed rest; after that, the fun would begin. So, he decided to get the Heavy Autogun, as they could set it up ahead of time. 

The squad was slightly angered that a "Xeno" was leading them. However, they thought they could destroy the traitors nestled inside that little camp where they felt safe. But, Pah, the crackling of Autogun fire and the bite of lead shall usher them to the punishment they deserve.

That thought was incredible to their minds; Lucy wanted Tarphus to get the Flammer so that she could roast them like the garbage that they were. Tarphus made a mental note that she liked fire a little too much. 

He did not want to pry into his squad. It seems he is tolerated for now, but some things could lose his standing with his troops. If they wanted to talk about their personal lives, he would not stop them, hell he would try to help, but if they did not speak, he would not pressure them.

They found the plateau; it was lightly guarded. However, Tarphus wanted to make sure their target was there. So they went East towards a hill; Tarphus could see into the camp using his new eye. It was surprisingly large. There were fourteen log cabins. 

They appear to make this their permanent base as the "Cabin" in the middle has a stone base; some people labor over it with collars around their necks. His squad was incensed by this; however, they could not open fire immediately. 

Tarphus did not know their strength, so they waited to watch the bandits. Finally, at the end of the day, wagons approached; it was there that the rest of the bandits made themselves known. Tarphus counted upwards of seventy maybe eighty bandits.

This was a disgrace and a slap to his face that so many were here. He cursed himself that he did not bring the Heavy autogun here, then he saw something. A man tried to run as the guards were celebrating, then was hit by an ethereal hand. 

The hand went into the man's back but burst out of his chest with the still pulsating heart of the poor individual. Gus blinked incredulously when Tarphus described what happened, though it was Lucy who spoke up with venom in her words. 

"A witch here? How dare they taint this world have they not done enough harm in the-" Tarphus waved her down. "If you scream like that again near the enemy, I will flog then shoot you, understand?"

Lucy begrudgingly nodded; thankfully, her cries were out of earshot, but it was best to nip this at the bud. Tarphus shrugged, his squad seemed to follow orders for now, and that was something he needed. 

Tarphus then waited again; most bandits left the camp again, taking the witch with them. It seemed as though they knew when people were coming down the nearby roads, without lookouts as no one came and went with parcels.

Tarphus looked at his men who were staring at him, "We will take the camp before those traitors come back. Then we shall open fire into the 'triumphant victors' that return." They nodded, and Tarphus went down; they could only use their knives to not alert the enemy.

The squad crept up to the camp, the sentries were asleep, they lacked discipline. Oh well, Tarphus was not complaining; an easy win was something he could use. The sentries have been killed via slashes to the neck to ensure they could only gurgle and not scream.

The squad filtered out with five teams of two. Tarphus himself walked with the Dryad to the captured slaves. The stench alone is nauseating, but add that with the whimpering the soft cries for release. 

It was enough to make Tarphus lose control; he wanted to destroy the bandits but stayed his hand. Silent and slow first, he could gun down the rest later, and then he would hand them over to the slaves.

Tarphus was shaken out of this thought process by the Dryad, her face a mask of worry. He frowned at that. Then noticed that the slaves were pointing to the Large Cabin, whispering that she was in there.

Tarphus forced the window open; inside, it was a small empty room, so Tarphus climbed in. When he looked back, he saw two of his squad with bloody knives leave one of the buildings and enter the next. 

Just as another segment turned around the corner, right into a small band of bandits, who thankfully were drunk. Unfortunately, Lucy was a part of that segment. 

The scream of "The Emperor protects!" Resounded throughout half the camp, thankfully, most of the cabins were now full of corpses, but there were still a few bandits left. Tarphus heard movement to his right, turning his head, and found a bandit trying to get his sword out of his sheath.

Instinct kicked in, Tarphus rolled into and underneath the arc of the man's sword. Then thrust his knife into the man's stomach, drawing up in between the ribs and out. Blood covered Tarphus, but he saw a few more bandits, three in total in front of him.

It was not as brutal as with the orcs; they were slower than those green-skinned bastards. Not as tough either, but they worked together more efficiently; however, that alone was not enough. A minute later, they were nothing but corpses, and he now had a few new scratches.

Tarphus made his way further into the bigger cabin; he then found the "war room" it held maps and many papers that Tarphus wanted to go through. However, the mission was more important, hence why he silently opened the door and entered the last room of the house.

There were many women, most of them asleep. However, there was one that was awake and saw how Tarphus entered the room, knife drawn. She wanted to scream at him to save her, but then again, this person could be just like the bandits, and she did not know if she wanted to take the risk.

Tarphus ignored her and cleared the room; there was one bandit here sleeping covered in his 'conquest.' Disgusting. Tarphus then slit his throat, looked at the Dryad, and pointed to the women then shrugged.

The Dryad bowed as he grabbed his autogun from his back, loading it with a smile on his face; he made his exit leaving the Dryad to sort through the mess. If she or the slaves stole from him after he left… Well, Kit would see them, and he could hunt them down later.

As Tarphus left the building, he did not hear battle nor hear the moans of pain and torment from the slaves. Instead, he looked around and saw his squad giving out rations to the slaves; Gudo looked up at him and nodded in thanks as he lowered his rifle.

Tarphus approaches his squad; as he does, the slaves look at him, hope in their eyes and fear. Finally, he waved at them and spoke, "Hello, I am Tarphus Lorne; my mercenary band found this bandit outpost, so we thought we might do some good and get rid of the bandits.

Now I would suggest that everyone goes into the big cabin over there until we destroy the enemy. However, I would love it if you do not take our spoils of war; we will get you to the nearest village and drop you off there."

The crowd starts to feel both hope and fear, then rage. "We are inside of the kingdom, and yet this Federation trooper is ordering us around? How dare you, we kicked your ass during the war an-" 

He was silenced by a bullet in between his eyes. Tarphus looked at the body with disinterest. "Now, I hope that you all learn something about humility from his brave example. If you follow my orders, then you will have a good chance to live; if not, then run right now and pray that the traitors catch you, for they will be more merciful than me."