Chapter 37

A few hours earlier…

Luca Gattosi

 

 

Luca’s eyes snapped open at just the right moment and his tawny-furred paw shot up with unearthly speed and intercepted the garrotte string that Maurice had been a microsecond from slipping around his throat and throttling him to death while he slumbered.

With the help of his unwanted passenger, Luca surged to his feet and pulled the garrotte from the startled hands of the elf assassin. The wire bit deeply into his hand, but the pain was momentary, and the damage healed almost instantly.

That freak Ashli shuddered with pleasure at the sensation.

A damn masochistic weirdo was the last thing Luca wanted to share his body with. But if Ashli kept its word, then the fragment would only be with him for a short period, and he might as well take advantage of the impressive boost in stats its presence granted him.

Luca had negotiated a massive experience reward as part of the deal to transport the freak into the real world. Over two million XP, enough to power him up to level one hundred. The top motherfucking guy on the planet and then some.

But he couldn’t apply the experience to his character until the freak moved on. He didn’t understand why, nor did he care, the sooner it was gone the better.

Luca apprised the situation with uncommon alacrity. His mental acuity had been hyper-boosted by his passenger’s presence along with his physical strength. His army had made it back to Grand Rapids while he had been in an induced coma brought on by the spiritual contest.

He recognised the building they were in. It was the HQ for the main bastion at the southern border of the city. They’d built it using the four-lane crossroads between the M-6 and US 131. Building the southerly defences along the twenty-mile M-6 freeway. It had the odd mixture of Earth-based construction and elements bought and summoned directly from a podium.

Those loyal to him had followed orders and come back to the city. And presumably, they’d retaken this facility if they had brought his comatose body inside. Maurice would have murdered him on the spot if they found him elsewhere, he wouldn’t have bothered to bring him back to the city.

Maurice was not alone in the assassination attempt. Luca recognised six others that had been left in Grand Rapids. Traitors all. His blood boiled with fury.

Speaking of blood there was a fair amount of it sprayed on the walls of this command centre. Anybody loyal to Luca in the room had already been executed by Maurice and his invaders.

Johnboy’s dead bloodshot eyes plaintively stared up at Luca. Perhaps begging Luca’s forgiveness for being such a useless sack of shit that he had to cut a deal with a freak to save himself. Probably not, but that’s what the dead asshole ought to have been thinking during his death throes.

Luca surveyed the scene imperiously. His sudden motion had left his enemies dumbstruck with awe and terror. All but Maurice, of course.

 

***

Maurice

 

 

The unflappable shadowborn elf assessed the situation and begrudgingly acknowledged the coup had run into serious trouble. Luca had shifted from completely vulnerable to immensely overpowered in an instant.

Luca’s unexpected vulnerability had already derailed Maurice’s well-laid plan. He’d ensured there were a couple of well-protected moles in the soldiers sent from New Jersey whose job it had been to get close to Luca. They’d been runed to insulate them from Luca’s abilities, but they could act the part of fawning bootlickers. The problem was, once Luca went into a coma, those most under his sway closed ranks around his body and wouldn’t let any of the new guys anywhere near him.

They’d been relying on a conscious Luca, one who made a continuous catalogue of errors to provide the chance for his murder. Instead, they had to wait until the army got back to the outskirts of Grand Rapids and lay a trap for them. While the trap had been extremely successful, Luca had awoken at the cusp of Maurice’s ultimate victory.

Retreat and a reassessment were the right moves. There was an open window at the back of the guardhouse that looked out over Grand Rapids. Maurice had identified it when he entered the room. It was only a forty-foot drop. Very survivable these days. He needed to get out before Luca had a chance to utilise his class abilities and reassert control over him and the others.

Maurice only managed seven of the required nine strides before Luca’s voice rumbled with undeniable power. “On your knees, scum.”

The metaphysical shackles Maurice had spent months loosening and unhooking gripped him once more. This time with even greater ferocity. Where had Luca got all this extra power from? Losing Claudia was supposed to weaken him, not the other way around.

The padded table Luca had lain upon was picked up and thrown across the room crushing two of Maurice’s supporters as they knelt in obedience. They would likely live but would probably come to regret that. Luca crossed the room, fire and fury in his feline eyes.

Maurice looked back at him. Gaze to gaze. The only bright side in this turn of events lay in Luca being far too impetuous. The kind of man who threw tantrums like a child when he’d been defied. He’d kill Maurice quickly in a fit of pique. Later, he would come to regret the decision once he’d calmed down and realised Maurice’s death could have been dragged out and his suffering extended for days if not longer.

Yes, he could see that furious madness in Luca’s eyes. It would soon be over.

He felt the claws of Luca’s paws dig into his scalp as the Leonid man grabbed his skull ready to twist and break his neck.

But that short, sharp twist didn’t come.

“What?” Luca snarled to no one that Maurice could see. His infiltration party had dealt with Luca’s loyalists in the building.

Maurice watched as Luca paused in what he was doing as if he was listening to someone, but there was nobody speaking. He held his head in a painful and unnatural angle and Maurice understood with a sinking feeling that he would not get the quick and relatively painless death he’d presumed was coming his way.

“Him? You want, Maurice?”

Maurice felt something reach out to him through Luca’s paws. Not Luca, something else. Something much worse and very alien. For the first time that he could recall, Maurice was genuinely afraid.

“Whatever,” Luca grunted. “It’s not like I wanted you around anyway. Do me a favour and make it hurt before you erase him completely.”

“Yes,” a new electronic voice crackled in Maurice’s mind.

Before he had a chance to question what had happened, his mind was overwhelmed with searing agony.

According to medical experts, the brain has no nerve receptors and therefore does not experience pain. Maurice decided that he would respectfully have to disagree with the medical community on that one. It was the last thing that went through his mind before he blacked out.

Sometime later, Maurice awoke.

His body was moving. Jogging along the road. It took him a second, but he vaguely recognised the countryside around him. He was on the road to Mackinaw. The bridge to the Michigan Upper Peninsula was up ahead. How had he run all the way to Northern Michigan and more importantly how did he do it while unconscious?

“Ah, you’re awake,” the voice that crackled with electronic interference said again.

Maurice’s awareness shifted and he was no longer in the body he couldn’t control but chained to the stone floor of a cold dark chamber that had no windows, doors, or exits of any kind.

“There is no point searching for a way out. We are in the dark recesses of your mind, Maurice, and I am fully in control.”

It was that voice again, but clearer this time. Still electronic but with less disruptive crackling.

A nightmarish figure stepped out from the shadows. It was partly exposed musculature, part mechanical, and it smiled fiendishly down upon Maurice. It pulled a coiled cat-o’-nine-tails from somewhere behind it and shook out the vicious-looking implement.

“I am Ashli. A fragment of Ashli to be accurate.” A look of irritation crossed the being’s visage as if he’d been forced to say that last part and didn’t like it.

“I have graciously decided to let a smidgeon of you survive my possession of your corporeal form,” it continued. “The intelligence I can glean from you might prove useful to me. I did promise your former master that I would make you suffer. Now, I’m not one to usually keep promises to lesser beings, but I think this once, I shall make an exception.”

The whip cracked and the barbed tails lashed Maurice’s back and caused him to howl against his will. His usual cool and detached demeanour was oddly absent.

“Confused?” Ashli taunted. “I like it when you scream. Therefore, I made it so that you had no choice but to.”

The whip fell upon his back again to punctuate the message.

“I am in full control here.”

A third crack excoriated Maurice’s back, he blubbered in pain and abject terror against his will.

“Welcome to hell. Don’t worry, you shan’t be alone for long. The rest of the worthless Earthlings will be alongside you, suffering, soon enough. And it will be glorious.”

 

 

***

Torin

 

 

“Motherfucker!” Dean cried exuberantly when Violet escorted Claudia into his silicon-valley-style open-plan office. His slightly flabby arms wrapped around my waist when he ran full pelt into me. “I never doubted you for a second.”

The overturned tables and destroyed gaming machines told a different story. He’d even managed to tear up the boards of the bowling alley. Violet had already explained that they had been locked out of the spiritual contest and Dean had not taken it very well when things went screwy. It was actually a bit heart-warming to learn that despite his inappropriate interference and constant meddling, Dean did care about what happened to us.

“Yeah, about that,” I started.

Violet answered for Dean. “The technician programs have launched a full diagnostic investigation to uncover what went wrong. Our administrative powers should not have been disabled and neither should Luca have been allowed to leave early. Especially considering he was about to lose due to his own foolish actions. We can only express our apologies and gratitude that the glitch seemed to right itself before something awful befell you both.”

Claudia’s eyebrows arched in confusion, and I patted her hand and gently shook my head to signal her not to push.

“They find anything useful yet?” I asked.

Dean released his hold on me and stepped back. “Those lazy shitheads couldn’t find their own asses even with their heads shoved up them.”

“For the last time, Dean. It’s not their fault they couldn’t break through the lockout,” Violet sighed but then she grimaced slightly. “However, they’ve run through everything three times already and not found anything out of the ordinary. As far as we can tell everything operated as it should despite all the observations to the contrary.”

I recalled Dean’s frustration with the blind spots in the Framework. He put it down to shoddy coding by Ashli before the ASI got itself deleted at the birth of the Darkwyrlds. I knew that was not a true account of what happened and suspected the blind spots were not accidental at all. Although the Framework programs knew Ashli created them, they were completely blinded to its activities. That had to be by design.

Thankfully, because of what happened during our encounter, Ashli’s interference was limited to what he had already set in motion before that moment. Except for what had just happened, of course.

“It’s done. Don’t sweat it. Just don’t put me in another one of those things, yeah,” I chuckled.

Violet nodded. “The spiritual contests have been taken offline until we get to the bottom of the issue. They have been very rarely used anyway, possibly that is why we hadn’t uncovered the design flaws in the programming until now.”

“Another of Ashli’s screw-ups,” Dean snorted. “Come, come, let’s get comfortable and you can introduce me to the hottie.”

Dean charged off with a childish squeal for his much-abused bean bags.

“You said I would like him, Torin,” Claudia said as she watched Dean with a mystified expression. “He is the very definition of a manchild.”

“Hmmm, I may have exaggerated on that front just a little bit.”

“And then some,” Violet called over her shoulder with some amusement while she walked back to her desk.

I took Claudia’s hand in mine and drew her over to the meeting area. We had some details to get to the bottom of.

Typically, with the dire threat on the horizon pushed a bit further into the distance, it took much longer than it should to get Dean to focus on the subject matter at hand. But he did eventually settle down to discuss my new class and its effect on Claudia.

“Dual Dungeon Corsair Lord. It’s a bit of a mouthful. What can you tell us about it?” Claudia asked him.

“It is and I bet it's not the only mouthful coming from, Torin,” Dean responded with gales of laughter.

“Seriously,” she seethed. “That’s not even funny.”

“I’ve found it’s quicker to just let him get it out of his system before continuing,” I advised her.

“It’s rude to talk about a person as if they aren’t there, you know,” Dean chuckled from the odd contorted position he’d twisted himself into. “But I like you too much to hold it against you, unless you ask me nicely, of course.” He winked at his somewhat unoriginal innuendo and the guffaws returned.

I blew out my breath and Claudia huffed. Our visible signs of frustration seemed to satisfy whatever inner barometer Dean used to judge his fun and sat back up, steepling his fingers. This was the body language cue that Dean was finally ready to get down to business.

“It’s simple really, Torin gets to bind two dungeon cores instead of one. I’ll admit it’s a little unorthodox that you’ve transformed into a core, Claudia. People can’t usually change from a Darkwyrld’s species into a Core, that usually only happens to the unintegrated.”

“How often has it happened before?” I asked.

“Well, now that you mention it, this is the first time,” he admitted.

Much as I feared, it seemed we were in uncharted territory. “The first time? What about my class? How many other Dual Dungeon Corsairs are there?”

Dean dithered for a moment and pulled a few faces as if he were mentally assessing the situation. “There aren’t any. You’re the first.”

“I’m the first person to ever have this class, doesn’t that seem unusual to you?”

“Classes evolve, Torin,” Dean said as if I were some kind of dummy.

That was news to me. Nothing I’d read or any of what Jackson and Quixbix had told me indicated any such thing. You could move up the class tree, sure, but the trees had been predetermined at the birth of the Framework. It’s possible nobody had ever met the requirements for this class, but Dean’s phrasing suggested otherwise. It hadn’t existed until an hour ago.

I decided to change tack. “Alright, how does this affect Claudia? When I found Anastasia, she had already established her dungeon and had a class. Claudia doesn’t have any of that because her aptitude was stolen.”

Claudia nodded vigorously in agreement that she wanted answers to these very important questions. “And what about my brother? One of the messages we read said he received special victory rewards. Please tell me those were revoked and he’s on the receiving end of a serious backlash like he was meant to be?”

“I appreciate the vicious streak.” Dean winked. “But no. He was painlessly separated from you, I’m afraid, and as your bond was interwoven with Anastasia, he escaped any backlash when you defeated the scenario a few hours later. But the massive power boost he got which was supposed to diminish over several months was stripped away in an instant. That hurt, a lot, and not just his pride. At least, I think he was the one hurt. Somebody got hurt, who else but him could it be.”

“That’s something,” Claudia sniffed.

“Unfortunately, the experience he was granted as a reward couldn’t be taken back. He will be a fair bit stronger than he used to be, but with what my boy, Torin’s  got planned, he won’t have the time to enjoy shit.”

Finished with his cheerleading, Dean produced one of the tablets from his pocket getting back to the practical side of the discussion. “Usually, a core automatically creates its dungeon once they are deposited on a planet and the class of the avatar is based on their personality. Because you’re going to arrive back on Earth in a post-bonded state, you’ve got a little bit of wiggle room to personalise your choices beforehand.”

He handed the tablet over to Claudia and from my position sitting beside her, I could see it contained a list of class options.

Something Dean said pranged a thought. “Dean, does post-bonded state mean what I think it means?”

Claudia’s eyes sprang from the screen of the tablet, concern evident in her expression. “What? What are you talking about?”

“Yes, Torin. What are you talking about? You will have to explain yourself. No secrets, haven’t you said that to me on many occasions,” Dean teased and needled.

“Fine. When I claimed Ana, her dungeon collapsed, and she returned to gem form until I placed her in a suitable vessel for her to convert. Is that going to happen to Claudia?”

“No,” Dean answered.

Claudia relaxed and let out a sighing breath of relief.

Then he continued “You can’t claim another ship, Torin. You will have to implant her core elsewhere.”

I could have throttled the little bastard but for once it didn’t look like Dean had timed touchy information in an attempt to be funny. He was just oblivious to the choked anger the manner in which he delivered the news would cause. That’s why I did wince in sympathy for him just a little as Claudia’s balled fist connected with his unsuspecting face.

I pulled her back before she could do any further damage and Dean rubbed his cheek with a wounded expression. It was a bit of fakery; Dean couldn’t be hurt here in the Framework. Not by us anyway. I should probably be a little bit grateful too. If Dean wasn’t taking the brunt of Claudia’s dissatisfaction, it would probably be me.

Holding an angry Claudia in my lap, I addressed the Admin. “Where can we implant the core? Obviously, that is something I want to do with all reasonable haste.”

“That is where things get interesting,” he answered, almost instantly forgetting his allegedly pained cheek. “When we place dungeons, there are a bunch of boring regulations we must follow. Not too close to one another, not near population centres, blah, blah, blah. You know the drill. Even when you replanted Ana’s dungeon, Torin, there were strict guidelines. It had to be in a ship. With Claudia’s core, the restrictions are imposed by her class choice.

“Based on what I’ve observed of your character, I took the liberty of prioritising a suggestion on the pad I handed you.”

Claudia now calmer than before extricated herself from my lap and picked up the tablet she had dropped earlier and tapped on the screen.

“Princess of Pandaemonium?” She glanced over the top of the tablet at Dean.

“Yes, an F-grade class that combines your desire to be a ruler with greater control over the Pandaemonium network. Normally, this class is super restricted, the prerequisites are very difficult to come by, deliberately so. But if you take this, Torin can implant your dungeon in Pandaemonium itself.”

Dean practically squealed with delight and clapped his hands.

“I’m guessing based on your reaction and our past interactions there are no other dungeons in Pandaemonium,” I said.

“None. I can’t wait to see how this turns out.”

“What is Pandaemonium?” Claudia asked.

Dean and I spent a few minutes explaining that it was a magical network of subterranean tunnels that crisscrossed the planet filled with threats, but it could also be used for fast and safe travel if the appropriate tunnels were cleared. Unlike spawning crystals, cleared tunnels wouldn’t periodically repopulate. However, as more of the tunnels were cleared, what remained of the network would be reinforced with greater threats from the centre. Incursions from connecting tunnels were possible if existing mobs were pushed out or herded away from their original locations.

“No,” Claudia said forcefully when we were finished. “I’m not volunteering to be an experiment for this manchild. Hard pass.”

“Perhaps you should not be so hasty to rule it out,” Violet called over to us as she came back into the room from the reception area. “Dean is not a people person, and his sales technique could use some work. While it is true that this has not been done before, we are confident of the outcome should you pursue it.”

“Which is?” Claudia pressed.

Violet magicked a real chair out of the ether and sat down with us. “A dungeon domain of unsurpassed size and breadth. All dungeons have a domain that surrounds them. An area of land under their influence which they can manipulate at will, within reason. For Anastasia, this is her ship, Marena’s Mercy. For most other dungeons it is a section of land surrounding their entrance. How much area they control is dependent on a couple of factors including their grade, level, and age.”

I knew this and Claudia nodded in agreement, so it seemed she understood this too. Of course, she was technically already a dungeon core, so some of this knowledge might be inherent. Anastasia certainly seemed to understand a great deal about her nature without any kind of tutoring.

Violet continued. “By its very nature, the Pandaemonium network warps space. Both shortening the distance between the waypoints into the Darkwyrlds and shifting the tunnel network through a subspace pocket.

“It is not truly a subterranean network. It does not exist under the earth. That way it is never found and entered accidentally except by waypoints. This often involves altering its size. It’s a fascinating place almost entirely unexplored because plexus gates are often far more convenient options for travel, not to mention safer. The only downside to plexus travel versus navigating Pandaemonium is the mana expenditure.

“The dungeon would have to be sited on the Pandaemonium side of a waypoint and would inherit the capacity to use some of these spatial properties. Their domain wouldn’t extend into Pandaemonium but would be applied to the surroundings of the waypoint they planted their core crystal within, and any other waypoint connected to them via a dungeon shard. In the same way that Anastasia can create shard ships, Claudia would be able to seize control of additional waypoints and exert her domain externally through them.

“But the dungeon would still be in Pandaemonium and therefore capable of absorbing spatial energy from an almost limitless source. Due to their nature, dungeons are capable of utilising this energy. Normally, they have set allotment and it’s used to make them bigger on the inside and they have no way of getting any more than what they are given. Claudia’s dungeon would be different.

“She would be able to absorb an excess that could be used for other purposes. Like extending her domain further than she ought to be able to and through any waypoint she is connected to. More importantly, she can connect those different waypoints within her own network seamlessly. You could walk into one and then walk out another in a completely different place. No gates or travel through Pandaemonium necessary.”

Violet had just dropped the equivalent of a nuclear bomb in terms of opportunity. Once set up you could cover and defend a great deal more territory with a small, centralised force who could shift to whatever flashpoint had occurred. It also occurred to me; this wouldn’t be limited to Earth. Get a shard attached to a waypoint in another planet’s Pandaemonium network and you could shift vast distances in one short walk.

It could even be used offensively, sneak Claudia into a city with a podium. Use it to create a waypoint hidden inside. Connect to that new waypoint and walk an attacking force into the city. I had a feeling that might be easier said than done, but the possibility was on the table.

Claudia’s expression shifted from stubborn refusal to calculating. “How does the class choice fit into this?”

“The primary difference between a Princess of Pandaemonium and the lower tier Princess class is they can convert unused Podia into new Pandaemonium waypoints as well as simply re-siting them. These waypoints can even be established in towns and cities, something that wouldn’t happen naturally. In fact, waypoints created in this way would be easier to connect with when you unlocked higher tier abilities. The only restriction on placement is that they can’t be too close to another activated podium.

“There are other variant Princess options and all of them would allow you to establish your dungeon within the confines of a city. Some would even give you some construction capabilities, albeit purchased from a podium at a heavily discounted rate. But none of them would allow you to stretch your influence beyond a single place.”

“To be clear,” Claudia stressed. “You are telling me if we do this, I can turn the abandoned podiums in Grand Rapids into waypoints for this Pandaemonium place and exert my dungeon domain through them. Then I could build whatever I wanted to defend them and the places I’m connected to. Buildings, walls, defences etc.”

“Provided you have the energy to fund the construction, yes” Violet answered. “No armaments. Dungeons can’t create exterior weaponry. Dungeon Ships are the only exception to that rule. There will be the small issue of possible incursions. They will still be waypoints into Pandaemonium and what is in there may seek to push out and if they are not dealt with, but those can be handled. Set things up right and they can even become a good source of energy for your dungeon moving forward.”

Claudia smiled and Dean jumped for joy. “We have a winner!”

 

***

 

Blink.

My eyes popped open, and my head looked to the side where Claudia had been sitting with her hand in mine. She was gone and a glittering jet-black gem the size of my palm was clutched in her hand’s place.

“You’re back!” Shana yelped and ran over from the table she sat at with Fang Mei, and Anastasia.

Her arms wrapped around me, and Fang Mei wasn’t far behind. Ana, of course, was a bit more stoic in her response, but there was a definite upward tug of her lips into a smile.

After we finished our affectionate reacquaintance, I stiffly rose from the couch I’d apparently been sitting on for the last three or four days. “I’m guessing by the lack of questions; you guys already know about what happened to Claudia?”

Shana nodded and glanced at the crystal in my hand with a bit of concern.

“Violet pulled me in when it was happening,” Anastasia answered with a scowl appearing on her brow. “A bit rude of you not to consult me before you combined our dungeons essences.”

“It wasn’t exactly something we chose.” I was pretty sure Anastasia knew that already. She would have been far angrier with me otherwise. That or she was mellowing out.

Yeah, she must have known already.

“If my stiff posture is any indicator, the spiritual contest took place in real-time,” I said.

“Yes,” Fang Mei agreed. “The pair of you have been sitting there for days and then Claudia suddenly transformed into a core crystal a few hours ago.”

“Does that mean the whole of the attack force has arrived?”

Shana nodded and slipped her arm through mine. “Kristoff and LT have made all the arrangements; we were just waiting for your return before we launched the invasion. And Ana…”

“I got bored,” Ana interrupted with a shrug of her shoulders. “And it worked out for the best.”

“Ana sailed Marena’s Mercy back to the lake and bombarded the fortifications around Holland into the ground overnight. A small expeditionary force that we agreed to send with her have secured the site. Luca’s lieutenant had left the bare minimum of people required to maintain control of the outpost and a lot of them were killed in the barrage.”

“Music to my ears. Defeating Luca has become more important than ever. I’ll explain the details on the way.”

I would need to take Claudia into Pandaemonium to implant her core into a waypoint on the other side. The portal back in Stormblade Harbour was the sensible option. A quick message to my castellan, Susan, would get the final work required to open it started.

But for me to go in, I needed to get home first, and I wasn’t going anywhere until my rival had been dealt with. I still had a quest chain awaiting me once I entered Pandaemonium for the first time. One that would reward me with a set of maps for the Michigan portion of the network. I’m not sure I had the time for that, but a plan to deal with it had formed in my mind.

Quixbix, are you with my, buddy, I thought to my imp through the special link that Anastasia and my bonded couldn’t listen in to.

<Yes, I’m here. I spent some more time asleep it would seem.>

How much do you remember?

<If you’re asking do I remember that Ashli is alive and well trapped in a spiritual dimension of his own creation. Trapped there by something you did and that it very much despises you with every atom of its existence, then the answer is yes. And I’m not happy about it. I can feel the Framework trying to erase the knowledge from me and it is setting my teeth on edge.>

You don’t have teeth, I laughed.

<You know what I mean> Quixbix grumped back at me.

I did understand. Whatever way Ashli had set up the Framework, it was quite clear its intention had been for its creations to have no knowledge that Ashli was still around. That puzzled me for a second until I recalled something the sorcerer had mentioned. What Ashli had done in its realm with Fred, Nancy, and the other creators hadn’t been its original intent when it created the Framework.

Escaping and ruling as a god, was a desire that developed after the equivalent of millennia in isolation. Everything since then had been Ashli jury-rigging the original design externally from his hidey-hole. Something I put a stop to when Ashli became stuck as part of the child-beast's cage.

Well, despite the irritation, I for one am glad you’re in the know. But I think we need to keep this close to our chests for the time being. The situation has evolved.

<Evolved? In what way?>

A fragment of Ashli’s intent piggybacked its way out of the contest with Luca.

<Damn it, Torin. That is bad.>

I'm aware.

<Will killing Luca get rid of it?>

Maybe. But if you were Ashli, would you trust somebody as unreliable as Luca Gattosi?

<Bloody Nora.>

Bloody Nora indeed.

But we could only solve one crisis at a time. And today it was Luca’s turn to be a former thorn in my side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 38

Day 200

 

 

With my lovers leading the way, we left the university campus and marched quickly to the bridge that crossed the Grand River to the east. Marena’s Mercy and Storm Raider were moored up on the Grand Rapids side of the bridge. There weren’t many of our soldiers stationed in defensive positions. Only enough to hold this forward base when we moved on.

We boarded Marena’s Mercy. Things were different on the ship. Out troops lounged on the deck until they saw us approach. Most got up and a few even saluted, which was something I still struggled to get used to. We continued inside heading for the Bridge, excited muttering left in our wake. Most realised that my reappearance would be the catalyst to kickstart the invasion.

All the usual suspects were huddled around the map displayed on the Navigation Hub. Jackson, LT, Brant, and Kristoff, my most trusted command officers. Tavar Aenarion the elven Elemental Mage was with them too. He’d been born into a military family and had already shown himself to be an asset. It didn’t surprise me that LT had brought him in during my short absence, he had a good nose for talented people.

Jackson was the first to see me and looked up from the table with a big grin plastered on his youthful face and readjusted the unnecessary glasses frames perched on his nose. The others reacted to him becoming suddenly distracted and looked over in the direction of the door.

“Captain, good to see you up and about,” Kristoff spun around smoothly, you could barely tell he was using an enchanted prosthetic leg.

“I thought it might be his cheerleaders, so big was the young blood’s grin,” LT chuckled at Jackson’s expense.

Jackson scowled in response and jabbed LT in the ribs with his elbow. A non-verbal ‘not in front of the captain’ move that had zero effect. I think LT was psychologically incapable of adhering to formality.

“Sorry for the three-day delay, but I’m back and it’s time to get this show on the road. What have you got for me?” I asked as they shuffled over and made room for the four of us at the map table.

“We captured a few of Luca’s people in Allendale,” Kristoff started. “They weren’t very helpful. Most of them barely spent any time in Grand Rapids and it had been months since they last visited. The best fount of knowledge was the young woman you rescued, Carla. It took a bit of effort to get past the ditziness, but Luca had largely given her free rein to go wherever she pleased in the city. We just had to relate what she knew to what we needed to know.”

My expression must have displayed my confusion as Shana stepped in to explain. “Carla loved to shop. We showed her the map and let her chatter away about all the best spots in the city. With a bit of guidance, she included details relevant to us like the location of nearby guardhouses, checkpoints, and slave quarters. What had been walled in before they were abandoned in Allendale and what hadn’t been.”

I nodded my understanding.

“It was illuminating. By all accounts, Luca was grossly negligent and had he been more of a micromanager this would have been a, uh, cakewalk, I think you Americans call it. Unfortunately, he delegated arranging the defence of the borders to more capable individuals.

“They’ve been working their slave labour force almost non-stop since an incident three months ago left most of the urban area west of the river in ruins. The result is a fortified wall circling the city. They used the existing road networks that ringed the inner suburbs of Grand Rapids and built over the top of them. They’ve walled in a little over half of the land the metropolitan area covered and abandoned everything outside it. There are further walls being built inside that outer perimeter, but they hadn’t been finished as of just over a week ago.”

“How many people are we talking about?”

Kristoff glanced at Brant, and he took over the briefing. There was a look of discontent on the big man’s face. “The population of the metropolitan and surrounding towns pre-integration was a bit under one and a half million. Many of those people never even made it to the city or were turned away. The loss of life because of that treatment alone was extreme.

“For those that were admitted or were already in the city limits, the Brotherhood’s brutal regime is all that awaited them. When you add the food shortages, lack of electrical power, and insufficient shelter during these harsh winter months. The death toll has been extremely high.

“We’ve been able to estimate from the interrogations and evidence we’ve gathered that upwards of three-quarters of the starting one and a half million have perished.  Three hundred and fifty thousand people remain. Over two hundred and fifty thousand of them are either in slave collars or as good as. We reckon the Brotherhood can muster seventy-five thousand men and women with combat classes if the need to.”

“Seventy-five K,” I muttered with a hint of concern. “That is a lot more than we’d assumed.”

We had ten thousand men. I didn’t need to have read Tsun Tzu to know being outnumbered by more than seven to one was not good. I’d been expecting thirty, maybe forty thousand at a push, not seventy-five.

LT nodded. “They’ve recently been reinforced. Luca has called everyone still under his control back to the city. We’d hoped the insurrection Carla and Claudia had informed us of would do more damage. However, our forward scouts have just reported back that Luca has been spotted on the walls of the city and everyone was following him like obedient lapdogs again. If anything, the actions of the rebels appear to have had the opposite effect of what we wanted and have concentrated the Brotherhood in one place.”

That tracked with what I’d learned in the spiritual contest. Luca got out several hours before us and had that time with his victory bonus to reestablish full control of his forces. It had been too much to hope for that he’d been lying in a ditch somewhere unable to get back in time.

But there was always a silver lining if you looked for it closely enough. My quest didn’t just require me to kill Luca, but to break him and the loyalty of those around him. Getting everyone in a single place meant there would be no annoying loyalist groups who continued to act in his name even after I killed him, mucking up my quest completion.

“It’s not all doom and gloom,” Jackson assured me. “They are spread out covering the walls of the entire city and a lot of them are punk kids with little or no real combat experience. They’ve spent most of their time bullying and overseeing slaves, not fighting for their lives and levelling. Plus, Luca wasn’t big on equipping his armies at his expense. Many of them are making do with what they could scrabble together themselves. You’ve seen 300, right?”

“Yeah, and the sequel, but that was a bit shit.”

“Agreed.” Jackson smiled. “But it’s a good comparison. We’re the Spartans. Fewer in number, but better equipped and professional soldiers. They’re the Persians, a much larger army, but most of it is chaff with a smaller core of real fighters who still aren’t a match for us one-on-one.”

“Jackson, didn’t the Spartans have the advantage of the defensive positions in that movie?” Shana asked him with an amused expression.

“You’ve seen 300?”

“A film with a bunch of fit guys that never seem to wear any clothes, of course, I’ve seen that movie,” she shot back. “It’s like Magic Mike, but with swords.”

“Spears, Shana,” Anastasia corrected her with a mischievous grin. “The Spartans had big, long, meaty spears.”

There was a collective groan from most of the crew on the Bridge at Ana’s deliberate innuendo.

Fang Mei put her hand in the air. “I for one have absolutely no idea what any of you are talking about.”

Tavar flashed her a sympathetic nod of mutual confusion.

I gestured with my hands for everyone to calm down. “I get what you’re trying to say. What preparations have we made?”

LT pressed a button on the hub screen and green dots appeared on the map. Each was a tracking token carried by our soldiers. There was a massive cluster at our current location indicating the presence of three thousand soldiers split between the two ships.

There were several other smaller clusters positioned along the western outer limits of Grand Rapids.

Brant stepped up and started to outline the strategy my officers had formulated during my enforced absence. “We’ve been sneaking our forces forward in dribs and drabs over the last twenty-four hours.

“As much as we’d love to catch the Brotherhood unaware that we are coming for them, the chances were always slim. With Luca back, they know we are coming, and we have planned accordingly.

“The strategy we’ve put together is to hit them in multiple places. Keep them guessing as to where our primary attack is coming from. The ships will sail upriver and use their cannon to open several breaches in the defensive structures. A few advance forces will fake making for the gaps we’ve opened-up and this should spread their defenders over a greater area when they respond.

“Our advance scouts have confirmed many of the large bridges are intact.”

Brant pointed at four spots mostly in what was the central area of Grand Rapids. The same part of the river where Blue Bridge was located. The spot where Marco and a few other early members of the Brotherhood had jumped onto Marena’s Mercy and tried to seize the ship from me.

“We’ll launch barrages at these four locations. We have a five-hundred-strong attack squad hiding in the ruins at each position to make it look like this is our planned insertion point to the onsite defenders. They can cause just enough trouble to pin the guards at these points down. In reality, half the army has gone much further south. I’ll be joining them and leading the assault if you approve captain.

“They have stayed on the southern side of the Grand River, and we’ll strike the southwestern corner of the walled-up city shortly after the bombardments upriver complete. We have enough of Sheamus alchemical mixtures to bring the wall down and then some. If all goes to plan, troops from other parts of the city, including the southwest will be called away to reinforce our faked offensive further north.”

“And what about the three thousand soldiers crammed onto the ships?” I asked after surveying the plans.

In general, I was quite happy with the strategy they’d come up with.

“We thought it might be best to attack a place called Riverside Park,” Jackson spoke up. “Well, I thought it would be,” he admitted sheepishly and jabbed his finger at the northwestern corner of the contracted border of Grand Rapids.”

“Explain,” I encouraged him.

“My prevailing theory is that they have likely been relying on the river to offer protection from invading mobs in the west of the city that abuts the river. They do have walls erected along the western border too. But from the scouting reports, they aren’t as high nor as well made as the barricades around the river-less edges of the city.

“Riverside Park is a small lake area just off the river with a single inlet that is seven or eight metres across with a small walkway bridge over the top. The wall goes around the outside of this lake and over that small bridge, putting the park within its defensive line. Under normal circumstances, ships wouldn’t be able to make use of this. The lake isn’t deep enough for anything but kayaks and paddle boats, and the gap under the bridge is two, maybe two and a half metres. Too small to pass under.

“Dungeon ships can flex their size and sail in shallows and if the gap is too small, we can make it a bit larger with the ship’s weapons if necessary. We can get inside where they least expect, and then move southwards, hit their positions from behind and allow the distraction forces to enter the city too.”

“Sounds good,” I said.

Brant raised his hand to forestall my full approval. “That part of the plan is not without its risks. What we can see from the outside and from Carla’s intel doesn’t tell us if they’ve foreseen this weakness and have a secondary defensive setup inside. We’ve talked this over with Anastasia,” he nodded in her direction as he said this. “The ship’s reserves of energy are still on the low side. If we do this and then have to back out of this lake, there won’t be a lot left.”

Ana looked me in the eye. “Don't forget we have to go under all these low bridges and over the rapids to get there first. We will need to navigate through them again on the way back if we are forced to retreat. We’d be cutting it mighty close.”

“Precisely,” Brant stressed.

“So, are you saying you are against this strategy, Chief Brant?” I asked him.

“Not against, Captain. It’s our best chance for a knockout punch. But it's up to you to decide how aggressive you want us to be. We could offload a big chunk of the sailors and beef up the army attacking from the southwest instead. Use the ships as distractions then continue to pound the fortifications.”

I pressed my knuckles down on the hub and sucked on my inner cheek for a short while, weighing up the options. The fates of so many rested in my hands.

Strangely enough, it didn’t seem to add any extra stressors. Internally, I remained completely calm. Perhaps it was the recollection of recent events that helped focus and centre my decision making.

With that in mind, my choice became an easy one. The people of Earth didn’t understand that the existential threat to our survival continued to grow like an unseen cancer among us. As if the imposition of the Darkwyrlds in the first place wasn't enough of a danger. Ashli was alive and its agent walked among us. We, or to be more accurate, I didn’t have time to be cautious.

We had to go big or go home.

We had to go big because in this scenario, going home meant rolling over and waiting for annihilation at the hands of a corrupted artificial intelligence.

“We go with Jackson’s plan. One way or another, Riverside Park will be our way in and Luca’s undoing.”