"Fuck Me."

 

 

 

Ryan had put his helmet back on and gone out to see what was up. He was surprised that they didn't notice his approach, but he followed the game plan of the All-Father and it seemed to be working out okay. Step one, save the children.

 

Looking around the corner of a building, he saw that there were about thirty people set up in front of the entrance to a mine that was blocked off and had the same cord to a detonator as the one in the church. Ryan made a mental note to look into dragons blood in the future. He'd never heard of the stuff until now.

 

In the middle of the clearing were three prisoners. From his observations he determined the rest of the town had been herded into the mine. Why they hadn't blown it yet was puzzling, but Ryan wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. It looked like they had finished looting the town and were piling everything up in a number of carts.

 

"Maybe part of the gang thinks this is just a smash and grab and they don't know they're here to commit genocide."

 

Olof stared at Ryan, "I don't care what they do with the stuff they stole, we need to keep them from detonating the entrance. That mine was abandoned for a reason. If everyone is in there, they'd have a few hours of air at most."

 

Ryan waved him off while he continued to look around the corner, "Yeah yeah yeah."

 

He pulled away and retreated away to a building further away, "The problem is, I thought we were going to be tunnel fighting." He pulled out his wand-guns and looked at them, "These don't have the range or rate of fire to handle this many people." He shoved them back into his holsters, "Back up will be here in half a day, maybe longer." He started to rub his forehead, "Maybe I just need to... no. That won't work." He banged his head back against the wall he was leaning against, "A dozen I could take, but not this many. Not before they blow up the entrance."

 

Olof started to scratch his short beard. He wasn't old enough to have much in the way of whiskers, "Okay... maybe... we capture the leader and use them as a hostage?"

 

Ryan eyed Olof, "I figure they'd call our bluff, but keep thinking outside of the box."

 

Olof blinked, "What box?"

 

Ryan opened his mouth to explain, but movement caught his eye. He pulled out his wand and spun to aim. As he did, Freya ducked behind the corner she was looking out from. Ryan let out a long sigh, "Christ. Freya. I told you to hide with everyone else."

 

Freya popped her head around the corner, then stepped out and came creeping over, holding Ryan's jet pack, "Do you need this?"

 

Ryan sighed, "Thanks, but I don't think-" He cut himself off, "Wait." He grabbed the pack and pulled up a lever to release the mana cylinder he used to fuel it. It was still half full. He shook it slightly, "Looks like I have more left then I thought."

 

Ryan put it down, pulled out both guns and put them next to the cylinder. He examined the jet pack and ripped out some components, "Fu-" He eyed Freya, "Fudge." He sighed, "I need..." He suddenly took off his helmet and stared inside, "Need more conductive material!" He started ripping parts out of his helmet, "I won't need the sensor suite if this works."

 

"Sensor... what?" Olof looked confused.

 

Ryan waved him off, "Never mind. Take too long to explain. The problem is, if this works, I'll need to get in close. Really close. Too close." He sighed, "And I'll need to get them to bunch up." He rolled his finger around in the air, "Draw them into a circle with me in the middle."

 

Freya raised her hand. Both Olof and Ryan looked up, "What?"

 

"M-mom always gets us to all come home for dinner with a song."

 

Olof narrowed his eyes, "Seriously? You-"

 

Ryan interrupted, "Are Brilliant!"

 

Both of the dwarves looked at Ryan, "What?"

 

Ryan searched through his pockets and let out an 'aha' sound as he pulled out a small rubber ball. It was all swirly with rainbow colors. He offered it to Freya, "I usually use this to check for traps, but you keep it."

 

Olof blinked at Ryan, "Wait. You going to sing them together?"

 

Ryan pulled his axe out of his holster and put it next to the cylinder. He eyed his equipment and started arranging everything in a line, "Something like that." He looked at Olof, "How obvious is it that I'm a halfling?"

 

Olof's jaw hung open at the seemingly pointless nonsequitor, "Uh... uh... extremely."

 

Ryan started connecting the guns to the cylinder, "Because I have the dumbest idea ever."

 

Ice started to form out of the air.

 

 

 

 

"And it hinges on everyone thinking halflings hate dwarves."

 

 

---

 

 

The bad feeling Albaba had since the beginning of this raid was getting worse.

 

 

 

Albaba had been assigned by the Eirin Government to go out and form a band of marauders. They were charged with acting on the border between Eirin and Lyonnesse to harass targets inside Lyonnesse and in general create plausible deniability. He knew they would never get official support from their government. His purpose was to weaken the enemy for when the real war came.

 

When the orders came down he was to wipe out an entire village of dwarves, he almost quit right then and there.

 

Most of his men were actual criminals. He didn't recruit from the real army. He kept most of them in the dark about their true purpose. They were a ruthless and heartless bunch. He went after the lowest of the low and the scummiest people he could find. He built his band of forty thieves for this very purpose. He didn't expect that he was going to have to murder an entire village of women and children.

 

However, the operative made it clear that it came straight from the saintess herself. She had seen the future and if this didn't take place, the entire nation of Eirin would fall. Albaba was the only chance his country had to survive. Either the dwarven village had to be destroyed and everyone inside killed, or his homeland would pay the price.

 

The problem was, he couldn't just order his men to slaughter everyone.

 

He selected the most ruthless and amoral men he could find, but in the end, these men worked for him out of greed. There were a few sadistic men among him. A few he could count on to murder even children, but the most of his men would balk at such an order. At least, not without a good reason.

 

Albaba came up with a plan. First, tell everyone they were going to rob the entire dwarven village blind. Theft would be easy to get everyone behind. The few men he could count on to have no moral qualms at all, he would take those aside and put them in their own unit. He'd tell his men to take the town, accept surrender, but kill anyone who resisted. This would get rid of a few of the dwarves right off the bat.

 

The next step would be to separate the children from the adults. Get all the children in one building. The church of the All-Father would be perfect. The adults would all assume that nobody would murder a bunch of dwarven children in a church to the dwarven god. Then assign all the morally corrupt members of his crew to the children with orders to kill the children if a signal was given.

 

After that, take the leaders, tie them up put them in the center of town, then send everyone else into the abandoned mine. The town was founded on a mine, but that mine had been mined out a long time ago. They had other mines they used now, but they just boarded up the old mine. He'd get dragon's blood from Eirin and have a barrel or two used to seal up the air shafts for the old mine. Send all the adults into the mine and put a few barrels at the entrance. Inform everyone that as long as they behaved, their children would be safe and they'd get out of this alive, just as soon as the village was looted.

 

Then he'd send his men to go loot the village. This was just to keep up the pretense. Let them loot for a bit, inform them that enemy troops were coming. Then give the signal. The children would be killed first. A runner with a prepared lie would arrive. The lie would be that dwarves attacked to try to free the children and the guards there had no choice but to set off the dragon's blood they had the children sitting around.

 

Albaba would inform everyone that there was no way the adults of the village would let this go, and if they didn't want to be hunted by every dwarf in village for the rest of their lives, they would have to finish them off. Then before anyone could do anything, he'd personally set off the detonator.

 

He knew this would most likely result in the disbanding of his unit, but the truth was, after this operation, he was going to quit. He had the few loyal soldiers who came with him originally to form this pack of bandits stay behind. While this operation was going on, they were already taking all the choice loot and packing it up. Gold, silver, jewelry, anything that was easy to sell, they would pack it up, abandon the rest, then wait for him to arrive.

 

After this job was over, he'd find an excuse to ditch the rest and go meet up with his fellow soldiers, then run. He'd already talked it over with them. They would follow their orders, but this was too much. They had all agreed that it was time to retire. Do this last job then run. Not just because it was distasteful, but because they all were worried that after this operation, it was highly likely they would all be killed to make sure there was no way to trace this back to the Eirin government. They didn't know that for certain, but it was likely.

 

The plan was working well. He had sent off his man to give the signal. There should have been an explosion at the church by now. Someone should have come running back by now. Something was wrong. Maybe they really had missed some dwarves and they HAD tried to free the children, but in the process succeeded. If that was the case, all he would have to do is wait for someone to attack, then he would have the excuse to press the detonator. His men might freakout, but once that explosive goes off, it would be every man for himself. In the confusion, he could just run. Not the best plan, but it would get the job done.

 

As Albaba started to drift closer to the detonator, he walked past the three dwarven leaders who were on their knees with their hands tied behind their backs. The Mayor, the High Priest, and the Forge Master. Albaba wondered if he should pause to murder these three after detonating the entrance to the mine. He looked around to assess the situation.

 

There was a wide open area in front of the old mine. The mine itself had the tunnel partially barricaded up and two guards inside the tunnel to prevent anyone from messing with the explosives. Behind them were the dragons blood explosives, then another barricade at the very entrance to try and contain the blast. He knew if he set it off too soon, the men would get pissed off he murdered the two of his own. He'd have to wait for an attack. The prisoners were in the very center of the area. His men were just now gathering up with all the loot they had stolen. Off to one side was the detonator a fair distance away from everything. He intended to set it off, but he didn't want anyone accidentally setting it off too soon.

 

He was all about control and preferred when everything went according to plan. When things go off the rails, it confuses him. He was successful because he planned for everything. Well, almost everything.

 

 

 

 

At no point in his plans did he consider that someone would come waltzing into the area playing a guitar made of ice and start singing a ballad.