Touch Of Fate 221 Operation Extraction

Mike scanned the rowdy group with Appraise, just to be on the safe side, but didn't see anyone that would warrant concern for him and his comrades.

[The dossier mentioned that captured s.h.i.+ps tended to have a few Tier 2s stationed on them, to provide muscle for overwhelming the captive crew when necessary. I don't see anyone that really fits the bill, but they could be located in one of the cabins or below deck.]

Carefully a.n.a.lyzing the situation, he determined that he needed to disable the Tenundians discreetly, while preventing them from signalling the rest of the fleet. He didn't want to start a large scale conflict without knowing precisely where their target was, lest the prince get caught up in the crossfire. That also meant he couldn't make use of any of his flashy techniques or spells.

He dropped back down while maintaining his grip on the side of the s.h.i.+p, and whispered over his shoulder at the others, "Alright, we've got eight enemies on deck. They're drunk and distracted, so I think we can take them by surprise. The last thing we want to do is attract attention at this stage. I have an-"

Lily sneezed loudly.

"Hey, what was that?" One of the Marines asked.

"I think it came from over there, by the edge of the s.h.i.+p." Another spoke up. The sounds of booted feet moving across the deck followed shortly thereafter.

Mike resisted the urge to facepalm, and shot the woman an exasperated glare, which was returned with a confused head tilt as she rubbed her nose.

[Fine. We'll just do this the hard way. I played enough of those something creed games to know how this goes.]

From the sounds of it, a trio of the soldiers were approaching cautiously. He began to detect a low level of unfocused hostility, which indicated their wariness. Thankfully, this also allowed him to triangulate where they were without lifting his head back over the top of the railing.

He signaled Sera and Tal to be ready, and then adjusted his grip on the gunwale, waiting for the last second before making his move. The marine started to lean over the side, and Mike heard an intake of breath as the man prepared to say something. Stopping the soldier's shouted warning with a quick application of Air Magic, he grabbed the man by the front of his uniform and levered him down into the waters below, where his party members would finish him off.

Nearby, Lily repeated her previous maneuver, sending another dead marine overboard. This time, the crack as his neck broke resounded through the quiet air, easily heard by the others on deck. They would only have a few moments before the alarm was raised.

Moving with surprising grace, she swung up onto deck and grabbed the third soldier as he tried to draw his sword, a cry already leaving his lips. "Intrude-"

Mike's spear tore out his throat before he had a chance to finish the statement, and before the man had even started falling, he was moving towards the larger group.

Despite their inebriated state, the Tenundians quickly formed a plan and executed it. Three marines charged forward, cutla.s.ses raised. Evidently they intended to buy time, since one of them broke into a run for the door leading below deck, and the last started fiddling with a long stick-like implement.

Something about the object concerned Mike, so he hurled the Fang of the Primal at the man, spearing him through the chest and driving him up against the railing of the s.h.i.+p. He noted that the stick had rolled from the man's nerveless fingers, so he s.h.i.+fted his attention to the other fleeing soldier, while letting Lily take care of the three attackers.

Gathering the shadows, he hardened the darkness around the man's feet and ankles, freezing him in place from the calves down, and bringing his headlong sprint to an abrupt halt. Which had unfortunate consequences for the man's legs. With a sickening pop, he hyper-extended his left leg, dislocating his kneecap and tearing all kinds of tendons and muscles in the process.

A spike of darkness ended the man's agonized squealing, once he was no longer a moving target. Threat removed, Mike turned back to the remaining three marines in time to watch Lily go to work.

Ignoring their weapons as they bounced harmlessly off of her skin, she simply stepped forward and grabbed two of the soldiers by their armor, lifted them up, and slammed them against the deck of the s.h.i.+p. Before they had a chance to move, she drew back with both fists and delivered devastating punches to their solar plexuses, crus.h.i.+ng bones and organs in the process. A quick glance was all it took to determine that they were out of the fight.

The last marine, perhaps starting to understand the futility of his situation, turned to flee, angling to throw himself off of the side of the s.h.i.+p. Unfortunately for him, his escape was halted as Lily latched onto his leg with her steel grip, dragging the man back towards her for a final dispatching blow.

[Alright, that went well. Although we made a bit of noise, hopefully the wind will drown most of it out. Now, if we can just sneak below deck and find the prince-]

A brilliant flash of red light rose into the air above the s.h.i.+p. Once it was about 300m high, it curved and began to slowly descend towards the ocean. As Mike watched, similar lights appeared above other nearby s.h.i.+ps, this time in green colors. He looked back down at the marine he'd impaled with his thrown spear, and was slightly impressed when he saw that the man had managed to drag himself over to the stick-like object, which was clearly a flare of sorts, and activate it before pa.s.sing out.

Suppressing a sigh, he hurried over to the side of the s.h.i.+p, and helped Sera and Tal up. They didn't have much time before enemy reinforcements arrived, so they would need to move quickly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Yawning, Garret leaned on his halberd while trying his best to stay awake. He'd been stuck at the guard post near the center of the camp for nearly eight hours now. An unfortunate consequence of being one of the few Tier 2 Tenundian soldiers not directly involved in the strike team, and therefore one of the few to have escaped their near annihilation once the a.s.sault failed. A fate he avoided by virtue of a nasty case of food poisoning, which had left him bedridden for much of the first few days of the siege.

Immediately after he'd recovered, his commanding officer attached him to the Duke's house troops to a.s.sist in guarding headquarters. Apparently, the arrogant and immaculately dressed soldiers, who looked nice but couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, needed the a.s.sistance of the Tenundian regulars to provide security for the sprawling compound.

As a veteran of three wars, Garret knew that it was important to guard the leaders of the army. Even more so, when that leader was the ruler of your nation, but he felt that the Duke was being a little paranoid. Three lines of security surrounded the cl.u.s.ter of tents, and no one besides a select few n.o.bles were allowed to enter all the way to the center.

Well them, and the groups of captives the Duke's troops brought in periodically. Like the one that had come through a few hours ago, he recalled in distaste. He didn't know what was happening to them, but the rumors going around weren't good.

Supposedly, their disappearance into the cavernous tent at the center of camp had something to do with the Duke's strategy for taking the city. Something inside seemed to require a large number of people, although the reasons behind it varied from rumor to rumor, and included everything from demonic sacrifice to slave labor.

[I'm getting too old for this s.h.i.+t.] The 34 year old thought, and in his boredom he began fantasizing about the farm he was planning on buying with the money he got from this particular campaign. a.s.suming he survived anyway. Considering the death toll among his peers, that wasn't exactly certain, regardless of what the hardliners said.

A sudden shout of alarm from far behind him startled him from his musings. Judging from the sound of it, the yell had come from the second checkpoint, a little further into the Duke's compound from where Garret was standing. He peered into the darkness of the camp, noticing that most of the torches in that section of the encampment had gone out.

[I have a bad feeling about this.]

Almost as if to punctuate his fears, the silence of the night was rent once more, this time with a strange, b.e.s.t.i.a.l roar that vibrated the very ground he stood on. Garret found himself suddenly unable to breath, vision narrowing in terror as the sound continued to grow louder before stopping suddenly.

After a few moments, he took a panicked breath, gasping for air like he'd just come up from underwater, and levered himself back onto his feet with his halberd.

"What in the h.e.l.ls..." He muttered, staring into the darkness, suddenly more terrified than he'd been at any other point in his life. He was still recovering from the episode when a tawny headed woman sprinted out of the darkness and collided with him. Both of them were sent sprawling in the dust.

"Uff...Ow." She complained while pus.h.i.+ng herself up and rubbing her head. As soon as she caught sight of Garret's uniform, that changed.

"s.h.i.+t!" She exclaimed, while hurriedly rising to her feet. "Um, sorry about that..." a quick glance at his rank insignia gave her the words she was searching for, "sergeant, I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, and I wasn't looking where I was going."

Garret shook the dizziness from his head while standing up himself, and in the process, blocked the escape route that she was edging towards. While it wasn't exactly his job to monitor people coming out of the compound, this woman obviously was up to something. The better question was, did it matter in the present circ.u.mstances?

A loud crash sounded from the center of the camp, followed by a few quick thuds and a long screech of metal grinding on metal. Even in the dim torchlight of his checkpoint, he could see the woman visibly pale at the noise.

Glancing back in the direction she came from, she started unconsciously muttering, "Oh, that's bad. It's waking up earlier than its supposed to. Emmanuel is going to kill me." She looked back at him. "Sergeant, I don't really have time to explain at the moment, but we need to get out of here fast."

"Is this about whatever made that roar?" He asked, while eyeing the rest of the compound warily.

"Indeed. There is something terrible being stored at the center of this camp, and its in the process of waking up. Once it does, there is a very real chance that it will simply destroy everything in its vicinity until its master can bring it under control. I suggest we move out of its way."

Another series of thumps followed by a few indistinct shouts of alarm from the Duke's compound accentuated her point. He thought he saw a large, grotesque shape rise above the tents, although it could just be the shadows playing tricks on him. After a few moments weighing his options, he decided that he wasn't getting paid enough for this nonsense. With a simple nod of acquiescence, he took of running.

It was time to start seriously thinking about that farm.
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