LOCATION: SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE
PLANET: BASTION 123295 CFP
MISSION TIMER: 74:59:57
Li Wei always insisted on being on the front lines. He had been through a lot since securing his new Sentinel of the Watch class seventeen years prior, and any time the Peacekeepers engaged in large-scale excursions, Li always led from the front.
Li led the 7,500 Fighters toward the bridge. They encountered two five-man patrols on their way.
The first one, walking their normal, mundane route, watched in shock as a veritable wall of thousands of heavily armed soldiers appeared out of the darkness. They turned and ran before they even tried to engage.
A few well-placed ranged attacks took them down before they got far.
The second patrol exhibited more bravery, if lacking in intelligence. They yelled a battle cry and ran straight toward the line of soldiers.
They barely made it ten feet before they were all dropped.
Li directed his Fighters to toss the bodies into the chasm to avoid leaving any evidence.
He assumed that they’d be detected by drones any time now. He was frankly surprised they hadn’t been spotted yet.
The first teams of Fighters made it to the bridge. It was only ten feet wide.
“Okay,” Li told the team leads, “we’re going to run across and fan out into defensive posture on the other side. Let’s move! Double time!”
Li ran across first, followed by his own team.
When he reached the other side, he began setting up a defensive perimeter as more teams ran across.
When they were all in place on the other side, Li was about to split the force to head in different directions on their assignments, when ground lights flashed on, illuminating a large force on the other side of the open clearing.
The ground here was paved with stone. It was wide open and perfectly flat. The lights only made the job easier.
Li just smiled. Grim stood next to him with his swords drawn.
Li pulled the large kite shield from his back and tapped it with his Jian sword.
The sound reverberated outward, and a moment later his vision was filled with information.
---
Enemy combatants detected.
Force size: 2,956
Threat level: Minimal
---
He sent the message out through the Fighter channel, and they prepared for a brawl.
They began clashing with the enemy, hacking and slashing their way through as Peacekeeper teams moved to flank the smaller force.
The Peacekeepers took some hits, but the fight didn’t last long. Forty minutes later, Healers tended to the wounded. Li was saddened to hear that they were unable to revive three of the Fighters.
It wasn’t the last time he and Grim would get disappointing news that day. They regrouped and pressed forward.
Twelve teams branched off to the east, toward a building on their map labeled as the Barracks.
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Li and Grim led twenty-five teams north toward the Administrative Center. Samir and his Rogue teams were already on their way to Portal Tech.
The Barracks were nearly empty, with the three hundred soldiers there providing only limited resistance as their lives were taken.
The teams did a full sweep of the living quarters and found little of true intelligence value. They took everything anyway, and cleared out to regroup with the others.
The Administrative Center was the heart of Bastion City, and included structures with offices, private residences, and buildings housing the physical and defensive infrastructure that ran and protected the planet.
Teams were dispatched to scour the residences and offices, while Grim headed with five teams toward the infrastructure buildings.
The fa?ade was a polished gray stone that looked like it could belong in any major city on Earth. The door, however, would not open for them.
It was reinforced and blocked by some kind of security device that required identification. They weren’t able to break through.
“Keep trying,” Grim said. “I’ll go see if I can find someone who has the access we need.”
He ran quickly back to the city center, and arrived just in time to see a man shackled and being dragged toward Li.
The teams who had captured him also had twelve women with them, who were bound less violently by ropes. Most of them were crying quietly.
“What’s this?” Grim asked.
Li smiled and slapped the shackled man on the back, causing him to grunt in pain.
“You will regret this!” he shouted.
Li backhanded him across the face, his usual calm demeanor taking on more edge.
“You will speak only when spoken to. What is your name and your position?”
“I am Aureth Vallor, the Chief Administrator of Bastion. You would do well to release me—”
Li raised his hand again and Vallor stopped talking, wincing away from a second blow that did not come.
“Chief Administrator,” Grim said. “What kind of access do you have on Bastion?”
Vallor puffed out his chest.
“I am the third highest ranking person on Bastion. I have access to everything.”
Grim smiled.
“Good. Come with me.”
“What should we do with the women?” Li asked.
“They are my harem!” Vallor shouted. “Do not injure them or you will pay with your lives!”
Another backhand from Li.
“Grim, please get him out of my sight before I actually injure him.”
Vallor scoffed, spitting out blood from a busted lip. But he said nothing further.
Grim brought him to the infrastructure building.
“What will we find inside here?” he asked.
Vallor was quiet for a minute, calculating. Wondering how much he should tell his captors. In the end, he put his personal safety over the Empire’s secrets.
The look in this man Grim’s eyes seemed much darker than the one who hit him, and he didn’t want to find out what happened if he set this guy off.
“Okay,” Vallor said, raising his hands. “I will cooperate. In this building, you will find the power plant, the water stores and purification, food storage, and uh…”
He paused.
“Go on,” Grim said, turning to face Vallor directly.
“I assume you’re here because of the prisoners. You’re from Earth, right?”
Grim cocked his head and took a long time to answer.
Vallor fidgeted, trying to stay calm under that dark gaze, but failing miserably.
Why did this man scare him so much, when those from the Empire rarely did?
Grim nodded.
“Yes, we are. And we want our people back. Now before you open the door, what kind of resistance can we expect inside?”
Vallor sighed.
“The Supreme General and his personal guard will be waiting for you. Prepare for a serious fight. They are the strongest soldiers sent to Bastion.”
The man who called himself Grim smiled. Actually smiled! Vallor couldn’t understand these warrior types. Personal strength was everything to them. It was the only kind of power they recognized.
“Good,” Grim said. “Open the door and stay back.”
He drew his swords and prepared for battle.
Vallor stepped forward and pressed his hand against the door, closing his eyes for a few moments.
A beep sounded, followed by mechanical whirring. The door slid open and Vallor moved to the side as Grim walked through the archway, followed by two other men.
The lobby inside the building also looked like something they might see in any generic office building on Earth. But this lobby had been set up for a confrontation.
All furniture had been moved to the walls and stacked, leaving a spacious, open room. A room with plenty of space for a fight.
Standing at the far end of the room as Grim entered was a large, musclebound man. He was flanked by two others who were almost as large. They were all pale with black hair, like everyone else Grim had seen from the Obsidian Empire.
Do they not have sunlight on any of the planets they inhabit?
Grim studied the three men for a moment.
They looked fierce.
He smirked.
“I am Grim, General of my planet’s Peacekeeper Forces. Return our people and we may allow you to live.”
Jud Haggerty was standing to Grim’s right, and Brick on his left.
The Supreme General laughed.
“Allow us to live? Fucking pathetic. I will make no such offer. By coming here, your life was already forfeit.”
He spat on the ground in front of him.
“I was hoping you were going to say that,” Grim said, nodding to Jud and Brick. “Time to rumble.”