"It seems like they're slowing down as expected… Are you ready?"
It had been a few weeks since Tom had received his new primary order, and by avoiding roads and villages he and Lisa had finally arrived at the first major town where they would spend a few days gathering information.
"Yeah."
The issue was getting into said town, as by now most of the southern part of the kingdom had been locked down tight. Not only had surprise inspections in towns, villages and road-side inns become common, but there was also a mandatory inspection at each entrance to major population centres where guards would pad down every single visitor to look for hidden weapons or signs of hidden demi human features.
All it would take was a single pad down for Lisa and Tom's cover to get blown, so Tom had figured out another way for the two of them to enter a city unannounced.
"Here goes."
With Lisa confirming she was ready and having confirmed that the guards were getting sloppy with their patrols up on the city wall as it was nearing dawn, Tom left cover and ran over to the 8 metre tall wall, stopping a few metres from it as Lisa also got ready.
(3… 2… 1… Go!)
Counting down with hand signals, Tom crouched down slightly as he weaved his fingers together. Seeing he was ready, Lisa broke into a sprint and jumped into Tom's hands before leaping for the wall, launched by Tom she barely managed to grab onto the top of the wall.
(Shit.)
Strengthening her grip, Lisa was barely able to hold on with 4 fingers before she got another hand on the top of the wall, climbing up and making sure there were no guards nearby for the moment.
[Hide, some are coming.]
"Fuck."
Having just climbed up, Lisa was warned by Tom over the radio that guards were on the way so she hurriedly started looking for a place to hide while pulling out her MPX-11A2 pistol with attached suppressor and chambered a round of sup-sonic ammunition.
[We can't risk killing, either find a hideout or abort. You have 10 seconds.]
Seeing Lisa had pulled out her weapon through the surveillance drone feed, Tom reminded Lisa of the rules of engagement as he pulled out his own pistol, slightly frustrated that he had buried his rifle and couldn't use it at the moment.
Clicking her tongue in annoyance, Lisa understood Tom's worries but was irritated nonetheless as she started thinking fast. With no way to hide up on the wall, Lisa quickly holstered her pistol, returned to the edge of the wall and crawled half way down before pulling out her knife with her free hand as she focused for a second.
As the knife started glowing slightly, Lisa stuck it into the wall without much resistance and used it as a hold as she steadied her entire body against the wall and put all her weight on the knife.
(Seriously?)
Seeing what Lisa was trying to do, Tom pulled away from the wall as the guards approached, although he wanted to go rescue Lisa right this second, he knew he needed to start trusting her judgments.
" -So even when he himself started complaining he told me to just suck it up! Can you believe your captain is getting pushed around like this?"
True to Tom's report, Lisa could soon hear a pair of guards talking as they walked along their route on top of the wall.
"Yeah, they can't really expect us to pick up all these extra responsibilities without any extra pay, it's like-"
"Hey."
(... Shit.)
As one of the guards cut off the other with a somewhat serious tone, Lisa hurriedly switched her grip on the knife and pulled out her pistol with her free hand, aiming towards the top of the wall just above her as she held her breath.
Up on top of the wall one of the two guards had noticed a few muddy footprints Lisa had left behind while looking for somewhere to hide, they had been so out of place that the guards had managed to shake off their drowsiness and were now fully alert with their swords drawn.
"The hell is all this?..."
Approaching the strange set of footprints, the guard raised his lit torch a bit higher in an attempt to figure out what had happened, it seemed like someone had tracked around quite a bit of mud from seemingly out of nowhere. While his buddy checked out the strange footprints, the other guard peered out at the nearby forest, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary, he didn't even notice Lisa who was just below him holding her breath as she tried desperately not to be noticed.
"Anything?"
"Nope, it was probably just another shift before us having a light spar to stay awake, let's complete this round so we can hit the hay."
Having not seen anything suspicious over the wall, the guard figured there was nothing to it and his tired mind was probably just playing tricks on him.
"Sure."
Also not wanting to go do an entire walkaround of the wall, call in reinforcements and check both sides of the wall like they were supposed to do, the other guard agreed to his buddy's suggestion as he also wanted to get some sleep soon. With the way things had been for the past few weeks, they had been overworked and underpaid, so this pair of guards didn't really want to do anything that required extra work, much less at a time like this a few hours before dawn.
[... You're clear.]
"Fuuuuck."
Finally climbing back up after what felt like an hour of waiting, the first thing Lisa did after getting ground underneath her feet and retrieving her now very dull knife was to massage the hand she had held onto the knife with as it was cramping pretty hard. Getting some blood back into her hand, Lisa quickly let down a rope for Tom who then joined her on top of the wall.
"Good work, let's move before another patrol comes by."
Padding Lisa on the shoulder, Tom went and fetched the robe and hook he had used to climb the wall and secured it to the inside wall, giving them access to the city.
After both of them had descended the wall, Tom janked loose the hook and pulled the rope back before turning to Lisa.
"Safehouse is 600 metres away, let's get to it."
Moving through the backstreets and side alleys of the city, Lisa and Tom soon arrived at the 'safehouse', an abandoned inn near the city's slum hugging the southeastern wall.
"Okay, get some rest. I'll take the first watch."
"Sure."
Not turning down the offer to rest, Lisa got comfortable against the wall as she relaxed her breathing before soon falling asleep.
(... Now that the hard part is over, what to do first?)
While Tom had chosen to step into a city to gather information, even going so far as to leave behind his and Lisa's rifles, there were many different ways to skin this cat.
From installing bugs in guard houses, to prowling bars and adventurer guilds Tom figured a variety of different efforts would have the best effect.
After resting for a few hours, Lisa and Tom finally hit the streets around mid day.
"It sure is quiet around here… The prices are way up too."
Used to living undercover in the cities of the kingdom, Lisa quickly noticed the lack of bustle at the market and the high prices of the goods.
"Hmm… All these restrictions can't really be popular with the people. We can make use of that."
"Don't be mean now."
Knowing Tom's plan of making use of something wasn't something pleasant, Lisa felt like she needed to keep him from going too far.
"Yeah, just a back-up idea for now. Let's hit the guild first."
Deciding on a destination for now on a whim, Tom and Lisa headed towards the pleasure district near the west gate to find the bar where the local adventurers drunk themselves senseless between missions. To any guards, adventurers or civilians, Tom and Lisa looked like a pair of relatively normal adventurers dressed in leather hide armour sporting versatile short swords, but underneath they were both armed with suppressed pistols, grenades and basically anything else that could fit without causing any suspicion. This was the main reason Tom and Lisa didn't carry any rifles, as even a shortened M-503 was too long to hide, and a PHX-13 was too bulky to carry concealed.
Before infiltrating the city, Tom had buried his and Lisa's heavy equipment outside the city so they could retrieve it after leaving, along with several different 'contingencies' near major roads and even inside a few fields.
(Acting like a terrorist is nothing new, but I still don't really like how easily I slipped back into that sort of rhythm… Or even Riddim? Nah, that's a far more chill vibe.)
Keeping his mind occupied with absolutely nothing of meaning, Tom was still busy counting guards, temporarily erected guard houses and adventures with weapons. The number of patrolling guards were far higher than in Rover, but judging by how unkempt most of them were it was clear they were stuck working overtime without much rest, something undoubtedly forced down on them from above as the guard captains also looked quite haggard. Meanwhile the adventurers didn't seem that happy either, while they decided when and how to work, the sudden increase in supply prices, hassle every time they wanted to leave or enter town and irritable guards seemed to put them in just as a foul mood as the rest of the armed population in town.
"... This place is a powder keg just waiting for a spark… Or any sort of excuse really."
Having lowered his voice a lot, Tom voiced his warning to Lisa as the pair neared the entertainment district.
"Yeah, it seems nobody is happy about these new security measures, both sides must be blaming each other."
It was very well known that the guards and adventurers didn't get along. Even at the best of times one saw the other as fun-sucking, rule-bound asshats, while the guards saw adventures as drunk fucktwarts who were only one step above bandits and brigands. With both of them pushed to their limit, it would only take a spark to create a major blowout between the two factions.
"Woah, who the fuck died?"
Pushing open the door with his foot, Tom deliberately poked the bee hive as he entered a very sleepy adventurer bar and immediately got all eyes on him.
"The fuck you say!?"
While the bar was pretty dead, one of the adventurers still had enough energy left to get pissed, so he got pissed and tried to confront the newcomers.
"I said it was fucking dead in here, its a honest assessment."
Further provoking the adventurer, Tom took half a step forwards as Lisa rolled her eyes.
"You fucking-"
The second the adventurer stepped forward, Tom put him down with a hook faster than anyone else could react.
"Woah there! Stop accosting my customers out of nowhere!"
Seeing one of his customers getting assaulted out of nowhere, the barkeep felt like he had to step in, not really because he felt sorry for the adventurer, but because it was bad for business if he didn't.
"Yeah, yeah, sorry about that."
Taking a seat at the bar, Tom tossed a few silver coins on the desk as a handwaved apology. Showing he was wealthy in addition to being deadly with a short temper, the barkeep quickly changed his tune.
"Well then, how can I be of service?"
Nervously polishing a glass, the barkeep earned another eye roll from Lisa as she moved to keep Tom's back clear while he talked with the barkeeper.
"Everyone in this town here seems on edge for some reason, what the hell is happening in this country?"
Glancing at the amount of silver coins on the desk, the barkeep was about to ask for a bit more 'lubricant' when Lisa pulled out her knife, spun it around in a reverse grip and planted it halfway through the bar counter, right between two of the barkeep's fingers.
"E-ever since Rover up north had a mansion torched and a few nobles killed this kingdom has gone to shit, rebellion further up north and then all of these adventures going missing."
(So they did recruit from the adventures, that would explain the sudden lack of adventures…)
"Then why is everyone here so on edge?"
Instead of answering immediately, the barkeep clearly felt even more uncomfortable than he did when Lisa placed a knife right between his fingers.
"... Why the fuck are you even asking all these questions? P-people around here get into trouble for that."
Quieting down even further, the barkeep got close enough to Tom that he couldn't stop smelling his bad breath even if he wanted to.
"I-it's that thing Rover got a mansion torched for, it's happening here in a few days."
OBJECTIVE_STACK_SECONDARY_UPDATED:
NEW_SECONDARY_OBJECTIVE:_DESTROY_THE_DELTH_SLAVE_HUB.
OBJECTIVE_REWARD(S):
8.75MM_PERMANENT_DISCOUNT.
45_HOUR(S)_09_MINUTE(S)_REMAINING.