"At least 400 soldiers? But how are they responding to our attack so fast?"
While Tom and Lisa had expected a counterattack or some kind of reaction to their attack on the slavers in Delth, this was way too fast. Then again, things had been strange from the start, with Tom getting attacked by human sized vehicle borne improvised explosive devices (VBIED's) within a few minutes of striking it was clear the enemy had some way of tracking Tom and Lisa, the question is how.
(I haven't resupplied in a few weeks now precisely because I know they can track it, even if they tracked me while I was deploying the Wasps he would have trapped me immediately…)
"They watched the slavers' mansion… Somehow."
Kicking his brain into critical thinking for once, Tom finally started figuring out what was going on.
(I'm facing a peer opponent, someone who knows the tactics and doctrine of my old world... Right, of course.)
"There's a UAV up there somewhere, somehow."
Closing his eyes to focus on his neural uplink, Tom figured finding a single, tiny drone flying at some unknown altitude would be impossible just by himself. Luckily the people who designed the Albatross had a vested interest in detecting these lone, rogue drones that might be shadowing their clientele.
[1304 POTENTIAL ROUGE ASSET(S) DETECTED, RUNNING THREAT ANALYSIS ALGORITHM…
ANALYSIS COMPLETE:
1290 THREAT(S) DISCARDED.
11 THREAT(S) ELEVATED TO LEVEL YELLOW
3 THREAT(S) ELEVATED TO LEVEL RED
DIALING AAAS… ADDRESS FAILED, NO AAAS ASSETS LINKED IN C&C MESH, 14 THREAT(S) PAINTED FOR ALL ASSOCIATED SMART WEAPON(S) IN COMMAND AREA OF OPERATIONS.
END OF REPORT.]
(Just as I thought, this shit is ridiculously over engineered… Well, it's not like I can complain now that I'm actually making use of it instead of being on the receiving end for once.)
While the Albatross' onboard AI wanted to immediately assign the detected targets to automatic anti air suppressors for them to prosecute, none were available so it instead painted the targets for everything else equipped with a microprocessor in Tom's arsenal. Immediately the two Block 14 scout Wasp's equipped with dedicated targeting sensors and lasercom's set up a high speed data link to the Albatross coasting on the edge of space as they started scanning for the painted targets while offloading the image and signature analysis to the Albatross.
[11 LEVEL YELLOW THREAT(S) DEGRIDAGED TO WHITE.]
Ruling out the lower level threats first, the Wasp's and Albatross set their sights on the 3 high level potential threats detected.
[2 LEVEL RED THREAT(S) DEGRIDAGED TO WHITE, 1 LEVEL RED THREAT(S) ESCALATED TO LEVEL BLACK. NOW ESCALATING.]
While two of the high level threats were found to be nothing more than high flying, migrating monsters, the last one was slightly different.
(What the fuck is that?)
Receiving a high level scan / approximated 3D model through his neural uplink, Tom found the amalgamation to be a mesh of some kind of large, bird-like monster and slightly glowing runestones which had replaced its head like some kind of malplaced head transplant. Even not knowing what precisely it was he was looking at, Tom knew it was a potential threat and was about to order the Wasp's to take care of it, but as he had already released strike group Bravo and Charlie and allowed them to pick their own targets an explosion was quickly heard in the sparse night clouds above the city.
[1 LEVEL BLACK THREAT ELIMINATED.]
"Well, that's taken care of… Question is what to do now."
"We get out of here?... Or not… Fuck."
Seeing the smile slowly forming on Tom's face, Lisa figured he was going against not only her and his own training, but also most logical arguments to do something questionable.
"Tom, stay on the fucking mission please."
"Anyway, let's continue moving, now that the surveillance is gone, we ought to put at least a bit of distance away from our last known position."
"TOM!?"
Leaving the noble district, Tom, Lisa and the slave's pace slowed down quite a bit as there were significantly more people around.
(Hold.)
Raising his hand in cation, Tom came to a stop while Lisa secured his rear and the beastkin slaves hunkered down in the middle.
(Hmm…)
Cocking the hammer on his pistol, Tom slowly raised it while keeping it close to his body as he started counting steps.
(5… 2…-)
Instead of firing immediately, Tom made a quick decision as the adventurer rounded the corner without seeing him, continued forward a few steps before falling over dead from the wounds on his back.
"... Seems like the riot is getting out of control, then again I might have had a hand in that."
Tom knew when he first implemented his plan to incite a riot that innocent people were going to die, he just didn't really care about it all that much.
Sure, if there had been a safe way to attack the slaver and free the demihumans held there that didn't involve other people he would have gone with that option, but given the time pressure of the operation he couldn't be that accommodating.
"W-what's going on out here? Is it war?"
Having been isolated from the world since she was captured as a slave, one of the beastkin girls finally spoke up when she couldn't contain her confusion any longer. As far as she knew, the human lands were stable and peaceful, so this city in flames with people dying all around wasn't something she wanted to believe.
"No, it's just a distraction I set in motion to get you girls out of here before you were sold and scattered throughout the kingdom."
Looking into the beastkin girl's eyes, Tom saw fear for the first time reflected back at him, it seemed the idea she was partially responsible for this amount of bloodshed was uncomfortable for her.
"H-how could you just d-do that? Aren't they your-"
"Missy, where I'm from, this is just a normal day at work. I believe I was partly chosen for this ability to sow death and destruction, so if you wanna blame anyone for what is currently happening - including your newfound freedom - then blame my employer."
Getting the beastkins to quiet down, Tom signalled for Lisa to begin moving again as he had found a new route to move through.
-
"Shadows are getting sparser, we need to do something."
"Yeah… Shit."
Just glancing at the sky was enough to tell Tom there were many other places he would rather be right now, but alas he was still stuck inside Delth's walls, and the sun was starting to rise so there wouldn't be anywhere to hide in just a few hours.
The reason Tom, Lisa and the others weren't far, far away from the city at this point was twofold, partly because reinforcements had arrived way too quick for them to slip out, but also because they knew exactly how to trap them inside the walls.
(This is one hell of an encirclement… They know what kind of weapons we're carrying so they adjusted for it.)
A few hours ago the guards patrolling the outer wall were replaced with robed figures, one every 50 metres for the entire circumference of the wall. While these robed figures could be mages, it didn't matter as they were only the first line of encirclement, and the main force waited outside of the walls to catch any potential breakouts in the open plains outside the walls.
(Making use of a few contingencies I could break out of this, but without losing at least half of the beastkin along the way… Shit.)
While this encirclement wasn't that technically sound, it was clearly designed to cut off Tom at the knees and pin him down in the open field with high volumes of suppressive fire. The seeming lack of manpower on the walls was a trap meant to lure Tom in.
"What's the plan?"
Doing her best to seem calm, Lisa asked what they should do while knowing there was a very real possibility that Tom would abandon the beastkin on the spot, as much as he would hate to do that, Lisa knew he couldn't afford to be captured at this point.
(Would he abandon me too if it came down to it?...)
"We're moving to plan E17, so calm your tits and relax. The lack of sleep is getting to you."
"O-okay."
Seeing right through Lisa's behaviour, Tom placed a hand on top of her head as he reassured his disciple before dealing with the beastkin.
"We're changing the plans and are going to be hiding out in this city for a few days. I know you all want to return to your families but there's no way to get out safely right now."
Seeing a mix of resignation, relief and resignation spread out on the faces of the beastkin, Tom momentarily forgot his place as a door opened up ahead of him.
(Fuck-)
Realising he had fucked up and needed to deal with whoever was about to step out in front of them, Tom raised his pistol to fire when Lisa did something unexpected and stepped out of line and held his gun down.
"What the fu-"
Then, multiple things happened at the same time, first of all Tom recognised the old lady who had just stepped out in front of them as the fruit seller Lisa had revealed her identity to, then at the same time the lady spotted both him, Lisa and the beastkin as Lisa tightened her grip on Tom's pistol, keeping him from raising it.
"Eh? H-hello dearies… I take it this is a bad time."
Even though she wasn't a fighter or in any way familiar with bloodshed, the fruit seller auntie could feel the bloodlust coming off of Tom, and glancing behind him was enough for her to understand that he was protecting these demihuman girls.
"Mom! What's up!?"
As the sound of a younger woman came from the door, Tom tried acting again, but was once more stopped from raising his pistol by Lisa who glared at his cold, dead eyes with a stubborn determination.
"Wait."
Finally getting Tom's attention by speaking to him, Lisa received the full brunt of his bloodlust as he stared her down and answered by shooting down her request.
"No."
Although Tom really didn't appreciate the current situation, he saw it as a mix of his own mistake of coddling Lisa too much and the opportunity to teach her a (harsh) lesson.
But before Tom got to do anything radical, the situation escalated further when the younger woman further inside the building spoke up again.
"The guards are here, they're asking if we saw any demi humans around!? Apparently some merchant was killed and some managed to escape!"
(Well shit… A mad dash to the wall it is.)
As Tom prepared to go loud, and Lisa also realised there was no way around it the way things stood, the fruit seller lady did something unexpected.
"No, no one's been around and it's been quiet all night!"
After addressing her daughter, the fruit seller turned her attention back to Tom, Lisa and the beastkin with a reassuring, but slightly nervous smile.
"It must have been cold, being out all night. Why don't I offer all of you some tea and a warm breakfast?"
"No can do, lady."
"Tom."
Silently attempting to raise his pistol again, Tom started getting annoyed with Lisa when she resisted again, but this time she had a bit of an idea.
"We can't hide out in the slums, this is a better place."
"And why is that?"
Starting to question his disciples intelligence, Tom didn't realise he had stopped thinking and simply wanted to solve all problems with violence.
"Because you'll most definitely try and hide in the slums, and that guy knows your tactics, remember?"
"Shit."
Forced to think about things rationally for a moment, Tom could see that hiding here, in the middle of town instead of on the abandoned outskirts, was the far better call. Still, they couldn't hide out here without the fruit seller's consent, even if Tom improvised a home invasion it wouldn't hold until the blockade of Delth lifted, so she needed to agree to this. Faced with the reality of the situation, Tom lowered his pistol and turned his attention to the middle aged lady Lisa had befriended. Sensing where things were going, the fruit seller lady put on a warm smile as she responded to Tom's silent request in a way neither Lisa nor Tom would have expected.
"I would never throw anyone out into the streets when they need my help. Hospitality is a key tenet of our merciful lady of the Hunt and I've been her faithful servant since the day I was born."