"Sure, it's exactly what we planned. There's no chance we get to complete both objectives and survive if it isn't done fast, so we have to move separately."
Although he knew Lisa would be unhappy when he revealed it, Tom still stuck to the plan that they needed to hit their two targets at the same time as it was the only way this mission didn't turn into a one-way ticket to the afterlife for all involved.
"Speed is of the essence here, we can't stand against the full brunt of the capital's armed forces."
"... But we don't need to."
"Lisa, save it for later please."
Even as much as he trusted Lisa's judgements, Tom was not about to hold her opinion above his own in an area he very much believed himself an expert in. Deciding the conversation was over, Tom walked into the abandoned logging cabin, leaving Lisa and Victor to exchange a glance before they followed.
Even though it looked normal on the outside, the cabin was anything but on the inside as most of the flooring had been removed and a 5 metre wide well had been dug almost a kilometre straight down.
"... Was there really a need to dig this so far down?"
Climbing down one of the 4 ladders on each side of the well hole with most of her gear on her back, Lisa couldn't help but comment on how far they needed to descend.
"The issue is Kingstead's outer wall, as we needed to dig underneath its foundations, hitting it would trigger alarms… To be honest, we would have never tried to dig this kind of tunnel if it wasn't for Tom's assistance and technical input."
Victor still remembered when Tom first suggested digging a tunnel into the capital, of how insane that idea initially sounded and how logical it became after he explained and answered any questions and worries Victor had.
"Since when did you become knowledgeable on tunnels Tom?"
This was all news to Lisa, who so far only had learned about warfare from Tom, she had no idea he was this knowledgeable in other subjects.
"Well, I have experience in the subject, as I was a tunnel rat in a past life."
"A tunnel rat?"
Hearing Lisa interested in the unfamiliar term, Tom took a deep breath to suppress what little emotions still remained buried in those memories as he started explaining.
"When the USIE armed forces were once faced with an opponent who used an 'underground city and highway' to evade their drone surveillance, strike behind the frontline and conduct raids on their drone control nodes and ammunition depots they were forced to do something about these tunnels. Of course, saying you're going to do something and doing it are radically different things, and the tunnels that crisscrossed the entire country were hard to find, dark, damp and filled with traps. After reports came out that they were losing 70% of the forces they assigned to investigate these tunnels surfaced in the media, the USIE was forced to 'delegate' this job to local mercenaries."
"Delegate?"
As little as Lisa knew about the USIE from Tom, she knew that the way Tom's former employer would 'delegate' things left much to be desired.
"Yeah, as in they paid mercenaries of questionable integrity to clear out these underground networks, but as the mercs themselves didn't want to suffer casualties they started rounding up war orphans for the job, as their small frames made it easy for them to at least fit into these tunnels… I still remember getting taken in the night, put through hellish 'training' and abuse for a few weeks before being forced down that tiny hole underneath that corner store at gunpoint, only armed with a rusty knife and told I wouldn't get back out until my knife was soaked in blood."
"And how old were you when that happened?... If it's not too much to ask."
Also listening to Tom's story, Victor had a grim look on his face as he realised Tom was most likely talking about his childhood.
"I don't remember exactly, but it was before I turned 10… Anyways, the children forced to clear out these tunnels didn't fare much better than trained soldiers, so much of them of course suffered a whole host of terrible fates before that useless war ended, after which they were dubbed 'tunnel rats' by the USIE army command as the generals and leaders who were responsible for everything washed themselves of any responsibility in the matter. But yeah, I spent a few years crawling around a lot of different tunnels and underground networks in various states of disrepair, so I figured out how to survive them and later build them myself when I was forced into that when I was around 14 years old."
Although it took the trio another 5 minutes to reach the bottom of the pit, the rest of the climb down was spent in silence as the weight of Tom's words sunk in. For Lisa, this explained a lot about her teacher, but for Victor it was a revelation that his own and Tom's childhoods had been remarkably similar in how bleak they had been.
"Welp, this is slightly disappointing…"
Having finally reached the bottom of the hole, Lisa had expected a large tunnel they could all walk through side by side standing upright, but instead she was met with a small hole just tall enough for her backpack and about as wide as Tom was, to cross through she would need to crawl all the way, or ride on a small cart half her body length long, dragging herself the cart and her backpack behind her by pulling at a rope attached to the ceiling of the small tunnel.
"It's a hole in the ground, what did you expect?"
"But it's so sma-"
"That's what she said. Time is of the essence, get going."
Interrupting his disciple's bicking, Tom shooed her on as time was very much of the essence.
(I really hope I don't end up buried alive again…)
Attaching his own backpack with a pull cable to his plate carrier, Tom made sure it was properly secured before he entered the small tunnel as the last person. The inside was as dark and damp as he had expected, and with nothing more than the light of his radio, Tom started dragging himself and his gear along the narrow tunnel as his soon laboured breathing created an unpleasant fog which seemed to cling to his face. Within a few metres Tom was caked in mud from the walls and ceiling of the tunnel, and although he very much disliked the taste and smell of the mud covering his face, he was glad the tunnel was at least somewhat wet as the decrease in traction helped move everything along without the chance to get caught on anything. Of course, things were going far too smoothly for something bad not to happen and soon Tom found his way forward blocked.
It seemed someone ahead of him had stopped, or worse yet, gotten stuck.
"Okay, what's happening up there?"
After a slightly too long pause, someone ahead of him eventually keyed up their radio.
[I don't know what you're talking about Tom, nothing is wrong here, aside from the mud of course.]
With Victor responding confused about any stoppage, Tom got a sinking feeling in his gut.
"Lisa?"
Static.
"Lisa, respond immediately."
Static.
(Fuck.)
"Override, dial #0002, open com link; key."
[STAND BY; PROCESSING REQUEST.]
[What's going on down there Tom?]
"Donno, continue on."
Getting Victor out of his hair for the moment, Tom refocused on getting Lisa to respond when the connection was finally forced open like he had requested. As Tom had feared, all that came through the radio was the sound of hyperventilation and crying, somewhere along the line Lisa had gotten stuck or believed she had gotten stuck and had panicked. Stuck in the tunnel or not, what was important was getting Lisa to calm down before she worked through the limited amount of oxygen in the tunnel and passed out, or worse.
"Lisa?... LISA!?"
No response, just more hyperventilating.
"Lisa I know you can hear me…"
Not knowing how to reassure someone, let alone calm them down from a panic attack, Tom was at a momentary loss for words until he realised that losing Lisa was something he could never accept.
"If you can still understand what I'm saying then close your eyes Lisa. Remember when we had our first marksman training in that field a few months ago? The grass was swaying slowly in the wind and I had just set out the first target for you to hit… Remember that feeling as you peered through the scope."
That day the weather had been excellent, minimal wind or clouds and warm evening sunlight had been hitting Lisa as she laid on a blanket with her feet spread as she aimed through the scope of Tom's M-907, calming her breathing as she had been taught and trained to do. The smell of grass was intense, but Lisa could still slightly make out Tom's presence next to her, far more than the breathing exercise and marksman training this is what had calmed her down, as she relaxed the sight picture though the scope became increasingly clearer as she took note of the wind and the distance from her target.
"Target, 12 O'clock, range 760 metres, wind is 1-2 notches from the east. Do you see your target?"
Speaking the words he spoke that day, Tom who was hardly religious felt like praying as he listened to Lisa's laboured breathing and he felt like a miracle had happened when it finally started calming down.
"I-I see it."
"Roger, target acquired. So you see it, let's worry about how you get there."
Slowly and deliberately squeezing the trigger as she kept her aim steady, Lisa felt the surrounding world fading away as she focused on the picture through her sight, and Tom's calm and steady voice as he acted as her spotter.
"Target locked, permission to engage granted; we are clear. Fire, fire, fire, fire… Hit, target down. You did good Lisa, I'm proud."
The first thing Lisa did after emerging out of that dark tunnel was to breathe a sigh of relief, then she started cleaning some of the mud that was caked onto her face off, but as Tom also emerged from the tunnel that got put on hold as she rushed in and embraced him in a deep hug.
"You did good Lisa, I'm proud of you."
"Mmm."
Not wanting to let go even after Tom padded her back a few times, Lisa clasped her hands together as she felt her instructor give in and hug her back. Forgetting everything else for the moment, the two somewhat awkward people hugged as they were forced to admit to themselves that they deeply cared for each other. Although there was no blood binding them, the two shared a strong familial bond.
This was of course new for Lisa who never really had a father or even someone close to filling that role in her life, but Tom had it worse as he was now silently panicking as he realised that he was important to someone.
"... I don't ever want to do that again."
Having finally emerged from the earth into an abandoned warehouse, Lisa didn't feel reborn like a new woman or anything that spectacular, she was just happy that it was over.
"Fair."
Tom likewise couldn't find any reason to subject himself or Lisa to anything like that ever again, so he wrote any sort of tunnelling out of his future plans, forgetting that this was likely the last mission he would be conducting with her.
"What's the plan now?"
Having gracefully stepped back to allow Lisa and Tom to have their moment, Victor spoke up when he felt like he wouldn't intrude anymore.
"Wait for sundown, then move into position and strike the targets, easy as."
Although there were far more to these two operations they were about to undertake, Tom didn't feel like going over every detail right now was going to change anything as Victor had already been informed about the parts he needed to play.
"How's the information control going?"
Switching topics, Tom asked about the things he had Victor doing to prepare the capital for their operations.
"It seems extremely effective from what I've been able to gather. Support for the king is high on the surface, but behind closed doors the common people and even some of the nobles are reluctant, when the time comes they will hesitate."
Over the past few weeks Victor quietly spread a number of rumours around the capital, telling of the terrible conditions enslaved demi-humans and even some normal people were under and how it was against all laws of the land and gods. After the initial seed of doubt had taken hold, Victor then spread information about the adventurers hired by the Randall house, how they had all been lied to and deceived before their commanders had thrown their lives away while watching from afar like the cowards they were.
Although it didn't have all the effects Tom had hoped for, morale among the common people and even some guards had been affected. Even if the nobles didn't need votes from these common folk to stay in power the fear of a large-scale riot still meant that the upper class did have to take their sentiment into account, less they would quickly find themselves forced to the gallows.
The seed of doubt in the state had been planted, and so the people in charge had to think twice before they acted. Tom's plan had worked in that sense, but what he had failed to see was the mere act of spreading misinformation would be realised as the act of aggression it was by someone else taught in these matters.
In other words, or in plain english: It was a clearly telegraphed move, showing intent to attack the capital and even providing a clear and convenient timeline for it.