Back to the Stronghold

"What do you mean by that?" Blackmoor stared daggers at the soldier who had just reported to him. "The entire battalion! Not a single one of them?"

"Yes, general. The first relay station said that the commander had reported to them they had killed all the monsters of the outpost." The soldier checked his expression, adding, "And about four minutes later, there was no response from them."

The soldier peeked at Blackmoor's darkening face, but continued nonetheless, "They sent a small troop and found the bodies of the soldiers."

"Did the commander give a false report?" Blackmoor's voice was anything but reassuring.

"No, general. The troops found about 300 corpses of the monsters. And they were either killed by bullets or fire and wind spells. The fight did take place, and they did win but…"

*Boom*

Blackmoor's impatient fist slammed on the table, "Does it look like I'm enjoying your exciting storytelling?" The soldier said nothing and handed over the tablet to him.

"What is this?" Blackmoor yelled.

"When the troops searched the battlefield, they discovered that the monsters had destroyed almost all the helmets as if they knew about the utility of the helmets."

The soldier checked his expression, adding, "They've retrieved everything they could, but the data is fragmented."

"And this is the record of the things that happened afterward. There was a creature who could talk in the human language. He called himself an 'Elf'." The soldier wasn't sure if his reports had reached his ears or not, but he didn't dare to speak anymore.

Blackmoor watched the whole clip before rewinding it two more times. His foul mood reflected on his face, "Did the troop find these three?"

'Do you think the troop would be alive to report back to us if they had met them?' The soldiers never said those intended words, only shook his head.

"No helmet in the vicinity which recorded their departure. And..." His momentary silence attacked Blackmoor's glare, "Other than the body of Commander Rainer, they've recovered others' remains."

"So he's still alive?"

"We don't know Sir," the soldier shook his head. "We have retrieved his destroyed helmet. There was no blood on it, but his whereabouts are currently unknown."

"Wasn't he from the Earthen mission?" Glancing that the soldier was nodding in conformation, Blackmoor added, "Continue to search. He may have escaped."

'Like one could run from those abominations.' The soldier frowned in his heart but nodded nevertheless. "Sir, should we inform other strongholds?"

"Call for a meeting as soon as possible… no-no-no. Get out of here." After a sudden yell from Blackmoor, the soldier didn't dare to linger any longer and left without looking back.

Blackmoor, on the other hand, sent Gunther and Leroy a message and put on his helmet. He soon appeared in a virtual meeting room. He didn't know what the others were doing, but soon enough others appeared in the meeting room.

"What is so important?" Gunther frowned.

Blackmoor didn't say a word, he just played the video. Their screams and wails soon devoured the silence of the room. None of them spoke as Blackmoor explained the situation after the video had finished.

"Elf. Elf" Gunther mumbled the name a couple of times, "Why does this name sound so similar? Where did I hear it?" But no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't remember it.

"Their commander might be the only one that escaped." Blackmoor added, "He is one from the Earth's mission. He might have known a way to escape those Elf things."

"Right, Earth." Gunther smacked the table in excitement, "I read a report about the presence of this sort of monster on the old continent of Eporue. According to the report, they control more than half of the territory."

"Are they type of human mutation?" Blackmoor checked the image of an elf on the screen, "They looked a lot like humans."

"No!" Leroy snorted. But he quickly replaced it with a smile, "It doesn't matter how they look. The question is, what are we going to do about them? Should we report it to the council?"

"Why?" Blackmoor frowned, "What can they do about it?"

"It was, after all, as Gunther had said. They control half of the continent. We should at least let the council know about the situation."

"So what?" Blackmoor was not too pleased with his idea, "There is no way the humans on the Earth had have the technology or the knowledge to go against these monsters. We are different."

"But..."

"No need." Gunther raised his hand and stopped both of them, "The first group of reinforcement is almost here. I think it will be better if we take a closer look at the situation before we decide."

"Do as you wish." Leroy sighed, asking, "By the way, Gunther, what was the skin color of the elves on Earth?"

Gunther looked at Leroy in confusion but soon realized, "Yes, yes. Now that I'm thinking about it, they were golden-skinned, not blue."

************

Four days later.

"I understand why you destroyed the helmets, but what about the dog tags?" Robin was sitting at the top of the transporter beside Aiden and chewing on the energy bar. "What if they weren't able to identify us without it?"

"If they don't want to recognize us, they have tens of different excuses to do so, even if we had the dog tags." Aiden smiled and added, "or are you telling me that even with the technology of traveling through wormholes, they don't have the ability to identify their soldiers without a dog tag?"

Robin shrugged his shoulders and took another bite of the energy bar, "The federation had really screwed you over, didn't they?"

"Why are you so curious about it? It's got nothing to do with you. "

"Of course, it does. I need to know the list of enemies you have. What if I say something to someone I'm not supposed to do, and the person ends up hurting you? Don't I die if anything like that happens to you?"

"Wouldn't it be easier if you're not talking about it at all?"

"That will be impossible." Robin shook his head, "But now that I'm thinking about it, there must be very few people in the federation who can physically hurt you. Isn't it?"

Aiden just smiled at him, neither confirming nor denying his words.

"Come on, you've taken down the whole research post full of monsters of your own. They have to reward you even if they don't want to. It is not something they could just ignore."

There was no doubt about it in his mind. Robin added, "they would promote you a few ranks. Even I think they would promote me to at least one level."

Aiden grinned and said, "If they had any intention of sincerely rewarding me for my work on Earth, by now I would have been a general."

"Really? That is even possible?" At first, it was a little hard for him to believe, but soon he nodded, "No, that may not be impossible. After all, it is you we are talking about."

Robin jumped in excitement, only to realize, "Oh, fuck! What the hell did you do? Why don't they want to promote you?"

"Why would you like to be promoted?" Aiden could not help but inquire.

"What kind of shit question is that?" the corner of his lips twitched a little As Robin responded, "Why does one want to be promoted? You get a higher rank, you can boss over others."

"Only rank?" Aiden smirked, "As long as you are in the army, there will be always someone lording above you. Generals, Directors of the federation... Only after you've been a councilman, you will be free."

Robin wanted to refute but lacked the correct logic. He snorted, "Then what about money? After all, the higher you rank, the higher you receive."

"How much money do you want? 1 million?" Aiden calculated, "Let's say you have become a captain. It's around 10k a month. How long you will be a soldier? 10? 20? Okay, let's say 30 years. That would be 3,600,000 credits"

Robin wanted to calculate, but the number was already out of his expectations. Yet, Aiden didn't stop, "Will 10,000,000 be enough? How about a hundred millions?"

"You've got so much?" The tail end of the energy bar escaped his hand in shock and fell. "Are you that rich?"

Aiden didn't answer his question but said, "Let's say I owe you that much if we really live this planet alive."

Hearing the words, all the emotion escaped his face. Robin straightened his back and said, "What happened at the research post? Nothing. It was empty even long before we got there. I didn't find a single monster."

Aiden smiled, didn't say anymore. Robin tossed the fallen piece of energy bar in the mouth and asked in confusion, "Why didn't you just order me not to speak about it?"

Robin pointed at his heart, adding, "It's not like I could disobey."

"What if they checked your memory?" Robin had no problem understanding what Aiden was talking about. His lips curled up as a result.

He was about to say something, but Aiden didn't give him the chance, "How much more to get to the stronghold?"

"About six or seven hours more before we reach the research stronghold #09. It must be around the mountain."

Robin sighed before he added, "If you hadn't stopped us from heading in the other direction, we'd have reached Mining Fortress # 04 two days ago. By the way, do you really think they will target that stronghold soon?"

"If not that, they will attack it. They might have already destroyed it." Aiden stood up and said, "The transporters are already charged. Let's go."