Chapter 221: Operation Extraction (2/2)
Suppressing a sigh, he hurried over to the side of the ship, and helped Sera and Tal up. They didn't have much time before enemy reinforcements arrived, so they would need to move quickly.
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Yawning, Garret leaned on his halberd while trying his best to stay awake. He'd been stuck at the guard post near the center of the camp for nearly eight hours now. An unfortunate consequence of being one of the few Tier 2 Tenundian soldiers not directly involved in the strike team, and therefore one of the few to have escaped their near annihilation once the assault failed. A fate he avoided by virtue of a nasty case of food poisoning, which had left him bedridden for much of the first few days of the siege.
Immediately after he'd recovered, his commanding officer attached him to the Duke's house troops to assist in guarding headquarters. Apparently, the arrogant and immaculately dressed soldiers, who looked nice but couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag, needed the assistance of the Tenundian regulars to provide security for the sprawling compound.
As a veteran of three wars, Garret knew that it was important to guard the leaders of the army. Even more so, when that leader was the ruler of your nation, but he felt that the Duke was being a little paranoid. Three lines of security surrounded the cluster of tents, and no one besides a select few nobles were allowed to enter all the way to the center.
Well them, and the groups of captives the Duke's troops brought in periodically. Like the one that had come through a few hours ago, he recalled in distaste. He didn't know what was happening to them, but the rumors going around weren't good.
Supposedly, their disappearance into the cavernous tent at the center of camp had something to do with the Duke's strategy for taking the city. Something inside seemed to require a large number of people, although the reasons behind it varied from rumor to rumor, and included everything from demonic sacrifice to slave labor.
[I'm getting too old for this shit.] The 34 year old thought, and in his boredom he began fantasizing about the farm he was planning on buying with the money he got from this particular campaign. Assuming he survived anyway. Considering the death toll among his peers, that wasn't exactly certain, regardless of what the hardliners said.
A sudden shout of alarm from far behind him startled him from his musings. Judging from the sound of it, the yell had come from the second checkpoint, a little further into the Duke's compound from where Garret was standing. He peered into the darkness of the camp, noticing that most of the torches in that section of the encampment had gone out.
[I have a bad feeling about this.]
Almost as if to punctuate his fears, the silence of the night was rent once more, this time with a strange, bestial roar that vibrated the very ground he stood on. Garret found himself suddenly unable to breath, vision narrowing in terror as the sound continued to grow louder before stopping suddenly.
After a few moments, he took a panicked breath, gasping for air like he'd just come up from underwater, and levered himself back onto his feet with his halberd.
”What in the hells...” He muttered, staring into the darkness, suddenly more terrified than he'd been at any other point in his life. He was still recovering from the episode when a tawny headed woman sprinted out of the darkness and collided with him. Both of them were sent sprawling in the dust.
”Uff...Ow.” She complained while pushing herself up and rubbing her head. As soon as she caught sight of Garret's uniform, that changed.
”Shit!” She exclaimed, while hurriedly rising to her feet. ”Um, sorry about that...” a quick glance at his rank insignia gave her the words she was searching for, ”sergeant, I'm in a bit of a rush at the moment, and I wasn't looking where I was going.”
Garret shook the dizziness from his head while standing up himself, and in the process, blocked the escape route that she was edging towards. While it wasn't exactly his job to monitor people coming out of the compound, this woman obviously was up to something. The better question was, did it matter in the present circumstances?
A loud crash sounded from the center of the camp, followed by a few quick thuds and a long screech of metal grinding on metal. Even in the dim torchlight of his checkpoint, he could see the woman visibly pale at the noise.
Glancing back in the direction she came from, she started unconsciously muttering, ”Oh, that's bad. It's waking up earlier than its supposed to. Emmanuel is going to kill me.” She looked back at him. ”Sergeant, I don't really have time to explain at the moment, but we need to get out of here fast.”
”Is this about whatever made that roar?” He asked, while eyeing the rest of the compound warily.
”Indeed. There is something terrible being stored at the center of this camp, and its in the process of waking up. Once it does, there is a very real chance that it will simply destroy everything in its vicinity until its master can bring it under control. I suggest we move out of its way.”
Another series of thumps followed by a few indistinct shouts of alarm from the Duke's compound accentuated her point. He thought he saw a large, grotesque shape rise above the tents, although it could just be the shadows playing tricks on him. After a few moments weighing his options, he decided that he wasn't getting paid enough for this nonsense. With a simple nod of acquiescence, he took of running.
It was time to start seriously thinking about that farm.