-Russian interior defense report on i 284-B, at site
POV S-3;REDACTED>Division:
In my line of work, bright fshes of light tend to be a bad thing. Getting spotted during a night raid, getting checked to see if you are pretending to be unscious etting hit by a fshbang. Today is no different as me and four of my squad are currently surrounded by a bunch of cospyers in a dark room with rock overhead.
"The summoning was a success!" a girl in a dress yells.
"Please calm down princess, it is too soon to get our hopes up". Princess? There is too much going on here for the situation to be sane.
"Squad stay bat ready but no sudden moves, we need information". It seems S-1 is retively calm all things sidered, if anyone will find out what's going on he would be it and if he doesn't no one will.
"Well, what more do you o prove it was a success?" The girl cimed to be a princess certainly got the look and attitude to mate. "They are dressed in odd clothes and look like they are extremely wary of us, so they certainly seem otherworldly to me".
S-1 gestures for us to look to all sides of the room and back him up. "What the hell is going on here!?" The sergeant finally spoke up out loud except that it didn't sound russian or even english, hell it didn't even seem like any nguage I know at all.
"Well that at least firms the nguage part of the summoning spell w, it seems that the goddess is watg us today". An old man tinues mumbling away like one of the engineers lost in calcution.
"S-3 initiate unication with unknown tacts, get us information and try to seem non-threatening, we have your back". I holster my gun and approach the overly (or appropriately?) excited princess. As I approach, I see some men in armor appear from thin air like they had always been there and point halberds at me. If they believe that those glorified pointy sticks would prevent me from harming the girl they clearly have no idea what they are messing with.
" you tell us what's going on here?" It is my job as the radio operator to handle most enters of a diplomatiature, even if it isn't part of ur MO.
"We summoned you to help with the demon lord of course! We need your help to defeat it, or else humanity is doomed". The princess is clearly still extremely excited and some of the other oddly clothed people from the encirclement look relieved, and I get the feeling that the evenly spaced piles of gold and gems with some odd asymmetrical gaps in the piles are what makes me believe this was a rather expensive venture on their side.
"And why would we help?" The room tehe guards tighten their grip around their halberds the princess is actually a little shook and baffled at my statement and all the robed men look with disapproving mild horror.
"But you are humans, aren't you?"
I'll have to recover this somehow, 't afford flict with unknown tacts while surrounded, even if by what is clearly not tactically favorable for them. "Yes, but where we e from soldiers don't tend to help out other nations for free, until then we serve Russia". I say all this while giving an obvious look at the piles of gold and gems as if we could be bought with those, my trick seems to work and the air in the room gets a lot lighter.
"Why of course you will be pensated appropriately for your service to the kingdom of Dalka, please state your desire men of Rossya".
Excellent, I buy important time with this tactic, "Could I request some time to discuss this payment with my fellows? This whole summoning business is rather disorienting, and would like to get a little more known with the nature of the job and who we are exactly w for here". The girl gives another smile, except this time it doesn't reach her eyes.
"That is fine I will have a few rooms assigo you for the duration of your stay, my father will want to talk to you eventually, so please have your answer ready by then". She snaps her fingers and some servants e walking dowairs into the basement aure us to follow.
"Fug hell S-3 that was nuts, you really pulled it back there". S-4 said it in russian, so I'm assuming they figured out that we haven't been promised if we still talk russian. He was always very jovial and expressive, but I get the feeling he pys the fool a lot more often than he is the fool, he is also our team gunner.
"They were always intending to stick us in rooms for a while, they had those servants ready" S-2 observant and mostly paranoid as always is still watg the guards as he says this, our scout is clearly seeing something he doesn't like. "Those guards were invisible and there the eime, I saw a shimmer that was shaped like them on the locations where they appeared from before they appeared".
"What are you guys talking about?" the princess interjects, having regained some of her previous excitement.
"We were discussing sleeping arras and would like to request a singur room with 5 beds to be assigo us". The problems S-4 had with the quartermaster made him a smooth liar.
The princess deftes the smallest bit before returning to a slightly jovial tone. "I heard men in the army were really bored, but I didn't know that attitude crossed worlds". It would have been a rather funny statement if it wasn't for the part where it seemed like the princess was fishing for information too fwlessly, and someohat wasn't fishing for information wouldn't be able to say that with such a straight fa a situation like this.
"Cease the unnecessary chatter and eyes front, do not embarrass us in front of royalty". Looks like S-1 noticed what she was trying and shut her down before she could get anywhere, although I am a bit worried he may have outed himself as our CO. The princess makes some more attempts and jabs at versation, but we keep moving steadily and silent as we make our way to our assigned room. At some point the princess leaves us while pouting a bit and the surprisingly unnerved servants open the door to our room.
"Please notify a servant if you require anything, we will e get you for breakfast lund dinner". The servant bows and leaves us to our room.
"Sweep" the moment the word leaves the mouth of S-1 we all get to work cheg the room thhly for anything out of pce.
"Found something, it looks like the scribbles c the floor back at the summoning area" S-4 found the scribbles hidden under a false ceiling in a drawer.
"If it wasn't meant to be found it 't be anything good for us, we should destroy it" S-2 looks relieved at this information "I would be more worried if they didn't try even with the nguage barrier proteg us for now".
"We will talk about cssified stuff over radio but keep pretending that the nguage is our main way of preventing information leaks, sidering the teology of the locals I believe they don't have radios".
"I would reend seeing the locals as a good source of informatiardless of their obvious iions" S-1 gives me a p look as I say it.
"Why do you think that S-3?"
"Because while the locals don't seem to know what we are capable of, they do fear us, and probably any reprisals that could happen if we were to find out that they have been lying to us".
S-1 thinks for a bit and es to a clusion. "We should get to figuring out this payment stuff, we need much more information and there is some det time left to get shit done before we are summoned by their king, S-4 and S-5 are to iigate the library".
I hadn't even noticed S-5 sihe start of this debacle, as our team sniper he puts great importan silend not being noticed.
"S-3 I want you to try a some information from the locals and S-2 you are with me, we are going to take a roll around this pd see what we find".____________________________________________
POV sed princess Alicia of the kingdom of Dalka
I make my way from the otherworlders to the throne room. No doubt my father has already heard most of what happened and will be testing me on my knowledge of intrigue.
"I would like to speak to my father".
While normally ing to the throne room with the king there and without appoi is seen as a major faux pas, my father has also taught me that family always es first and that o be shown as well.
"Alicia! Is that you? It is good to see you on this fine day!" my father seems to be in one of his good moods, which makes sense sidering the summoning finally yielding some success.
"Yes your majesty I have e to report on the success of the summoning" My father quickly adopts a slightly sour look befoing back to his good mood.
"I told you none of that your majesty crap when it's just us I'm your father first and king sed, now tell me of these men of rossya". At those st words, I hear the scheming he's doing ing out from his words.
"They aren't what I imagihem to be in both a good and bad way, good in that they seem like professional soldiers, bad in that they are professional soldiers. They asked for payment for dealing with the demon lord, but clearly hold loyalty to a different kingdom".
My father ponders for a bit before asking, "what are the ces of being able to tie them to our kingdom? If we have otherworldly heroes on our side, the other nations would think twid the theocracy thrice before trying to attack us, even with this demon lord issue on our border". As expected, my father doesn't hesitate to fear the potential threats more than the current threat.
"Not good, they are already incredibly wary of us and don't hesitate to show their suspi towards us". My father ponders some more with a sour look on his face before mother quietly enters.
"Well from what the reports say dear Rufus they are still very much humahey be paranoid enough to rip out the listening entment as much as they want but finding out what they want tends to be more of a matter of time rather than one of certainty".
They found the listening entment? That was state-of-the-art entment work and should leave nearly no traana for maion spells. "How did they find it?" My father asks before I could.
"Well we didn't get much from it but roughly 5 minutes before it wehere was a single word said before it seems they found it, but it was all in their odd nguage".
"And what are they doing now?"
My mother's expression finally grows sour. "That's why I'm here now, it seems as uests have decided to make themselves fortable rather quickly, two are walking around the training ground two more are holed up in the library and one is currently asking the servants and guards some odd questions".
My father mao look mildly annoyed before turning to me. "Marie dearest, you have someone lead Alicia to where the man talking to the servants is and find out anything? As of now we don't even know whie of them is in charge, and with paranoid men like these it's best not to make assumptions".
My mother, having clearly expected this whole turn of events, snaps her fingers and the head maid enters. "Jennifer, lead princess Alicia here to the otherworlder currently talking to your staff so she make sure everything is alright". The head maid bows and respectfully gestures for me to follow.
As I approach where the man is talking, I overhear some of the things being said.
"So this demon lord turns people into half-monsters using corrupted magic?"
The servant replies somewhat shakily. "Y-yes, I believe it was called the transmogrification spell, and it also corrupts the mind quickly turning those hit into puppets of the demon lord".
I make my way to enter quickly, and the otherworlder seems to mutter something under his breath before making a short bow and greeting. "Greeting princess Alicia, is there anything I help you with?"
This was one of the two men that spoke at the summoning ritual, I don't reize any of them as they are always wearing bck masks c everything except the eyes, so they sent out the one most capable of talking to gather information from the servants?
"Greetings hero, I heard you went around asking questions from the servants and I wao make sure you weren't making them too unfortable, if you have any questions you always ask me". The masked man thinks for a bit before answering.
"I believe I never properly introduced myself, I'm S-3, and I was asking some questions about our target and its nature, you tell me a little about those who serve it?"
Now that he mentions it I don't recall giving my name, so he clearly has been asking about a bit more than simply the demon lord.
"Why of course Esstrey, the demons e in many forms but all of them hold loyalty to the demon lord and hold a disdain for all humans, many are capable in the demon army of casting the dreaded transmogrification spell, but the demon lord is of course the one most capable of it".
The man narrows his eyes a bit before asking, "how is humanity still holding on?"
I'm a bit shocked at this question and remember the prophecy again. About how those of another world would be the oo save humanity. I had always believed that it would be a hero in shining armor that would ride in and spearhead humanity to a brighter future and even when I was rather disappoihat the heroes that came were anything but clothed in shining armor, but they were still heroes.
"The royal army has its own tricks and might still left, we are no pushovers and some wayward magical experiment from an insane mage like the demon lord isn't going to just take our beautiful kingdom without a fight!"
I actually get a little winded by the end of the small speech. Esstrey gives a nod before adopting a determined look. "In that case I'm looking forward t with you all, someone capable of brainwashing is a dao us all, my fellows are currently researg more about the target as we speak". As much as I want to believe that he means those words, I tell that it's hollow ptitudes. These men still hold great distrust for us, no matter how much they know about the world.
I promptly excuse myself and head bay room to send some letters to my brothers and sister, and hopefully keep my younger sister out of all this. I get the feeling that the summoning is us pying with fire more and more while my father and mother are blinded by opportunity. A donation to the local church would probably also be nice, if ying with fire, I just hope that the goddess will watch over us.__________
POV S-3
Having talked to the ball of energy known as the sed princess Alicia of the kingdom of Dalka, I make my way back to the room. As we all slowly arrive and share the informatiohered, we e to several clusions based on evidence collected. Magic is real, so are entments elves, dwarves, vampires, demons, dragons, monster and a whole heap of other stuff normally found in what would usually be found in fantasy books except that somehow some of Lovecraft's works are also mixed in sidering the many books about beings from the stars.
"So we have giant flying fire breathing tanks, beings from mythology and ivorous caves but worst of all somehow humanity hasn't been crushed like bugs despite not even having ied gunpowder yet". S-1 gives one of those p looks he makes when we are assigned a mission with unrealistic expectations from and again. "And they want us to kill what is an a being made by a mad stist thousands of years ago in an attempt at making the perfect being, simply because God is real, and she said so". As S-1 tinues, irritation es more and more into his voice, S-4 gives a pained look before speaking up.
"From what I found with S-5 the whole summoning thing is much easier to do than sending something far away as we could be sidered lucky if we end up in the sun".
We all grumble at that and ponder our options a bit before S-2 gives a grin through his mask he only gives when he spots weakness. "Except that that ahing has never faced gunpowder before or any powerful mana-less ons, there may have never been a recorded case of someone surviving an enter with the demon lord among humans but that all leads me to believe together with what the soldiers said about demons that they all have enhanced senses".
S-1 gives a serious look at S-2 before anding. "Expin".
The grin on S-2 grows even wider as I tell from his eyes that he's enjoying the moment thhly. "Enhanced eyesight? Fshbangs will hit them harder than their worst moments, Enhanced hearing? We use some loud fug guns, enhanced smell? The only smell they will get to smell is the smell of uns. The enemy has never been this unprepared for us, but we are running out of time, no doubt does a being as a as this has spies in the pace, it's what I would do".
I decide to make this the moment to speak up. "We should still think of a reward, we still serve Russia before all else".
Now it seems it's the turn of S-1 to make a grin that would haunt children at night. "How about we ask for nd, specifically most of the nd of the demon lord, we could build towards making travel back to Russia more viable from there, and we will have something to give to the mothernd when we re-establish tact with and if we could make it perma".
"We should ask the king to move quick then, our advantages won't st long".
Everyone pauses for a moment and take wo the fact S-5 just talked, and we collectively decide to hand a message for the king to one of the servants and hahe rest tomorrow m.