“Yes, I know that congress controls appropriations and that you can't divert funds this way, I'm not asking you to. I'm asking you to co-sign my request to congress. Our allies saved a sixty-five milliion dollar Coast Guard ship and 25 sailors, I'm just asking for a suitable reward. No, I don't consider a million dollars excessive. Yes, they are our allies, but we are paying them to fight, and a bonus for this will.” Eric groaned as the phone clicked. Yes, he had been yelling, but it was frustrating.
Alicia stumbled to his desk carrying a large, obviously heavy box. “Package for you sir.”
Eric opened it, finding it filled with a carefully wrapped silver tea set, obviously very old. Inside he found a note. “Mr. Brown, your requests to reward the people who saved our ship have come to our attention. I understand handcrafted items have particular value to those individuals. This is the presentation silver given to our ship upon commissioning by the family of the sailor it was named after. I have spoken to them and they have agreed to give this to you. It belonged to the great grandmother of George Rednour.”
Eric could tell the silver was old, and had tool marks that suggested it was made by hand. In the current world, it was a valuable gift indeed. Eric packed the box back up and said “Alicia? Can you put this in the mail to Korea, address it to Jatya and say that it is from the crew of the ship she saved with their gratitude.”
“Yes sir,” she replied, lifting the cumbersome box and starting back to her desk.
“Um, do you want me to help?” He asked.
“No sir, I've got it.”
Eric looked at the next item on his list, reviewing the war in Korea. The good news was that with basically the entire surviving North Korean military surrendering and then fighting to hold back the invaders, humans held everything outside of North Korea. In fact China had done a 'thunder run' to Kimchaek and South Korea had moved up the East Coast as far as Wonsan. However, the Kappa held Hamhung on the east coast and obviously Pyongyand as well as most of the west coast. Kaesong had also fallen to the South and fighting was ongoing in Haeju.
The bad news was that while the orcs could stabilize a front, they were really only functional as a single force. They were fighting in Hamhung and that was why the fighting there was doing well, but Haeju would likely fall within a day or two.
“Sir, I have a Mr. Yong in your office, he has requested a meeting.”
Eric vaguely remembered him as the civilian in the meeting where he first learned of the Kappa. “Please, send him in.” As the man entered, Eric stood and shook his hand. “I was just going over the news from Korea.”
“It is mixed, and frankly, it is only mixed because of the assistance of your mercenaries. People I respect in my government are grateful for your government providing them and paying for them.” The man bowed deeply to Eric, and Eric tried to bow back, unsure of the correct response. “Now I have a great favor to ask of you. Please take me into the rift, I wish to see if more of your orcs are available.”
Eric thought. His first impulse was to agree, but he was worried about the Pacific situation. He didn't know how long he could be gone from his desk during this type of crisis, even if it would help with a different problem.
Of course, the two Kappa fights were not the only invasions of Earth at this point, France was fighting what they called a 'Fae invasion,' Germany had goblins, Alberta had done well against something that looked like a Yeti, there were at least five invasions in Africa, and China couldn't put everything they had into North Korea because of some other war they were being very tight lipped about. India and Pakistan were in a nervous alliance against something from Kashmir, Russia was being very quiet about what was happening in the Caucasus mountains, and Brazil and Argentina were fighting whatever had taken over Paraguay. There were also rumors that someone had tried to invade Australia, but apparently the local wildlife dealt with them before the Aussies could engage.
“Alicia, could you get Tilly to report to my office? Actually, get my adventuring group together while you are at it.”
“Yes sir,” she said wistfully. Eric realized he had never asked if Alicia had a class, or if she wanted one.
Once Tilly arrived, Eric got right to the point, “Tilly, I'm guessing there is no additional force we could raise from your province, but is there another group we could hire? If so, how far away would they be and about how much would we need to offer?”
Tilly stopped to think, “Pom-kal region is probably the next closest, with a good set of Tarses we should be able to get to get to Pom-kala and back in a ten days or so? Well, using your ability of course.”
Eric frowned, he didn't want to leave his region alone that long, but without him in the group, he wasn't sure the request would succeed. Then he heard a ding sound:
Eric sighed, thinking 'well, I guess the system has an opinion, also how the heck do I do that second one?' He turned to Mr. Yong, “I will help you negotiate with an orc War-chief to get another warband.” Then he turned to Alicia, “can you see if Dr. Cohen has an appointment available today?”
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Dr. Cohen did, and agreed to find someone to help cover for Eric while he was in the rift. The District ten director took over District nine temporarily, which was a good choice since they also 'owned' part of the Pacific (off Oregon, Washington, and Alaska).
“Alicia, one more question, would you like to go into the rift with us?” The smile on her face was all the answer he needed.
So it was Eric, Tilly, Kendra, Captain King, Guidry, Mr. Yong, and Alicia going into the Orc Rift. The group went to a particular bank with Mr. Yong, who had a long conversation with the bank director and someone back home, then loaded everyone's inventories with gold. Eric was surprised that Mr. Yong had an inventory, meaning he had a class, but it was a good thing as everyone was basically full from $40 million in gold.
On the other side of the rift they stopped, Alicia said “Hmm, I don't think I need to be a water mage, clerk looks good.” Before Eric could stop her she picked it.
“Did you pick that because you think it was better for your job?” Eric asked.
“Not exactly, you told me about your class, I think the non-combat classes have other advantages, and we have plenty of fighters here.” She answered.
Frob wasn't available on the other side, but Eric found Kam and negotiated for seven Tarses to carry them. Then Eric spent an ability point on Long-Stride, increasing the speed by 50% and the group size he could help to 10. The group got moving, and rode hard, to the discomfort of all of their legs and nethers.
On the second day they saw a dust cloud rising in the distance. Eric signaled for a stop, and turned to Captain King. “What do you think, investigate or keep moving?”
Lashawn frowned, “We are moving faster than them, and they are already almost behind us, so we don't have to encounter them, but I am curious what is out here.” He pulled out a set of binoculars and looked towards the dust. “Goblins, well armed too. But I think we could take them.” He looked at Kendra and Guidry, who nodded, then at Eric who shrugged.
They formed a sort of star pattern, Kendra at the point, then King and Guidry slightly back on either side, where Kendra's shield could cover them, then Tilly and Eric behind but pulled in so they wouldn't have someone directly in front of them. Alicia and Mr. Yong stayed in the back, holding the tarses. The goblins had clearly seen them, and were riding directly towards the formation. There were five of them, one on a tarsis, and the rest on mountain lions. The goblin on the tarsis was clearly much larger than the others, with a long spear he held almost like a lance. Behind him the other four pulled out pistols and pointed them at the group.
King and Guidry took their shots first, rifles out-ranging the goblin pistols. Their guns fired almost simultaneously, the big goblin taking a shot in the shoulder and a bullet disfiguring the knee of one of the other goblins. “Switch to burst,” King ordered when none of the foes went down.
A shower of badly aimed pistol rounds hit Kendra's shield, shattering it, but luckily no one was hit. Tilly screamed “Hob!” and charged forwards, causing the soldiers to curse as she messed up their line of fire. Kendra was desperately trying to bring her shield back up. Eric used Sun Bolt, and one of his four blasts hit the pistol a goblin was trying to quickly reload. The weapon exploded, and the other three blasts hit the goblin in the chest, stomach, and shoulder. It wheezed in pain and fell from its lion.
Tilly and the spear wielding large goblin smashed into each other. The tarsis giving far more weight to the thrust of the goblin. Her spear hit him in the gut, and he grunted, but his spear smashed through her entire chest. “Die orc scum!” he called. Then his head melted as a beam of light pierced the air. Eric saw Kendra holding the weapon she had found among the salamanders, the beamer still being one of the more powerful weapons he had seen.
With their leader and one other down, the remaining goblins slowed, but fired again. Kendra hadn't gotten her shield back up, distracted by firing to support Tilly, and a hail of bullets hit the group. Half still missed, but Eric took a hit to his thigh, Kendra to her left arm, and My Yong was hit in the gut-he collapsed to the ground in pain.
“Left,” King called, and he and Guidry put six bullets into the foe on the left, two hitting the mountain lion and four hitting the goblin-and both went down. Eric hit the mount of one of the other goblins, and the goblin tumbled to the ground as the lion died under him. The last mounted goblin fled, and the dismounted goblin managed to grab the mountain lion who had lost its rider and followed. Eric rushed to Mr. Yong, using Lesser Heal, then used it on Tilly, who was in bad shape but still alive. He kept spamming the ability until everyone was at full health, and they looted the dead goblins of pistols, an enchanted spear that Tilly asked for and got, and a handful of coins. Tilly also took the claws and teeth of the lions, and they brought the extra Tarsis with them.
It was late afternoon on the fourth day when they saw the large open city of Pom-Kala. Bright, colorful tents surrounded the low walls of the city at the meeting of five roads. As they got closer, Eric saw humans!. “Tilly, look!”
“Yes, Dwarves, Pom-Kala is near a Dwarf rift.” Eric realized the men and women he saw were indeed shorter and wider than most people he had met. But the partial recognition seemed to work both ways. A group of four dwarves walked up to their group before they even entered the city.
“What clan are you from, knock-heads?” The leader, a woman with a trimmed mustache and braided red hair asked. Her ruddy face smiling to take the sting out of her teasing.
Eric dismounted, “No, I'm a human, we don't have clans, but I'm from the nation called the United States.”
She frowned, “Another rift then, but I see you are like me,” She displayed the tusk mark on the top of her left hand that matched Eric's. “So friendly?”
“Yes, in fact I think we have at least one rift to a Dwarven planet, and have allied to them, though I have no idea whether it is your planet. I don't have the name memorized, sorry.”
“Pshaw, a friend of the orcs is a friend of mine. You vouch for these others?”
“Er, yes, these are my normal adventure group plus my assistant and a civilian we are escorting to talk to the war-chief.” Eric introduced everyone by name, and in turn learned her name was Maly, her husband Kaln was almost 5 feet tall and bald, but with an upbraided black beard nearly to his knees. He had a scar on one cheek that he joked had come from Maly, though she quickly explained it was from a raxorcat on the first adventure they went on together. With the couple were Jany, their quiet daughter who hadn't even gotten hair on her lip and had her dark red hair loose, and Galnin, a laughing blonde with a big smile and his braided beard tossed over his shoulders and tied behind.
Maly elbowed Eric in the ribs, “Your assistant is cute, you bed her yet?”
“Maly!” He protested. Alicia blushed bright red, and Kendra tried to suppress a laugh-but others didn't, and soon the entire group was laughing together. Eric tried to reassure Alicia, “I would never, er, I mean, you are cute, beautiful even, but I'm your boss, it wouldn't...Can I stop and take my foot out of my mouth?” He asked Alicia.
“Yes sir,” she smiled. “Don't worry, I won't call HR or anything.”
“Thanks.”
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