Eric did, in fact, know what an AK was. 'Where there is smoke, there is fire,' he thought, as he headed for the orc rift. He called Kendra and Tilly who agreed to meet him and Alicia there, Captain King and Guidry were already on site.
Two men had made it back, and had rigged up a travois to bring back their friends. They were so young, the Lieutenant was maybe 25 and the privates were closer to 18. Eric was pissed. The two had also brought weapons they captured, even Eric could recognize the lines of the AK, though it was sized for goblin hands. Another was regular sized. The sergeant saw him looking, “Hob had that one.”
“I know we have let a few orcs through, well more than a few, but only a few have returned. Have we let any goblins through?”
“None have tried, the rift is in orc held territory and a lot of orcs are always around it.” Major Abdullah spat on the ground, “They had to get that from a human, and other than your group and the one party before we set up, everyone who has gone through has been soldiers.”
The Major paused, then turned to the sergeant, “Can you explain what happened?”
“Sir, I,” the sergeant paused, looking down at the ground. “The Ell-Tee and the rest of us still had a quest. I know we were supposed to leave the gobbos alone while we did this treaty, but we were patrolling and they were well inside the orc area. So, well, we engaged. If they had just had those ancient black powder pistols they wouldn't have been a threat, but the little buggers went full auto, and we had multiple sprays go across our formation.”
Captain Clark facepalmed. As XO, it would be his job to rake the survivors over the coals. Eric knew enough about the military to know that if it was just the XO it would be what was called non-judicial punishment, so cleaning the barracks bathrooms for a year, extra PT, etc. But if it needed to be official? That would be a court martial. And since this was political, it might need to get official. The two survivors may just have lost their military careers.
That was when Kendra strode up, Tilly right behind her. “Hey Eric, I have news for you once this is handled.”
Eric, hoping for a distraction, asked “Good news or bad news?”
Kendra sucked her teeth, “Well, good in the sense that we have information we needed.”
“Spill it.”
Kendra looked at the three military officers, then shrugged, “Lieutenant Peterson has a bunch of high four figure deposits and withdrawals from his bank account. The withdrawals seem to be towards rather dangerous bookies, and the deposits, well we have seen similar payments from the Russians. He recently had a bunch of deposits from various pawn shops and other places that could take gold coins without being too obvious.”
She left the conclusion unspoken, but it was clear he had probably gotten the gold coins from a goblin. Eric pointed at the military rifles sized for goblins. “I think this is what he was paid for.”
“Fuck,” She responded eloquently.
“Yeah. You know what really sucks? Peterson was right. The fight between the orcs and goblins is one of those Balkans like grudge matches, and the trade city might have been a way to slowly end it. But now, thanks to him...” Eric trailed off.
“We just changed the balance of power,” the Major continued the point. “If we do nothing else, the goblins will have the upper hand.”
“If the goblins start pushing the orcs hard, our mercenaries will go home, we will probably lose the entire Korean peninsula. Unless we can find other warriors willing to help.”
The Major frowned, “This is above my pay grade, lets get the general on the line.”
Soon General Parker was on video-conference with Eric and the Colonel. Major Abdullah, Captain Clark, Captain King, and the two surviving soldiers were in the room with Eric. After a brief rundown of the situation Eric concluded, “So I don't see how we can continue the free city plan.”
“We are going to have to brief the president. Basically we are going to have to commit the US to fighting a war on a different planet because of one spy selling our tech. How is it we are so weak in every other way, but the one advantage we have turned against us?” The General complained.
Eric nodded in sympathy. “Well, at least the Navy is enjoying the advantages still.” He saw the General's scowl and hastily backtracked, “But yeah, one greedy turncoat and our advantage turns on us.”
The President called the General, Dr Cohen, Eric, and even the two surviving soldiers (mercifully not present) to the carpet, but in the end agreed with the conclusion that the only solution was for the US to patrol the area near the rift and deal with the better armed goblins.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
After the ass-chewing was over, the General turned to Eric. “Well, so, the good news is the first Infantry Division out of Fort Riley is being sent over to do the job. Based on what we know of the numbers, they should be able to hold the land we want to control. Second brigade should be able to go through in a few weeks at worst. Until then we will just have the guard troops keep doing quests to keep the gobs back.”
“I think we at least need to tell the goblins what is happening and why we are changing our plans. Has anyone seen Lt Peterson since, well, since we learned of all this?”
“He has been AWOL for about 32 hours.” His XO grumbled.
“Do we know which side of the rift he is on?” Eric asked.
“Guess” Captain Clark growled, “The orc side of course.”
The one bright point of the discussion was that Eric was able to brief the collective officers and senior enlisted about why he had 'borrowed' their armorers and what the gunsmith could do for the troops. “It will be a slow process, but custom weapons means enchantable weapons, tailored for the classes of the men.”
Afterwards Eric returned home, collapsing in bed. The next day he went into the office, to check out his latest improvement. In the front foyer of the building were four lists. The first had some very high numbers, Kim Jong Un at level 99 was crossed out, but there was a woman who was claiming to be level 73, a few in the 50s, and several 40s. It was labeled 'worldwide highest levels claimed but not confirmed.'
The second list had a lot of foreign names, and the numbers were in the high 20s. 'Worldwide highest levels confirmed,' was the label, but they were not all truly confirmed, just considered reliable. The third list had a single level 20 before a bunch of 19s and 18s, and was 'US highest levels confirmed.' Then the last list was 'highest levels in the Department of Rift Security,' which had a 14 at the top.
Eric hoped seeing the numbers would provide incentive for his people to work harder to level. His own name was number 11 on the last list-and he still wasn't in double digits.
He found out King and Guidry were at the front of the list for custom guns, and agreed to go out with them the next day to try out what the old smith had made for them. Alicia invited herself along, and Eric got a hold of Kendra and her shadow Tilly. The group still had a quest for the skeleton rift, and Eric wanted to see what was going on through there. The folks on the other side had stopped sending probing forces through, and the military hadn't wanted to poke the bear. But Eric was hoping to find some way to make peace and get at least one fewer danger rifts connected to his nation. Especially after the latest invasion in upstate New York, of giant bipedal beavers of all things.
Kendra went through first, putting up her shield, then Eric and Tilly, then the soldiers, and finally Alicia. They were all happy for the shield, as the first thing they saw was a circular wooden palisade around the rift, about a football field in radius. It was well over Eric's height, and the tops of the logs were sharpened. There were at least 100 skeletons with bows patrolling the walls, and at the first appearance of the group they all turned and aimed in a single motion. Then a loud, discordant voice called out “Hold!”
Eric moved forward, “Hello? We come to parley.”
A skeleton with a bright green glow in its eye sockets, wearing a purple robe with red trim, hopped over the wall into the large killing field. “What do you wish to say, invaders?”
“Well, first I wanted to apologize for our first interaction with your people. We didn't realize they were alive.”
“They are not.” the discordant voice warbled.
“Sorry, I mean, we didn't realize they were intelligent.”
“They are not that either.”
“I'm trying to apologize.” Eric huffed.
“Your apology is...accepted.” The skeleton strode closer, and both King and Guidry took a step closer to Eric without thinking.
“I was able to claim this rift, I have set it to trade, is there anything you would be willing to trade for?”
Eric could hear the excitement, but the voice made him feel as though his ears were bleeding as the creature yelled “Bones!”
Eric frowned, “I don't, er, that is, my people tend to bury our dead.”
“Do you have livestock?” The skeleton asked, a discordant twang making Eric's teeth itch.
“Er, yes, I'm sure we could trade cattle bones, how much would you want?”
“How much can you provide?”
Eric couldn't help a shudder, “Well, we probably kill a few million cows a year.”
“Excellent, do you want gold? Or perhaps slaves? Our workers never tire, never complain.”
Eric quickly said “No slaves, I'm sure gold would be fine, or if you have any crops? Do you not have animals of your own?”
“If there were any mammals, birds, lizards, or fixh left, we would not need bones so badly. Sadly, we have hunted them all.”
Eric looked at the forests beyond the wall, now understanding why it had been so quiet and dark. “So, no squirrels, no birds, no rabbits?”
“Not in my lifetime, and I have lived for almost a million nights.”
“Wait, how does that work, er, nevermind, so can we agree to peace and trade?”
“I cannot make that agreement on my own. Let me speak with others, can you send an emissary in seven nights? We will have an answer then. But if you can provide bones for gold, I suspect the others will agree.”
Eric nodded, then asked, “So, what happened to the people your bones came from?”
The being paused, then spoke more softly. “Our forebears wished to be immortal. They determined that the flesh was the weakness, and abandoned it. But even bones wear out, and a bone only comes from a living being. We tried to make bones from magic, even chemistry. We can make offspring, with a slave and a certain spell. But every year more bones break, or wear down, and our numbers fall.”
Eric was surprised to avoid a fight, especially after what had happened before. Still, the group was happy to leave without dealing with a few hundred arrows raining on them.
Once they were on the other side, looking at the multiple heavy machine gun emplacements aiming at the group, Eric asked, “You guys want to hunt some Coltrorapters for lunch?”
