Chapter 28

Red Sands Desert, Contested Border Region.

Expeditionary camp.

"Did you hear that?"

Neptunite frowned as he lifted his head up. He was almost done with setting up the explosive charge on the container. Attacking the warehouses (as much as you could call a field filled with crates and containers a warehouse) was fine and dandy, but cargo was surprisingly hard to destroy with explosives, and thus they had to use powerful ones...which just so happened to be just slightly unstable. Slightly. Which explained why he was focused on the charge he was setting, to avoid turning himself and his partner into a fine cloud of vaporized blood.

"What do you mean? I didn't hear anyth-"

He cringed as a massive sound, like someone ripping cloth and dragging a fork against a chalkboard at the same time, filled his ears. Then he opened his eyes, blinking as he looked at the sky.

It took an entire second for his mind to process what he was seeing. It looked like there was a growing patch of blue...thing growing above them, and-

His mind clicked.

"It's a forcefield! SHIT!" He turned towards his partner. "RUN! We have to get out before-"

"GET YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! YOU ARE SURROUNDED! SURRENDER NOW OR WE WILL FIRE!"

He winced. At least the shout seemed to come from another part of the warehouses...but that was scant comfort, as the forcefield finally joined the ground, trapping them in.

"Shit. What do we do?" Asked his partner, kneeling beside him.

Neptunite looked at her, his mind working like crazy, then he looked down at the bag by the charge.

The bag where he'd stored his adventurer clothes, in preparation for blending into the crowds before the charges went off.

His eyes widened as an idea started to form.

It's so crazy it might just work, he thought to himself, before turning towards his partner.

"Opal, I have an idea. But you need to trust me." He winced, and sighed. There was no way around it. He could hear the sound of heavy military boots hitting the ground nearby. "Take off your clothes." He held up his hand to forestall her protest. "And start putting this on." He gestured at his own bag, opening it to show the clothes within it.

*****

"Wow, that...actually worked."

Pyn looked to her side, at Allya, and frowned.

"What? You weren't expecting it to work?"

Allya shrugged.

"I gave it fifty-fifty. More, with Starvak's 'gift'. But still, these guys have proven....resourceful in the past."

"Right."

Allya looked at the dome of energy in front of her, and smiled. Starvak's 'gift' had been a portable shield generator. An Old World portable shield generator. Gods know where he'd gotten the damn thing, but it had just proven it's worth. It had been programmed to prevent anyone from leaving, but letting anyone (or anything) move through from the outside. Coupled with a highly skilled ranger, who 'just happened' to stay near the generator, and would 'activate it in his panic' if he was to spot enemies nearby, it had created the perfect trap for these bastard.

Well, 'perfect'. Allya would have preferred to trigger the trap, get the adventurer out of there, and fill the shield with nerve gas, but it would probably poison the cargo as well, so it wasn't an option. Besides, they didn't have nerve gas canisters anyway. Or any kind of poison gas for that matter. Perhaps she'd have to remedy to that in the future...

She idly wondered why Starvak was so adamant about keeping the guild, officially at least, out of this. He had gone to great length to at least make guild involvement deniable. Why? That didn't make any sense. Unless...Unless he knew, or had guessed, where the commandos came from.

She frowned. She'd have to think about it later. There was an obvious suspect of course, but hasty conclusions would only harm her in the end. Besides, it was unlikely she'd be able to officially link the commandos with anyone. Not with any evidence to hold before a court, let alone before the WMC.

"Hey, what the hell is that?"

Allya turned her head, and saw something move at the edge of a vision. Like someone sprinting and then sliding in extremis under the shield, right before it connected with the ground. Then, a metallic sphere briefly gleamed in the lamp light of the makeshift command post, before hitting the ground with a distinctive 'clink', bouncing straight in the middle of the handful of officers and NCOs.

Allya hadn't even consciously registered what was happening, as she reacted on pure instinct and hard earned training, instantly tackling Pyn to the ground, knocking the poor elf out through the sheer force of the impact when her head met the ground, and yelling out.

"GRENADE! TAKE COVER!"

But it was too late. Most of the officers around the table didn't have her reflexes, let alone her knowledge of such advanced weapons. Grenades for them were flaming, sputtering fuses stuck on large spheres of iron, not silvery spheres the size of their thumbs. They still dropped down, of course, their training kicking in...but a split second too late. Rogard, their elven bodyguard, did realize the threat...but his first reflex was to move to protect his charges, not preserve himself, and caused him to get caught by the blast full force.

WHAM

Allya rolled to the side, off of a knocked out Pyn, and carefully listened for any more grenade throw, over the screaming of the wounded. Then she heard it. A faint, almost inaudible sound. That of enchanted, stealth shoes moving fast on the ground, their enchantments failing to keep up with the pace and completely muffle the sound.

She sprang up, and unsheathed her daggers. Her eyes searched the night for any sign of movements as she tensed up.

Then she saw it. A blurr, moving straight towards her. She instinctively rolled forward, dodging under a volley of kunais, and sprang up, driving both of her daggers straight at her opponent's belly.

She swore viciously as a shield flashed, repelling her attack.

Damn it. A ward of protection, she thought to herself as her enemy jumped back.

She slowly got up, looking at her foe. She couldn't discern much -he was wearing some form of chameleon cloth-, but she could sense his tension.

"Surrender! It's over, and you know it!" She nodded sideways at the dome of energy. "Your comrades are trapped. They won't escape. And neither will you. You'll be swarmed with soldiers before you can get out. So drop your weapons. This need not end in your death."

Her opponent drew back slightly, then snarled.

"I have little interest in your words, baroness." He -definitely a he from his voice- laughed, harshly. "I know the penalty your so called 'kingdom' inflicts upon people like me. I won't give you the satisfaction of catching me, and torturing me to death." He looked straight into her eyes, and she saw the hard, fiery look of a fanatic in them. "No. If I'm handing an account of my life to my ancestors, I might as well try to accomplish my mission as well."

Allya frowned. Who the fuck were these guys? Not many organizations could instill this kind of loyalty. And what was that about tort-

Her thoughts ground to a halt as her enemy sprang forward. She parried his dagger lunge, but wince as his kick bounced off of her own ward. She stepped back, and reached for her kunais, only to parry another lunge in-extremis. Her eyes widened as her ward didn't even appear to block the strike.

Shit. He has shield piercing enchantments, she thought to herself as she took another step back, trying to gain some room to breath.

Unfortunately, her foe was very much determined not to give her that breathing room, and pressed her, hard. She parried a handful of strikes...but one got through.

She cried out in pain as she drew back, and felt the burning sensation of poison on her wound.

Fuck fuck fuck FUCK.

She couldn't afford to simply stay on the defensive anymore, or he'd kill her through sheer attrition. He wouldn't need to in fact, since he was clearly more skilled than she was, and her wound and poison would surely slow her down. Unless reinforcements arrived soon, she was done for.

"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU BASTARD!"

Her foe flinched, then staggered, as an arrow shaft appeared in his side, and Allya smiled in relief. She looked to her side, and saw Pyn, standing up, already nocking another arrow. Her forehead was bleeding profusely, and a stream of blood was trickling over her right eye, but she otherwise looked alright.

Her relief was short-lived however, as their foe sprang forward...straight towards the elf.

Allya sprang forward a split second after the commando, but he was even faster than she was.

Pyn released her arrow, and the commando dodged to the side. Allya snarled, and reached for her kunais. There was a chance there combustion would harm Pyn as well...But it was better than being stabbed with a poisoned dagger.

She swore, even more viciously than earlier, when her kunais bounced off of the commando's ward...but smiled nastily as the last one caused the shield to waver...then shatter outright.

The shattering shield gave the commando pause, and slowed him just enough for Pyn to get her short sword out of her scabbard, and parry his first strike. Allya winced as she saw her friend's form. She wasn't atrocious...but she won't last long either against an opponent like that.

The commando stepped back, seemingly swearing, and drew something out of his belt.

Allya's eyes widened as she saw the second grenade in his palm. He wouldn't dare-

She jumped forward as he threw the grenade at her feet, and grabbed the silvery orb, throwing it as fast and far to the side as she could.

The grenade detonated less than 3 meters away, and Allya cringed as her ward shattered under the hail of shrapnel...But still protected her.

The commando and Pyn were less lucky.

They both grunted in pain as the fragments hit them, and crimson blood splashed on the ground from their wounds. Pyn staggered back...and folded over with a grunt of anguish as the commando drove his dagger straight into her stomach.

Allya screamed out in anger, and jumped forward, engaging the commando. He easily parried her first strike, and snarled as her second dagger drew a bloody line along his arm. She smiled, it was pretty clear that the shrapnel had seriously wounded him, and-

She stepped back, and parried a series of furious dagger strikes, preparing her own counter attack, when suddenly the commando screamed out in pain, and let down his guard. She immediately seized the opportunity, and aimed for his head.

He managed, somehow, to parry the first dagger.

He dodged just slightly too slowly to avoid the other.

Allya panted, and then dropped to her knees as she felt the rush of essence. Her vision blurred, but she grabbed her own wound, and pressed on it, screaming, using her own pain to prevent herself from fainting. She gritted her teeth, and grabbed the poison identifier from her pouch, quickly plunging the assassin's dagger into it, reading the runes, and taking two antidote vials from her pouch. She gulped down most of hers, splashing the rest onto the wound, and dragged herself next to Pyn, quickly rolling the elf onto her side, and opening her mouth and pouring the antidote in.

Pyn gagged, opening her eyes, and Allya firmly clamped her hand on her friend's mouth, stopping her from spitting out the life-saving liquid. The baroness held up the antidote vial, and shook it.

Pyn's eyes lit up as she saw the vial in Allya's hand, and obediently gulped down the antidote, before hissing as her friend splashed the rest of the liquid onto her wound.

"Well...That...Sucked..." She panted out.

Allya smiled.

"I...I guess it did, yes." She looked up as a squad of soldiers came over the rim of the small hill, and waved them towards the command post, and the wounded soldiers there. "Hey, what did you do to him? I mean, it was you that broke his concentration and wounded him, right?"

Pyn squirmed, and...was she blushing? Allya tilted her head, and the elf pointed at the commando's calf. The baroness obediently looked...and her eyes widened slightly as she saw the dagger planted in the commando's corpse. It looked familiar as well...

Then she looked back at Pyn, and blinked as the elf released the straps of her vambrace, and showed the strap underneath it. A dagger strap. A very, very familiar dagger strap.

Where did she get one of my-

Then her mind ground to a halt. Refusing the obvious answer. She couldn't possibly have found the one she'd forgotten after their...night together at the inn. That wasn't possible!

"Miladies? Are you alright?"

Allya looked up, almost sighing in relief as she saw Rogard's face as he knelt by their side.

Saved by the gong, she thought.

"We're...not that great. How about you?" She winced. "And the command staff?"

"I'll live. The command staff has some heavy wounded, but no fatalities. I've been told commander Anders is on his way here as we speak."

Allya and Pyn looked at each other, and their expression of fear mirrored the other's. This was going to be...unpleasant.

*****

"I wanna."

"Beg your pardon?" Asked Emilia, blinking in confusion.

Alexandra gestured at the image on the screen.

"That shield. I want it. Dear Gods I want it. It's a freaking formation defense shield! Do you have any idea what I could have done with that back on Earth?!?"

Emilia politely shook her head, and Alexandra smiled sheepishly.

"Right, sorry. Of course you wouldn't. You aren't familiar with Earth's technology after all. Let's just say that we had energy shields, but they were...complicated. This." She pointed at the slowly dissipating dome on the image. "Would have had all of my colleagues back in Fleet Logistics lining up to sell their souls to even get a single look at it." She giggled as Emilia's expression turned to horror. "Figuratively, of course."

"Ah, okay."

"In any case...this is something I could do so much with. How likely do you think that I'd be able to get it?"

Emilia winced.

"Not...very. This isn't the sort of things you bring into a dungeon. Unless you want to invade it that is. And, well...I don't necessarily know much about military matters, not in-depth at least, but I know magic, and this ward, or shield, has to be very, very expensive and hard to make....even if you got it, somehow, I'm not sure you could afford to replicate it."

The Earth-born sighed.

"I was afraid you'd say that...oh well." She looked up. "I think the crisis is over. I'll have the surface golem signal their guards, and I'll try to get some answers." She winced. "If nothing else, I'd at least like to have some idea of what's going on in my backyard, so to speak."

Emilia nodded, and they both contemplated the image as the shield slowly disappeared.

*****

I can't believe that worked, thought Neptunite.

He had given his insane plan less than 25% chance of success...yet somehow, it had succeeded, against all odds.

It had been embarrassing as all hell, but at least their stress had been hidden by said embarrassment. Partly at least.

But being stressed out while under the crossbows and rifles of a dozen soldiers, half naked with your 'girlfriend' was perfectly understandable. To say that the soldiers had been amused was an understatement, but they'd seemingly bought their story that they had...found a quiet spot to have some fun, and the forcefield and their sweep had surprised them in the middle of the act. The fact that he and Opal were each wearing part of the clothes, barely enough to keep their dignity intact, had helped. After all, who expected to meet half naked saboteurs in the middle of a combat op?

He just had to restrain himself from laughing in relief as the soldiers handed him over to their COs, who, after a few knowing looks and nudges (from the male and female ones alike), had let them go, with firm instructions to remain in their tents until they could be properly debriefed. Fortunately for them, apparently the need to maintain secrecy in that particular setup had meant that a fair amount of adventurers had gotten caught in the net as well, which meant that they'd been hardly the only ones being processed by the soldiers, although most of them appeared to have been fetching things from the warehouses, or simply using a quiet, safe spot to cultivate.

His relief had died, at least in part, when he'd overheard a conversation about a 'tough bastard' having been killed by the command post. He was almost certain it was Saphire. If anyone could have escaped the shield before it joined the ground and trapped them all underneath it, it was him.

Unfortunately it looked like that instead of trying to run away, he'd attempted to save his men...and lost his life in the attempt.

He took a deep breath. There was nothing he could do about that, and right now, he had to worried about other things. Like how in hell he was going to slip away with Opal to rejoin the others, and give his report to Diamond.

He looked to his side at Opal, who chuckled.

"Well. That...was crazy."

Neptunite chuckled back.

"If it's crazy but it works..."

"It ain't crazy, I know." She winced. "Where do we sleep though? We don't have an assigned tent."

He looked around, wincing in agreement. That much was true, and if the security forces found out...

Then he spotted a group of adventurer, currently pointing at and commenting on the massive shield, which had almost completely faded. And in the group, he recognized a familiar face.

"Hey! Over here!" He said, waving up the hill.

The adventurer spotted him, and waved back.

"Neptunite!" He started walking towards them, then slowed down as he saw their state of clothing. "Wow. What happened to you and your friend?"

"Well..." He chuckled, embarrassingly. "See, funny story about that..."

He smoothly switched into his adventurer persona, as he explained the situation to the disbelieving, then roaring with laughter, adventurers, and her smiled internally. With a bit of luck, he could get them to give him and his 'girlfriend' a hand. And maybe even a tent to stay.

*****

"Sir? What are your orders?"

Diamond looked to the side at Ruby. His corporal's face was set in stone, and anger burned deep within her eyes. But that anger wasn't directed at him. It was directed at the fading dome of energy in the distance...and the ship hovering over it.

They'd tried to rush the area to pierce the shield, and allow their allies to escape...but they'd been too slow. One of the nearby ship, the cannon armed one, which had anchored for the night, seemingly fully powered down, had sprang up within minutes. Then, it has begun sweeping anything that remotely looked like movement moving towards the mesas from the wasteland with canister fire. He'd very nearly gotten caught in one of the blast himself, and had been forced to order a retreat.

He looked at the corporal again, noting her wounds...but her straight shoulders, and the defiance deep in her eyes. She was down, but not beaten.

"...Gather everyone that's left. And pull out your plan for stealing the dungeon core." He looked up at the lights from the dungeon town. "It's time we finished this."

"Yes sir. Right away."

*****

Allya sighed as she sat down. Anders had been...fairly calm, all things considered. He'd acknowledged that what had happened wasn't their fault, and that appropriate precautions had been taken. They just hadn't expected what looked like to be one of their highest ranking officers to attack them. The commando had a sapphire gem embedded into a small necklace, and they'd found that every one of the commandos had a precious gem of some sort or another on them. The rarer, the more powerful their equipment, and the higher rank they seemed to hold.

Still, it hadn't stopped Anders from sending them back to the administration tent...and effectively consigning them to quarters until the situation had been resolved. He had been exquisitely polite about it...but very, very firm. And with Calder and Starvak in support (not to mention their own bodyguards), Pyn and her hadn't been able to do much. At least he'd allowed them to see the healers, and get fully healed up first.

The baroness looked up as the cloth door to her bedroom opened, and Pyn stepped through. She opened her mouth to greet her, but her friend simply held her hand up, and starting closing the door. Allya tilted her head as Pyn meticulously closed the door, and activated the sound proofing enchantment, before outright stalking towards her.

"U-Uh....H-Hey?"

The elf stopped in front of the bed, and dropped something on Allya's lap, her expression unreadable.

Allya looked down, and her eyes widened as she saw the dagger strap on her lap.

"O-Oh, uh...L-Look, we were both drunk, and-"

She outright squealed as Pyn grabbed her shoulders, and slammed her down onto the bed, before climbing on top of her, straddling her waist.

"Stop. I've seen the way you look at me when you think I can't see you. This wasn't just a drunk 'spurr of the moment' thing, was it?"

Allya looked into Pyn's green, mesmerizing eyes, and meekly shook her head.

"Good. Then, if you don't mind." She moved her hands down, and quickly took off her shirt, revealing her bra. "In the last few days, I have been shot at, poisoned, saw the woman I like charge headfirst into the danger, then saw that same woman get stabbed, tried to save her, got stabbed and poisoned, again, while doing so, and finally had that dense-as-adamantium idiot of a woman realize I fully remembered that we, indeed, slept together." She looked up into Allya's eyes. "I, am in dire need of stress relief. So, are you willing to help me with that, or do you want me to stop, and leave you alone?"

Allya gulped, her mind still reeling. The woman she liked? Pyn liked her?

"I-I'll help." She said meekly.

"Good."

Pyn smiled, and bent forward, her lips meeting Allya's...and all of the baroness' worries faded away.