Frontier, Fort Whitestone.

With the return of both Captain Allen’s detachment force and Major Jung from Trimmor, Spike decide to have an after dinner meeting inside his large and mostly empty tent. He had called for both men, to consult, and maybe, to adjust his orders to invite the other frontier towns to Daldia.

The three sat around a small eating table with various snacks and beer bottles. And in the center of the room, a large stove with brick chimney was blazing to keep the large tent warm.

Taking a sip of beer. “I’m currently conflicted about sending Captain Allen up north at this present time.” Spike started off as he made eye contact with both officers. “With the present unknown danger from the deeper parts of the frontier and with our current eight thousand plus civilians in our charge, I’m wondering if I’m being irresponsible to the current civilians in Daldia by sending our men up north and weakening our defense. But abandoning helpless people to these large ogres and orcs and to what other inhumanoids out there feels wrong. Even if technically, they are strangers to us. And I don’t want to be selling our men's life for unrealistic goals.” Taking a deep breath. “I am conflicted with what is humanly right vs my moral responsibility to the civilians, and to our men who has to do the fighting.” Then Spike chugged the rest of the bottle in one setting out of frustration. “And I was even hoping you’d let me go out with the expedition force when Captain Allen head out in few days.”

Both officers observed Spike attentively and listened to not only to his words, but the meaning behind his words.

After a few moment of thought, Major Jung broke the silence. “You are too kind sir.” The Major remarked as he meet Spikes eye.

“You think I’m kind?”

“Absolutely sir.” Captain Allen affirmed as he nodded in agreement.

Spike had a look of confusion on his face.

“Many people often confuse kindness for weakness. It’s ok for you to be honest with me and your officers. But in the future sir, please be mindful of it as our enemies will use that against you. Sir. It’s not so difficult to foresee that our enemies will use our people as hostage to bend your will if they know your weakness sir. It’s better to be known as generous ruler then a kind king.” Major Jung explained. “Also, you seemed to have forgotten that we are not a peacetime military. Without a doubt. We are absolutely a go to war military. And taking casualty is expected. There is not much we can do about that. We can only do our best to minimize our losses.”

“I know that.” Spike replied unhappily. “I just don’t want to lose our men for a lost cause.”

Both officers made eye contact and understood that Spike was still lacked in experience.

Nodding his head to Spike, Major Jung spoke. “Sir. I would like to remind you that our men want to fight. I want to fight. Even the support personnels want to fight. It’s the only way to save our soul. In the Trimmor battle, many of the men who died still achieved their personal victory as they died with this red aura. So even in death, there is a great possibility that we can win and achieve our personnel victory. So if you’re worried about us dying sir. Don’t! If anything. Everyone one of your men are worried about you dying instead. When the men wake up every day, there is nothing they want more then to go kill some inhumanoids. And when they are asleep sir. Every last one of them are having wet dreams about murdering the shit out of the inhumanoids and feel the After Battle High. And that include me sir.” He said as a matter of fact.

Shocked, Spike stared at the Major with his mouth open. Oh My God! These bastards are vicious killers bordering on psychopathic murders.

Both officers gave Spike a hard stare as he froze in his seat. While the tent got real quiet, outside, some distance away, the sounds of men shouting and laughing grew louder. Eventually waking Spike up from his stupor.

“The hell’s going on out there?”

“Corporal Robinson!” Major Jung called.

“Sir!” Corporal Robinson replied as he walked through the tent door.

“Go find out what’s going on with the noise.” Major ordered.

“Yes Sir!”

Without looking the the Corporal leaving. “As I was saying sir. In the big picture. I really don’t think sending Captain Allen’s expedition force will be a problem. If someone dies, you’ll simply summon more on the spot. You have the RP for it sir.” Major Jung said.

With a frown on his face Spike replied. “You should value your life a little bit more then that Major. You’re comment makes me sad.”

“On the contrary sir. We value the salvation of our souls more than our lives.”

Taking a deep breath. “Sigh! Yeah.. I get it Major.” Spike said. He hadn’t thought of looking at it from the men’s point of view, but now that he has. Spike felt sad for them.

“Look it at this way sir.” Captain Allen pointed out. “As the one who summoned us. You have the privilege and responsibility to define who our enemies are.” He said as he had a pretty good idea on what Spike was thinking about. “So you can channel all our murderous energy to something positive.” Then he amusingly smiled at Spike.

“Hmm. No sir. I don’t think you get it.” Major Jung remarked to bring the conversation back around, he gave Spike a hard look. “You are a walking military industry complex. Only thing we need to do is feed you with the death of our enemies and you produce fully trained soldiers with equipment on call. The sooner you understand this and accept it, it will be better for you and everyone else.”

Silence took over for more than a minute as Spike process the meaning behind Major Jung's word. Feeling the pressure Spike replied irritatingly. “Alright. I get what you both are saying. Damn! This Nexus is really putting me to the test.” Spike almost cried out. “I will think about what you said Major, but going back to the original discussion. Do I weakened our defense here by sending out the expedition force, or keep them here but forsake the rest of the frontier people?”

“As long as you are in Daldia sir. I think sending out Captain Allen with his expedition force won’t be a problem. Potentially, we might take a beating, but I think most of Daldia will survive. However, without the expedition force, any frontier settlement that could have been saved will be out of luck.” Then the Major pointed out. “Besides, sir. Even if we do take a beating here, we will score big as well.”

“I see.” Spike said as he looked at Captain Allen with some what of a disappointed look. “Looks like I won’t be joining you on your excursion Captain.”

“I’m sure they’ll be plenty other opportunity sir.” Captain Allen replied. Then chugged down his bottle of bear. “By the way sir?” Looking at Major Jung. “Any prospect of my expedition force getting any of the new M223 I heard mentioned earlier today sir?”

“It’s only been a week and the few blacksmiths we have are only able to produce a limited number of the chest plate need it to fire the weapon. I think we only have about nine or ten so far. The recoils are no joke on those beast. And the men have been training mostly from borrowing Sergeant McQueen’s mens gear. We’ll schedule one of your squad in Lieutenant Sheldon’s platoon for priority training, but you’ll have to wait until the day you move out on how many M223 you’ll be issued.”

“Yes sir.”

“Have you made plans to take a look at it at the range.”

“I think tomorrow sir.”

“Sir!” Corporal Robinson announced himself from the doorway to draw attention.

“Ah right. What’s with the noise Corporal. Seems like it’s getting louder by the minute.”

“Well Major Jung, sir. Private Jones cashed in his Booze rations and the Freelance platoon are having a victory party.”

“That doesn’t make any sense. His only one men. How many ration cards could a private save in a month!” Major remarked as he sensed some shenanigan going on.

Captain Allen chuckled at the Major’s remark.

“Uhm. Alot apparently sir.” Corporal Robinson replied nervously. As he wasn’t 100% sure if the question was rhetorical, he made absolutely sure he didn’t make eye contact to give anything away.

Chuckling again. “It’s not a bad idea to let them blow some steam sir.” Captain Allen said. “It lets the other units know that they are not far behind either. And this will increase their moral for the next battle.”

“I suppose you are correct Captain Allen. Sigh! Looks like we won’t be getting much sleep tonight.” The Major said as the shouting and laughing got louder.

Then the three basically talked about the expeditions to pass the time.

“And the pros and cons with the Mark VIII is that it either scares away the critters or piss them off with the loud engine noise. We are doing much better now as we have more hunters from the other settlements and they have learned to identify the angry critters and warn us with the flare guns. So we haven’t taken any recent casualty from them.” Taking a shot of cognac. “But those bugbears are huge. The size of their beak. One bite from it would cut you in half.”

From the tent entrance. “Sir! Lieutenant Colonel Simmons and Major Dietz are here!” Corporal Robinson announced.

Spike simply waved them in as the current mode was very informal.

“Huhu. So my suspicion was correct. With all this noise, I know I wasn’t the only one not getting any sleep.” Doctor Simmons said as he walked in as he saw the munchies and booze laid out on the table.

The officers put another table next to each other and Spike summoned up some more goodies.

“Good to have you join us Doc.” Captain Allen said.

“Good to be here Captain. Hell it’s been a good day altogether. My more concerned patient finally woke up today. Looks like Private Rains is on a nice road to recovery from my recent checkup.” LTC Simmons shared the good news as Major Jung poured him a shot of whisky.

“Any idea when our men will be fully recovered Doc?” Spike asked.

“No idea sir, on the time to recovery. This is all new to us and we need more date before we can estimate such thing.”

“Ahh. I guess that makes sense.”

“How about you Doc?” Major ask has he made eye contact with Major Dietz. “Any progress from the autopsy on the Ogres and orcs?” Then bit into a beef jerky.

“From the sample Major Westbrook analyzed. The bone of the ogres are incredibly dense. That makes sense as they have to support such heavy mass. And the muscle fiber are unnaturally tough, making it hard to cut them. And their fat is something else. It isn’t normal soft blubber when you try to cut them. His never seen anything like it?” Major Dietz reported.

“Sir! Major Westbrook!” Corporal Robinson reported from the entrance.

“Speaking for the devil.”

“Let him in Corporal.” Spike answered.

“Woohoo!” Doctor Westbrook cheered with a big smile on his face as he saw all the goodies laid out on the table. “Looks like I hit the jackpot. I saw my fellow men of medicine heading this way. I figured something was up and I was right.” He congratulated himself as he pulled up another chair to join in.

As the hour passed, other captains and Lieutenants joined in the informal party as it was almost impossible to sleep with the noise from the Freelance platoon. Then the noise from Spikes tent attracted the other officer to join them.

“I’m telling you. It's unreal sir.” Captain Gray said. “Up to now, we did almost everything by verbal communication except for between Captain Murphy and I. It’s not like they had the personals to do the job. But with the prisoners exchange and refugees coming in, we started to share some of the documents with the locals. We expected there may be some problem when they couldn’t read our writings so we started to teach a little. But I had Lieutenant Stein help out and few days ago, and they couldn’t read his writings. So we were able to deduce that we can speak with everyone and read their writings. But they can't read ours. And it gets all confusing as we have multiple cultural languages ourself.”

“That’s very interesting sir. And very funny.” Lieutenant Edward chimbed in. “But in the big picture. It’s good for us in the long term, as the future enemies will have a helluva time cracking our messages.”

“Haha. That is so true.”

***

“And I saw with my own eyes. Sergeant Recktor took six spears to his gut and still ripped open that orcs belly. But another orc behind it ran another spear through his chest. This I swear on my drunken ass.” Private Mayer said as he waved around his half empty beer bottle.

“Here! Here! To our former platoon daddy, Seven speared Badass Sergeant Rector!” PFC Muller raised raised his bottle up for the toast. “May he spear seven hotties in his next life.”

“Cheers!!!!”

“Wait! Wait! Wait!” Private Jones jumped in. “I got one for you.” He handed a canteen cup to Private Borg and counted as he poured. “One shot! Two shot!” Then backed off to face the other. “My fellow gentle drunks. I dub this new drink DVB, short for Double Virgin Borg!” He proclaimed as he threw both his arms up and wide.

“HAHAHA!!!!” Everyone burst out laughing.

Private Borg fumed with anger. He was just about to throw the drink in Jones face and punch him in the face but another idea popped in his mind.

“Fine! Just Fine! You Assholes!” Private Borg shouted out bitterly. “I’ll drink to that. But I got something to say to you all before I down this DVB.” Proclaiming loudly to get their attention.

“Speak! Speak!” Everyone chanted. They were all dying to know what the virgin boy was going to say.

“You all are quick to remind me that I’m a double virgin. Se let me remind you all. None of you asshole came here with your original bodies as well. You have new bodies now. So you get it! Hahahaha!” Private Borg burst out laughing at everyone.

“Boooooo!”

“Hsssss!”

“Madda Fakka!”

“Hahaha!

“Good one Borg!”

Lifting his DVB shots into the air. “To my DVB and to all you single shot fuckers!” Private Borg shouted out, then he downed his DVB in one shot in satisfaction.

***

Spike finally went to bed but in only a few hours later, the noise from the Freelance platoon woke him up. Damn Yahoos! Are they still going at it? Unable to get back to bed, feeling a sudden coldness, Spike threw in another log in the stove as he got dressed. But in truth, he was feeling stressful from thinking about the future of his men and couldn’t sleep.

Still feeling groggy and the buzz from all the drinking the curiosity got the better of him and he decided to walked to the site of the shouting noises. Then he noticed the white flakes lightly falling with his flashlight. I guess it’s that time of the year.

With his bodyguard following him, Spike open the door to the newly built large cabin serving as a barrack. Sounds of laughing and shouting blasted at him.

“Who’s the Mayor of barracks town?” Private Kirk shouted.

“You are!!!” Everyone shouted back.

“Who runs the barracks town?” Private Kirk shouted.

“You do!!!”

Spike turned around the corner to see Private Kirk riding on Priavate Jones shoulder. He had a pot over his head, waving around a large wooden cooking ladle like a scepter, and he even had a sheet draped over his back like a cape. Everyone else had some form of booze or another in their hands and chanting in reply and cheering on.

So cool. Spike thought. Damn! I wanna play too.

“Who’s owns barr…”

“GROUP ATTENTION!” Private Novak shouted everyone to attention as he just noticed Spike.

The room go real silent as Private Kirk slid down Private Jones’s shoulder.

Without any expression, Spike looked around the room as everyone was still at attention. Now he felt bad as he realized that he may have just ruined their party. Realizing he had to do something.

“Private Kirk! Front and center.” Spike order.

“Sir!” Private Kirk moved like a lightning and stepped one meter from Spike at attention.

“Present your ladle for inspection.” Spike order.

Private Kirk had a look of confusion for a second before he reached forward to present the ladle to Spike.

Take the Ladle. “Private Kirk. Kneel.” Spike order again.

Private Kirk eyes went wide as he followed Spike order. He and everyone else sort of felt they have been loud as hell all night, keeping the fort from sleeping. In a certain way, they all felt that they had an ass whooping coming. It was kind of confusing for everyone to see this unfold as they never would have expected Spike to raise this hand. It was normal during their era for NCOs come beat their ass down when they screwed up.

Spike tapped Private Kirks shoulder and tapped the other should as he said. “I, Lord Phoenix dub you Mayor of Barracks town. Now relax everyone. And where’s my damn bear?” Spike said as he smiled.

“YEAH!!!!”

Everyone cheered as Private Jones quickly brought Spike his bear.

***

“Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.” Major Jung repeated again as he walked through the Freelance platoon’s barrack. He could barely walk with the little space available with all the empty bottles stacked on the ground. And literarily unopened boxes of all types of liquor stacked all the way up to the ceiling. He was flabbergasted that Spike had summoned this much booze in his drunken stupor. Shaking his head again. “How could this have happened.” He was beyond angry that he could only stay calm as he was fearful of the future.

“Major Jung!” Major Westbrook called out as he walked in through the doorway. “We finally got the man stabilized and his out of critical condition. He just needs time to detox and recover… and hopefully wake up sooner then later.”

“What if he doesn’t wake up?” Major Jung asked in deep worry.

“I’m almost 100% sure that Lord Pheonix will wake up Major. I’m a specialist in this field.” Doctor Westbrook assured him. “I’m more concerned with possibility of any permanent damages to our young leader. In all actuality, he should have been dead on arrival. His blood was practically made of alcohol.”

“Damn!” Major Jung cursed.

“Perhaps this manatite has something to do with him being alive.” Doctor Westbrook offered. “Also, from the result of the Freelance platoons blood test. They have become even more resistant to alcohol and most likely to other toxic elements as well. So even if the men were measuring our lord's alcohol intake, with the out of date information, it would not have made any difference. So we can’t really blame the men for getting Lord Phoenix intoxicated to this level.”

“Damn. Damn. Just God Damn It.” Major Jung cursed again. “Compare to us... he is so much stronger than us. And yet so much weaker than us. Not a single scratch on him from any single battles and we almost poisoned him to dead ourselves. Completely blindsided!”

***

Feeling exhausted, dizzy, with a headache on the level of getting TKO from a world heavyweight champion. Spike was finally able to open his eyes long enough to find himself lying in a bed. Barely moving his head, he notice his arm was stuck with an IV injector with multiple packet of fluid linked to the injector.

Noticing that Spike has gain conscious. Doctor Simmons, who had been standing by the whole time walked up to his bed.

“Sir. Do you know who you are?”

With a weak tone of voice. “What? What happened?”

“Your name sir? Do you remember who you are?”

“Chris... Chris Gar…” Stopping himself to think as the Doctor's face became more clear. “No... I’m... Spike Phoenix.” Spike weakly corrected himself.

“Do you remember who I am sir?”

“Doctor Simmons.... You are the head surgeon.” Spike said weakly and slowly as the dizziness took over.

“Very good sir. Just relax and go back to sleep sir.” Doctor Simmons gently ordered.

***

“Shiiiit! Freelance platoon my ass. More like Blue Jay platoon.” Cavalry platoon Sergeant Henley yelled as he trotted his horse along the Freelance platoon. With a wooden rod, he smack the meaty part of Private Gagnon's tigh and buttucks as he fell behind. “You better get your ass up there Private. Major said to run all you damn buddy fuckers until Lord Phoenix regain conscious or run you to death. Whichever comes first, I don’t care.” He sneered.

Only thing Private Gagnon could do was take it and gritting his teeth. He, like the rest of the platoon had done and seriously fucked up somehow. And know it.

The other Cav trooper ran the Freelance platoon in an knee deep snow that has been piling up all morning. And it was still snowing.

“You better keep up Lieutenant. Even if you weren’t there, you still share the same faith as your platoon.” Captain Allen chastised Lieutenant Moore as he struggled to lead the run. For the last four hours, two squad of Cav trooper under Captain Allen have been whipping and driving the Freelance platoon under Major Jung’s order.

“Come on Private buddy fucker. You better keep up.” Corporal Garcia yelled at Private Jones. “Or are you only good at howling like a whore all fuckin night.” Then he swung his beat stick on Private Jones’ rear end to motivate him to run faster.

The only thing Private Jones could do was yelp in pain as he ran a little faster.

Everyone one was pissed as hell with the Freelance platoon. At first, they were happy for them. It was very tolerable to be kept up all night because of the uniqueness of the situation. But having the same assholes who kept them awake, were the same ones who were involved in getting Spike severe alcohol poisoning. These fools almost killed the man that kept everyone alive. They all felt a bit betrayed and pissed off as hell. Nobody felt any sense of mercy for them. So since the incident, the Freelance platoon have been running outside of Fort Whitestone’s wall non stop.

From the gate, Cav trooper, PFC Jackson rode up to Captain Allen.

“Sir. Lieutenant Colonel Simmons just reported that Lord Phoenix has gained conscious. He was able to recall his name and recognize the Doctor before losing conscious again. But the Doctor believe it’s a good sign.”

“That’s good news.” Captain Allen almost whispered, feeling relieved. “You hear that you shit heads.” Looking down at the Freelance platoon from his horse. “Sergeant Henley, get these idiots cleaned up and feed. Then have them out in formation outside of their barrack.” Then rode off as Sergeant Henley acknowledged.

=

=

=

Frontier, Daldia.

“Everyone is scared Marquess.” Khriven informed. “Everyone knows something is going on. The demi-humans are acting strange of late. They know something. They feel it. And you know that everyone in the frontier trusts the demi-human’s instinct. And the unusual activities the refuges has seen. Everyone is talking. But I have no answers for them. You have to tell Lord Phoenix to speak to them. To reassure them.” Khriven concluded.

Looking out the window from his study. Even as the snow keep piling up, Marquess Daldia watched his people as they were busy cleaning up the snow to prevent thick layers of ice on the ground to build up. There were still too much work to be done to allow the ground to freeze up.

Thinking about what Khriven said. It’s no secret now, as too many have witnessed miraculous things with the Phoenixians. Such as, no dead corpse were ever left of them. Their magical weapons and medical equipments that made no sense to the people. Advance knowledges they possess. People were scared. And they want to hear from the man himself, that they will be safe. That there will be a tomorrow for them and not end up in the belly of the inhumanoids like the other unfortunate frontier settlements.

Taking a deep breath before replying. “I understand Khriven. I will bring this up on the meeting in few days. Are their any other problems I should be aware of?” Marquess Daldia asked.

“Except for their fear. There really isn’t much anyone can complain about. Everyone has plenty of food to eat and then some. Which is more than anyone has had for years. They have a roof over their head and cloths to keep warm. Housing are being built. They can it everyday, people see with their eyes so they can believe what they see.”

Thinking about the Phoenixian’s presence. If they never showed up when they did, most of the frontier would have ceased to exist. The territory would already be overran by the inhumanoids. Marquess believe that the people were aware of this and wanted some sort of assurance from the Phoenixians. That they are not going to simply uproot and disappear. Just as they appear so suddenly out of nowhere.

Turning back to Khriven. “I am 100% sure that they are staying for good. Or they would not be investing so much resources. I will address this problem to Lord Phoenix. But onto another matter Khriven. I want you to help me gather up all the other former leaders of the refuges and help me establish civil administrators. That is a direct command from Lord Phoenix. With so much influx of people and lack of literate people, I will need all the help I can get.” Marquess Daldia informed as he offered a job with status. “You won't be a mayor, but you also won't be doing manual labor.”

“I’ll take it Marquess.” Khriven replied without hesitation. “Only a fool would reject your offer.” He swollow in excitement and sighed in relief that he now has a job and a place in the new frontier.