The city walls on the west side extended from the cliff ahead of the high, sharp crags that almost doubled as mountains to the north, all the way south to the warehouse area, split by a cliff side with a thick meadow and overlooking the city prison on an islet offshore. In total, a kilometer and extra long. Four towers oversaw the perimeter outside with a main gate and a smaller gate as egress points.

  Sandwiched between all this was a tear-shaped perimeter of rolling ground dotted by jutting rock. At the end of it one must turn west in between the crags in order to head deeper into the isnd.

  Outside, the sves were kept busy making trenches and stripping sections of the road where possible. In certain trenches stakes were pced outside as well as down bellow. Wherever the guards cited potential climbing points, the sves blocked them off with boulders and spikes hammered on the ground with barbed tips.

  The day after the scouting group arrived the air charged with a cool, heavy scent. The sun dimmed as a thing film of cloud covered it, and by nightfall, not even the moon could be seen. Torches and mps were hushed as wind rushed and blew them off in hard howls. By morning, the sky was thick in green-gray clouds so low that they barely covered some of the domed buildings and minarets in the city. Some looking up could see the violent swirls of the clouds as if wanting to touch the ground. Sometime afterward the rain whip-shed the streets, the water slowly accumuted on the ground turning exposed ground into soggy muck.

  The captives had not been permitted to re-enter Kasba, so they were kept in haphazard conditions. A few enormous cages had been set up to cram as many as possible. Others were pinned to spikes hammered into boulders by a chain to their colrs. Each night the captives tried to sleep only for cries and moans carried by the night wind shatter their sleep, howling in perturbed voices and slowly dimming as the night progressed.

  Compared to the day when they emptied the sve quarters and prison, there were less guards keeping the sves in check than the impression they had made. Naturally, the few tents that had been set up were for the guards.

  Some sves had been punished for various infractions, left to be hogtied and forced to kiss the ground with a thick stake keeping them in pce.

  On this day, the captives worked as much as their taskmasters could force them under the sh until the soft ground made it too pointless.

  One of the guards signaled one of the towers that work would cease. No answer. He tried again, and this time with another guard banging on a small bong. He saw a pair of eyes looking in shock, disappearing for a second, then waving out a red banner. The signal acknowledged, the guards returned to making sure the sves returned to their pce. A few were selecting some of the women apart and taking them along further ahead. In this mass, a shapely girl with a shawl on her head tried to make her way into one of the cages when she was seized by the shoulder by one of the guards. Viciously thrown into the mud and stripped of the shawl, he dragged her by her hair, pitch-bck with a blue hue and reaching below her shoulders. The guard had difficulty as she kicked the mud and tried her best to hurt his hands. Sta tried to intervene only to be whacked on the ground by the club of the same guard she assaulted a few days ago. Having no more of it, this same guard took Sta with him along with the others.

  Down came the rain pricking on exposed faces. Most were settling down by now.

  Those hogtied struggled not to drown on the muck. One of those being punished was a sve with short white hair forming a low-cut Mohawk. He had a tall, mid-size muscur build, but in his state he did not looked imposing. As much as he strained his neck the mud threatened to drown him. A guard with a malicious boyish face walked close by pushing the butt of his spear on his head.

  Boyish guard: Still think you're tough and virile, old fart!

  The sve managed to rise his head high enough to speak.

  White-haired sve: When you're done...being afraid...CUT ME LOOSE!

  The guard pushed his face down back into the mud with no effort. The more he tried to lift his head the more pressure was applied. His mind was growing zy as the seconds passed without being able to breath air...when he felt some hot liquid drip on his hair. The pressure on his head loosened, and as he rose his head the droplets slid off into the mud.

  The sve felt a pair of hands touching his hands and his leg and at st the ropes were cut. A white coated young man brought him back up, a bck coated man was wiping his bde on the corpse nearby and keeping his left hand on its back.

  Iku: Are you alright? I need you to respond!

  White-haired sve: 'o are you, child?

  Becker: I understand you are a troublemaker for the guards.

  White-haired sve: Name's Gare. 'o asks?

  Becker: This is Iku and I am Becker, now need you to focus. We're breaking out of the city. A group of civilians are about to seize the ships, and some of the guards are about to betray their own. There's little time, and I am asking you to protect yours and aid us in this endeavor.

  With his head, Becker signaled Iku to free the others being punished.

  Gare looked around to make sure they weren't about to be jumped, but could not make out any other shapes heading their way. He tried to make sense of what was being proposed.

  Gare: 'ou expect all of us t' just go along with this plot o' yours?

  Becker: This is touch-and-go. This city is about to be besieged and there will be no clemency given. If the bastard merchants get wind of this they'll leave at once.

  Though he wanted to ask more, the urgency of the situation was made clear.

  Gare: I'm not up for these trumped-up conspiracies, but I suppose 'ou have the better argument. So what do 'ou propose, child?

  Becker handed Gare a set of keys.

  Becker: There's a drain tunnel over by some bushes over by the northern cliffs. I've piled up some weapons taken from the guards so you'd know where it is. I leave it up to you to select those you can trust to wield them, but I would encourage you to keep in mind who among you are the best fighters. Free the rest and move into the tunnel. I marked with arrows on the walls where the lot of you need to go. You'll see a few guards marked with a white cross on their breastptes - those are friendlies. They will expin more, but you will be engaging in fierce combat with the mercenaries holding the entrance to the ships.

  A fsh of lightning sparked off in the distance, but the crack was unheard.

  Gare: I assume we'll be fighting these mercenaries?

  Becker: The less they are aware the less fighting we'll do.

  Gare: 'ey. Oh, before I forget, the savage is impaled all the 'ay a'ead if your feel like freeing him. And 'ey took some women up a'ead with 'em.

  Just as he returned, Iku immediately jolted at the news.

  Iku: Were any of them with red hair?

  Gare: 'ey. Is she someone important t' 'ou?

  His face was quickly colpsing with worry and ire. Before he could do anything, Becker grabbed him by the shoulder.

  Becker: Easy, sonny. We're going for her.

  Another light fshed, and still nothing resonated.

  Becker: If there's any equipment you need, I'm sure the guards won't mind if you ask. We'll see each other soon.

  Gare: 'ope so...

  Leading the way ahead, Becker had his MP5SD raised as him and Iku went through the rolling green and jutting rocks. The further ahead they went the more the perimeter enclosed and the fog increased, but not enough to block out vision.

  Reaching the midpoint of the perimeter, the both were confronted by an elevation akin to an ant mound, surrounded by boulders with a path just about wide enough for a cart, marked by freshly made footsteps. To the right, the ground rose enough to form a path towards a lower cliff with two small yurts and a tent. To the left the mound gave way to a depression wider than the path ahead, now nced with wooden stakes.

  Creeping up ahead, Becker halted Iku as they saw the procession while doing their best to remain hidden. Here on top were three yurts and a rge, long A-frame tent. Through the scope, Becker noted the women yanked forward by a chain - two brown haired women, one auburn red, and a lightly bck haired woman. Behind them was the one forcefully handled by the hair now hold tight by the back of her neck to her tormentor's chest.

  *Chain them and get in here, quick!*

  As they dissipated into the rge tent, the guard that had barked the order went back into the middle yurt and there was no one else in sight.

  Signaling Iku, they quietly moved upward to the cliff.

  *Fum*~

  Moving to the first yurt, Becker adopted an aggressive posture and took more caution with his steps. Signaling Iku to get a hold of the entrance, Becker flicked the scope to the side, switched to full-auto, and readied himself.

  *Hmm-pfff*

  The MP5SD was loaded with 9x19mm Parabellum. Specifically, Becker almost exclusively used the Subsonic variety for his load-out. While this combo was ideal for keeping the gas quiet and the crack of the bullet bellow the sound barrier, nothing could silence the firing mechanism itself. Becker opted to maintain discretion nonetheless lest the low temperature carry the noise downward.

  *Hmm-pfff*

  Normally, what Becker was about to do required a stun grenade thrown in followed by two or three more to slice up the room and wipe out the occupants by their section. The necessity of silence ruled out stun grenades, never mind the rapid consumption of doing so over and over again. Iku's load-out was a blue metal sword slightly longer and thick-bded than a wakizashi, and a finely crafted albeit pin looking firearm - a white ~24 centimeter cylinder with a grip and firing mechanism akin to a nail gun with heavy explosive bolts for munitions. Nothing about this firearm could be made quiet, so Iku was relegated to opening the tents and guarding the entrance.

  *Fum*

  With one quick motion, Iku opened the entrance, and the muzzle of the MP5SD moved about sectioning off the room.

  Only boxes and barrels greeted him.

  Signaling Iku to keep an eye out, Becker went in slowly clearing every nook and cranny.

  *Hmm-mmm*~

  Just as he was finishing he heard the noise coming from the st section left to clear out - to the right of the entrance behind a rge box. He saw the tip of a boot extended on the ground. Pcing the sub-machine gun behind him by the strap he took his Fairbairn-Sykes Knife out in one slick motion, pointing it downward on his left hand.

  Becker smmed the sleeping guard down to the ground by his head, quickly shifted the knife upwards, and sank it into the jugur, twisting it to ensure it was really cut. The hot blood pooled into the ground, and the guard returned to sleep after the rude interruption. Cleaning the knife on the dead guard, Becker gave the all-clear to Iku and both cautiously moved on to the second yurt.

  *Ahh! NOOO!* *NMMMMH!*

  Looking down below, they both noted the screams coming down from the big tent. Two more guards exited the middle yurt and headed inside. Reassuring Iku, they moved on.

  *RUMBLE*~

  Moving quietly towards the entrance, Becker took another breath, fshed his eyes to keep the water out...

  *CRACK*

  As soon as Iku opened the entrance, Becker moved in and shot the first man standing, moving on to the one sitting down, and fshed a discharge at the heads rising up from cots. Arms flung and bodies colpsed. Quickly flinging his weapon to the back and drawing his knife, he stabbed and gashed at anyone still moving or rattling in their pain. In total, eight were torn at without a chance to fight back. Inspecting them briefly, he noted that their garments were more bright and colorful than the other grunts or even Taribar's.

  Cleaning his knife, the pair moved on to the tent, and as they got closer, they heard moaning and physical blows, along with two sets of voices - a girl and a greasy, vile sounding man.

  Voice 1: Hurt me all you want! I AM HIS FOREVER!

  Voice 2: Well...what a shame...

  *CRACK*

  Before Becker pulled the trigger he noticed that the tent was divided by two sheets used as curtains with rugs bellow. Behind the sheets was a sack-like shadow on the ground and a tall standing shadow unaware of the intruders behind him.

  Voice 2: ...But it's time you were punished for being such an uppity whore. So I'm going to kick you again...

  The girl was kicked in the stomach.

  Voice 2: ...AND AGAIN!...

  Another harsh blow was delivered.

  Voice 2: ...Until YOU see me as your master! This is going to hurt you just well, sve...

  The guard never finished with his dispensation of punishment. Gritting his teeth with rage, Iku pounced upon the well-toned guard, pulled his head and opened his throat. Becker immediately grabbed the front hair, sank his knife in the guard's belly, and tripped him forward. Iku finished the guard off by thrusting his bde between the shoulder bdes. Twice. Three times. Five times...

  Perhaps it was the blood spshing in his eyes, or the fact that Sta was staring at him with terror, that prompted Iku to stop.

  Becker cleaned the Fairbairn-Sykes Knife while allowing the two a moment.

  Sta: Master?! No! Why didn't you save yourself?

  Iku: I made my choice! I could not let you die!

  *Puff*

  Shaking his head upwards and rolling his eyes, Becker inspected the dead man's sidearm - a crude, cumbersome handgun more appropriate in a plumber's tool set with big pellets for munition. It was an overpowered pea shooter, but it could still puncture armor.

  At st, she was freed from her restraints, courtesy of her abuser's keys.

  Sta: Who...Who are you, stranger?

  Becker: Sta, I presume? My name is Becker. I'm getting the both of you out of here.

  Iku: We have a pn in motion, so please don't worry.

  Becker: Iku informs me you may have had some weapons training.

  Sta: In my past...YES!

  Becker unbuckled the belt off the dead guard with the ammo pouch and handed it and the pea shooter to Sta. While she buckled it to her waist, Becker took out one of the small explosives secured by Taribar's men.

  Becker: Now, I need the both of you to pay attention...

  He gnced once more to make sure no one else had entered.

  Becker: THIS is going to be a very fast lesson in explosives.

  The rain outside petered on like sprinkles. The thunder continued to sound off but the storm only stayed on the edges of the crags. Down bellow there still did not seem to be activity going around. The clouds headed off into the direction of the city and onward towards the sea, and far beyond, the could darkened the horizon.

  An artist could use this scenery as inspiration for some sleepy, dreary scenery.

  The peace was blown when a bang went off on the road heading back into the city. Out came a number of guards from the yurts bellow, battle cries asunder and weapons at the ready swords drawn, spears facing forward, the few with projectile weaponry cocked for firing. Some of them did not have time to put their armor on, much less their bck robes.

  Realizing they were the only ones shouting, the guards collected themselves and returned to silence. Not seeing their leadership head down, one of them decided to take charge and lead them through the bottleneck. The self-appointed leader was sure they were in for an ambush, so he made sure the guards at the beginning of the column readied themselves to fight their way out of the bottleneck. At the silent count of three, they gripped their weapons tight. At the count of two, they tensed themselves ready to kill whomever it was that caused the explosion.

  When a white light fshed on top of their heads, they did not finished counting to one.

  The guards at the back and front of the column had no time to react as they exploded in chunks of meat and mists of crimson. Pops skimmed over the heads of the rest, some of them tearing off the shoulders and chests of the guards. Before they could react, the MP5SD thumped behind their backs, the bullets causing them to contort and colpse into the muck. The closer Becker got to the column the fewer pops sounded off from all three.

  Becker switched the clip of his weapon to the next one taped to it, making his way into the mass of torn flesh and sprayed limbs. Any that did not appear to have a visible entry wound or continued to staggered on the mud were sliced in the neck by his sharp knife. When he reached the beginning of the column, past the burnt hunks of meat that were headless torsos, he noticed three trying to crawl away back towards the walls. The first one had the underside of his thigh opened up to the knee, finally finished off with a hard stomp on his head. The second one reached for a sword thrown ahead. Before the guard's hand reached the hilt, Becker grabbed it, flipped the screaming guard over, and tore through the underside of the wrist towards his muscur belly.

  The st one was wounded in a compromising position. Back on Earth, most would find it humerus to be shot in the buttocks, something the fresh faced blond man would disagree by way of his inhuman wails and pinched wounds oozing hot blood. He could no longer drag himself ahead, the pain being too much to bear. Cleaning off his knife, Becker pced it back in the sheath and grabbed a nearby mace with a small round head. Removing the guard's helmet, Becker swung it at the back of the head and shocked the guard's thoughts into paralysis. One bash downward, and the guard's very being popped out into the wet ground.

  Cleaning the mace and securing it to his belt, Becker looked upward to signal Iku and Sta to keep an eye down towards the encampment. He signaled them again before they snapped back into the present.

  Returning back to the top of the mound, Becker flipped the sub-machine gun to single shot. While he waited for the other two to head down, Becker kept an eye on the remaining yurts and tent, noticing that no one had attempted to circle around and hide. Keeping his weapon trained up, he spoke in a low voice to the two youths.

  Becker: Iku, like before. Sta, watch your boyfriend's back. And keep quiet unless you see someone.

  Starting with the first yurt, Becker immediately moved in. After what seemed like forever, the muzzle of the suppressor peaked out downward and the three moved on to the next one. Entering the second yurt, it seemed like nothing would happen...

  *Thwak*

  *Err* *Ghrrl*

  Iku braced for the worst and stopped Sta from interfering.

  When Becker exited the yurt there was blood smeared in a line across his face. Whipping away the liquid rouge, the three moved on to the st one.

  *CRACK*

  *Pfft* *Pfft*

  Quickly moving inside, Becker shot two more times and closed the gap with the remaining occupants. From the outside, Iku and Sta could only hear a few boxes hit the ground and death agonies yelp and breath heavy into silence. At st, Becker emerged slightly haggard.

  Becker: Just a graze. *Huff* Move out.

  Composing himself, the three headed over to clear the st objective.

  All the way inside the tent, within a section with hung sheets for walls, a shirtless scruff-shagged guard pointed a garbage quality hand-held projectile weapon in the direction of the tent's entrance. A quick light fshed before snuffing back into darkness. To his left was a mattress on top of a simple bed frame made of leftover wood. With his left hand he held to the mouth of the slim, fit sve girl with the deep bck hair and blue hue when under the light, stripped of all save for her cuffs, colr, and wrap-around skirt. She tried to bite her captor but he squeezed harder, more concerned with the silent intruder.

  The guard heard the firing mechanism go out twice and knew whomever it was had killed one of his companions. He heard nothing for a few seconds save for the sound of cloth moving periodically. Another pair of discharges went off with a few seconds of separation. He moved the sve girl in front of him, edging her on with his boot. Through his hand she let out a reproaching moan and struggled to shake her head in indignation. The guard pointed the weapon on her cheek to get her to understand she was surely dead if she did not do as ordered.

  *Pfft*

  The guard knew that it would soon be his turn. No more movement was heard. He braced for the inevitable confrontation but was having trouble controlling his breathing. The sve felt dizzy at the prospect of being a meat-shield for such vile scum, nauseating as he breathed deep into her hair and cringing at his beard rubbing on the back of her neck. She held on to the guard's arm as if holding on to her soul.

  ...

  Almost resting his arm on the girl's shoulder, he steadied himself to open fire. There it was - slight movement on the hung sheet.

  ...

  To his horror a vicious blow from the girl's head to his chin caused his shot to go upward. The sve pushed his arm down and threw herself over the bed onto the ground, preparing to be shot at.

  Unsure whom to aim at, at st the guard trained his weapon towards where he believed the sve girl was.

  *BANG*~

  The guard fell on his knees and reflectively retrieved his arm trying to make sure it did not peel off by the sinew. Looking on in the direction of the shooter, a light fshed and forced him backward, part of his face popping off. With his remaining eye he caught a hard stare from a pair of eyes and a sensation of disgust emanating from them. At st, a sense of vertigo ran in his veins and squirted out his busted arm and broken face.

  Becker: All clear!

  Becker indeed had a revolting sensation in his stomach as he looked down at the fccid postured physically overbearing corpse, thankful that he had not removed his belt and trousers.

  When he moved on to finish off the st guard, Becker switched over to his Webley. Having heard the slight moans of the girl, he took out the mace and slightly moved the hung sheet to entice a provocation, and when reciprocated, he fired at where the arm would be. In the final fsh, he saw that "woe is me/I didn't do nothing wrong" expression on the face of the poorly-groomed sod. It was sad enough that this character would be mocked for having the facial aspects of a nonce back on Earth, but to actually die with that stupid look on his face? That plea for clemency?

  Becker: [Disgusting wretch...]

  Seven simir sections were on the row Becker was on and six in the one behind. The other women brought over were still chained to the beds, along with an additional tall blond woman. Five additional guards were dead - two were in the same section caught unawares, two others attempt their own ambushes, and one more hid underneath the blond's bed attempting to be covert.

  Becker switched the light torch on his weapon and pointed it to the girl. Her eyes widened but the fear kept her from getting up or covering herself. Flicking the safety on his sub-machine gun, he lowered his aim.

  Becker: You're safe now.

  Sta: Ajka?! You're alive!

  Ajka got up and embraced Sta like old friends who have found themselves after many years, tears of joy and excmations of happiness abound.

  Ajka: I told you we would be unharmed! They would not tarnish us both...

  Ajka's tears took hold of her emotions. Sta held her firm and buried her friend's face on her chest. Becker left the two to their moment and searched the dead bodies for keys.

  Becker: We're not done yet, Iku. Give them a moment and we'll head on.