Broken World

Broken World

Captain Jraden kept close to the walls of the tunnel. It was wet and filthy, but he shrank as near to it as he could. Insects crawled onto his tattered uniform but he kept still. Bandits passed by on the intersecting tunnel shaft, chatting away merrily before disappearing once again. Jraden pressed on.

He'd been on the hunt for a while. Four days of trailing the same prey through the dead ends and endless turns of the mines, all in complete darkness. He did not dare create light. Not when he was alone. Had his team survived the things that lurked deeper where they'd entered, he might have braved some illumination, but now even the sound of his heart filled him with dread.

He passed several more crossroads in complete darkness, never certain of where he was or where he was going, but driven by something nevertheless. He could not be sure, but something pushed him forth.

The palm of his hand felt around a section of wall until his hand touched wood and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. He applied force to it, gently at first, and then more strongly when it refused to budge.

The door slid open after a few seconds, and Jraden slid away, sword in hand, ready to strike at anyone or anything that passed through the threshold.

He waited a few seconds, but nothing happened.

Satisfied, Jraden forced his eyes to look into the room. The yellow light of a blinking lamp, blinding after the darkness, illuminated it, and cells filled its every corner. He walked to the nearest one and took a look. Men were being kept inside them. Their sleeping forms relatively peaceful despite the multiple bruises and scars they had. There were some thirty of them, all in a coma and connected to a whirring machine at the end of the room by cables and wires that stuck out of their skin. Jraden cleared his throat and fought to silence a coughing fit.

He made his way to the machine and spat.

"I'll complete the mission..." he said and battered the rusted keys of the machine's writing board and pulled on a lever until it gave way and lowered before breaking. "No matter the cost." He turned to face the men as the whirring of the  machine died away and the room was plunged into silence once more.

In the darkness he waited, as one by one they awoke.

***

Martian opened his eyes. He felt groggy and the world swam around him, unfocused. The light of the chamber had been dulled, he noticed. Struggling to his feet, he looked around and saw a man standing against the wall, looking at him.

"Who are you?" he asked. The man removed his officer's cap and took a step forward.

"I am Captain Jraden, and you will serve me now." he said. He'd walked the distance between the two of them and now stood right before him.

"What?" Martian asked, wiping dirt from his face.

"Your freedom in exchange for your aid." the man called Jraden said. His hand was resting on the holster of a sidearm strapped to his hip.

"My..." Martian cleared his head as best he could. "I don't think you'll let me refuse." he said, looking down at the firearm.

Jraden smiled.

"You can. There is always a choice." he muttered the latter and stepped aside. Martian found himself looking at four bodies slumped against the wall, all with a centered bullet-wound in their foreheads.

***

"It is the same offer to you all. Serve a higher cause and be free, or refuse." Jraden called out amid the thunderous sound of gunfire. The bandits had found them.

"Now is the time! Make a decision." he roared above the screams that called men to action just beyond the door. The distinct sound of a dozen men kicking at the door filled their ears. The metal that barred it would give in at any moment. The men began to bicker and yell, and Jraden found his patience ending.

"I have had enough." he told the man beside him— short and smartly dressed, from the Old East, by the looks of him.

"Show time." the man said then, an expression that seemed out of place among the grim-faced officers at his sides.

"It's your command, Captain." a third man, standing at the side of Jraden, said from behind his gas-mask.

The door caved in then, just as the first of the mob of prisoners stepped forward to accept Jraden's offer. The first shot went through his head.

Screams then followed. Men fell to the ground with agonized cries as bullets tore through them from all sides. Visibility was poor, the situation demanding, and collateral damage unavoidable. The room was far too small, and as Jraden and his newly drafted force opened fire, they could not be certain that all friendly losses were at the hands of the enemy. The bandits had cut the power and flooded the room by the time the last of those wounded was dead.

Jraden produced a grenade from within his coat and threw it. The men who saw it took cover, and those that did not felt shrapnel pierce their faces. A man threw himself at him with a wrench, but the masked man put a shot between his shoulder-blades.

"Take one and do as I did. Offer no warning, just throw. I cannot lead too large a force." Jraden said and passed the two men half a belt of grenades. They did as told, and the room was soon drowned by explosions.

Blood, organs, and limbs were scattered across the room in the afterglow of the battle. The sounds of the earth trembling after the commotion sent clouds of dust that filled the air, and Jraden had to cover his face with his sleeve.

"Your name." he demanded of the masked man, who sat behind a battered crate. The eastern man had stood from behind his cover and walked toward them.

"Valerian, Captain. We are of a similar cause, sir." he replied.

"I'm Ye Xiaowen, Captain. Same cause too." the eastern man said.

"The cause may not be lost yet, then. The True and Tried may yet see this task accomplished." Jraden smiled and rested a hand on each man's shoulder.

"Now round the survivors and arm them with the bandits' weapons. Take care of the pistols I gave you. They belonged to good men." he said, and the other two officers left to do as commanded.

Jraden then looked to the remnants of his force. Eleven, as far as he could tell. Eleven out of thirty.

He nodded to himself. Small and maneuverable, he thought. Far easier to move about in the depths of the mines, and easier to keep supplied.

***

Russell coughed violently. The dust was not the worst of it, but the blow he'd taken to the stomach was. A man with a heavy mustache and a hammer were all that he remembered. After that there was only the chaos of combat. He did not even remember picking up the pipe he held in his hands at the moment. He hoped the blood on it wasn't there on his account.

"Stand up." a man said. He was a slim, white man with short, blond hair. He wore what seemed to be combat armor over a ragged set of clothes. Russell took the hand he offered and looked about. There were others, all armed and with a dazed look about them. A varied assortment the likes which only a prison could gather.

"Are you hurt?" the man asked him. Russell shook his head with a certain grade of uncertainty. He didn't feel injured, at least.

"What's happened?" he asked. The man looked sideways and shook his head.

"I don't know. The man, that one," he pointed at the officer who'd waken them up, "says he has an offer. I'm just not sure how he wants us to serve."

Russell looked at the dead. Most of them had been torn to pieces by the grenades, to the point that he could not recognize any of them. Not that he knew them, or at least he hoped not.

"If you'll excuse me, I have to check on the others."

The man left before anything else could be asked, and Russell came face to face with a tall figure covered in a black coat. His face was obscured by a gas-mask.

"Can you fight?" the figure asked.

"I can." Russell replied, dusting himself. He wanted to ask something, but he was handed a falchion before he could.

"You'll be under my command for the remainder of the mission. What is your name?" the figure asked.

"What mission?" Russell asked, eyeing the falchion. He turned to face the man who'd freed them.

"What does he want from us?"

The masked man shook his head.

"You'll know when you must. Your name, please."

"Russell." he said, frowning.  The man nodded.

"I am Valerian. As I said, you'll answer to me for the remainder of the mission. Has Julius checked on you yet?"

"I think so." Russell said and turned to look at the man as he went from one to another, tending to their wounds with nothing but what he had on his person and what could be found amid the wreckage.

"Good. Get moving then, I have a task for you."

Before Russell could say anything more, Valerian had left and moved on to the next man.

***

"I want scouts on these tunnels." Jraden said, as he flattened a map on the floor. "These mines are extensive, but I know of a way straight to its vaults. From there we should be able to discover the target's location."

Valerian cleared his throat.

"Pardon me, Captain, but what exactly are we looking for?" he asked.

"Nothing these men need to hear about. Not now. Preferably not ever." Jraden replied, and the other two men looked at each other.

"Perhaps not, but the True and Tried keep no ranks. We are all equal." Valerian replied.

"We have a right to know." Xiaowen said.

Jraden raised his eyes to the two men before him. He sighed and produced a small, thumb-sized, cardboard box from within his coat.

"The Old Bugger wants this delivered to the Army. It will turn the tide of the war in Sah."

Valerian reached out and opened the small box, and a light, blue-ish glow shone over his gas-mask— strong as a flashlight.

"What is that?" Xiaowen asked. Valerian retracted his hand when he felt his fingers grow numb.

"Some form of fuel. The Army found enormous deposits of it in Slaughter Town, right under the protection of the demon cult that fortified itself in it. They've spent the past seven months in bloody war against that cult for that insignificant town in the middle of nowhere. Lost hundreds of men and resources, and yet they seem to think this is worth it."

The glow seemed to intensify and expand outwards across the floor, as though it were a liquid. Jraden was swift to close the box once more.

"It reacts to light and heat. We're not sure how strong the reaction is in its pure form, but we think the sample you just witnessed is much more powerful. These bandits have a box of it the size of a man's chest somewhere inside these tunnels. The Old Bugger wants that box to fuel the Army's energy cannons in Sah."

"Understood." Valerian said.

"Such hassle for a light bulb." Xiaowen said, and Jraden put away the little box.

"Gather your men. Valerian, I want you on point. Have your men spread out through the tunnels ahead and report back anything they see. If one of them does not return, consider him dead. You know what to do if the dead come back to life later on, I suppose."

Valerian nodded.

"Traitors will be dealt with. Do not worry, Captain." he said, and Jraden nodded.

"Xiaowen, take your men and arm them with the firearms we scavenged. You'll be the main force. I will take the rear and cover your back in case anyone tries to cross us."

Xiaowen nodded and they both saluted. Jraden saw them leave to gather their ragtag forces.

And the hunt began.