Henry went downstairs and found the others in roughly the state he expected – worn out and running on fumes. Nobody had taken any hits, but that almost made it worse; the adrenaline had done all the damage on its own, sending them crashing down. Even Ron, who’d enjoyed the ride the most, could hardly keep his eyes open.
Yeah, the Guild could wait. Henry pushed the debrief to tomorrow morning and let everyone take it easy for the night.
With that settled, he returned to his room and got on a secure link to General Harding.
He started with the ammunition test, walking Harding through each composition’s performance against the Bralnors. Harding got a kick out of that part – even sounded like he wished he could’ve been there for it.
That enthusiasm cooled off pretty quickly once Henry got into the Gigolith chase. In hindsight, the whole thing made for a hell of a story, but Henry couldn’t exactly blame Harding for not sharing the sentiment. The man was at the age and rank where that kind of excitement was best enjoyed from a screen, preferably with a drink in hand and zero personal stake in the outcome.
The bigger concern, once they’d moved past the immediate recap, was what future engagements with the Gigolith might look like. Airstrikes could almost certainly deal enough damage – that was never really the question. The only issue was: how the hell were they supposed to deliver the ordnance on target?
Bralnors were, for all practical purposes, indistinguishable from the terrain around them until they decided to move, and nothing in the current sensor suite was designed to differentiate between a rock formation and a rock formation that could stand up and kill people. Harding had a few pointed questions about how a creature like that could even exist – most of which Henry could only half-answer, because frankly, nobody could. This was a first for everyone.
After a moment, Harding decided it’d be better to just wait for the report and told Henry to get some rest.
Henry wrapped up his night after that. Only after making sure everything was nice and clean did he allow himself to cozy up under the covers and pass out.
He stayed that way for close to ten hours, until the rising sun woke him up. He lay there for a minute before dragging himself out of bed, then got ready and headed down the hall to check on Sera.
Her door was cracked open when he arrived. The room was empty, but it looked like she’d slept well – at least, well enough to fold her blanket neatly and fill the room with the soft scent of vanilla soap.
He headed downstairs and found her in the common area, absolutely demolishing a tub of stew. She’d pushed two empty bowls to the side, on pace to add a third to the group.
“Morning, Sera. How you feeling?”
Sera looked up mid-bite, held up a finger, and took her time swallowing. “Never better, I protest.” She smiled. “Yesterday was magnificent – quite too good to be repeated safely, but a magnificent adventure nonetheless.”
“I shouldn’t be admitting this as CO, but… yeah. Shit was fucking awesome.” He pulled out the chair across from her and sat down. “Anyway, how’s your mana? Back to normal?”
“Well enough, so long as my appetite be not consulted.” She cast a look toward the bowls, clearly not done with them quite yet. “I do hope the innkeeper is a charitable man.”
“After what you pulled off yesterday? Eat the whole kitchen, I don’t care.” He leaned forward. “Sera, I saw the full thing on the turret feed after we stopped. The whole ramp, from top to bottom. That was unreal.”
“Truly?” She looked pretty damn proud of herself, even if that pride was tempered by surprise. “You know, I scarcely remember our descent. The latter stretch is all but lost to me.”
“You were pretty out of it by the end – that’s probably why. But yeah, no, it was unreal. The whole thing stretched close to a mile, Sera.”
She set her spoon down.
Henry continued, “And you built it in under a minute while we were driving off a cliff.”
She sat with that for a second, then picked her spoon back up, looking smug as hell. “Hm,” was all she had to say to that.
Henry watched her eat for a moment, then realized he’d been sitting there without ordering anything. Sera must have noticed around the same time, because she slid her bowl toward him. “Would you care for some? It is quite good.”
He tried a spoonful. It was good – hearty, well-seasoned, exactly what he needed after ten hours of sleep. He slid the bowl back. “Yeah, that’s solid. What is that, cav or something?”
“I haven’t the faintest idea,” Sera said, already reclaiming her stew.
Henry flagged down the innkeeper and ordered the same, plus some tea. When it arrived, he dug in.
Somewhere around his second cup of tea, Sera mentioned wanting to check out the upper market after they hit the Guild. Just the two of them, if he was free.
Of course, that was precisely when everyone else strolled in, already gushing over yesterday’s insanity.
Henry glanced at Sera. “I sure hope I’ll be free.”
Sera’s stack of empty bowls drew a few comments, but she took them in stride. Once everyone had settled in and gotten their food, the conversation shifted to yesterday.
Breakfast lasted about twenty minutes, most of which revolved around yesterday – the chase, the geysers, what an airstrike on the Gigolith would even look like. Henry and Doc carried that last part, though it didn’t go much further than where Henry had already landed with Harding: they could kill it, they just couldn’t find it. Until Doc’s report made it back to the folks who could actually do something with it, everything else was speculation.
Henry let it wind down on its own, then called it. “Alright, let’s get moving. The Guild’s waiting.”
With that, they got up and headed to the Guild.
The front desk was manned by a lanky dwarf with glasses. Henry had seen him before, though the name escaped him until he caught the nametag. Right – Odrell.
Henry approached him and submitted the quest, laying out his proof. Normally, that’d be something straightforward – left ears, tusks, whatever the species made easy to collect. Bralnors didn’t exactly cooperate on that front, being more or less indistinguishable from the rocks around them even after they dropped. What he did have were intact crystals pulled from the ones they’d put down, which he set on the counter, along with photographs on his tablet showing the fallen Bralnors post-engagement.
Odrell glanced at the tablet, did a brief double-take at the device itself, then got on with it. While he tallied everything up, Henry filled him in on the rest.
“By the way, that quest really undersold the numbers.”
Odrell frowned. “Undersold, d’ye say?” He pulled the ledger nearer and tapped the page. “That cannot be right. What was given me showed two groups, no more.”
“Oh, no, we ran into a lot more while harvesting the second group. Turns out the whole basin’s a full colony – Gigolith and all. Barely made it back here with our asses intact.”
Odrell sat with that a moment. “A full colony?” He looked back to the entry, then up again. “Dear me, that’s not what was set down here at all.” He shut the ledger partway and gave a short nod to himself. “I’ll need to carry this to the Guildmaster. He’ll want word of it straightaway.”
He paused, hand still on the book. “Before I go – are ye selling any of the materials ye brought back?”
Henry shook his head. “No, we’re holding onto everything.”
“Aye, right.” Odrell turned the ledger back around. “Then ye want the payment entered to yer party’s guild account, I take it?”
“Yeah, I’d appreciate that, thanks.”
Odrell entered it, then gave Henry the receipt. “There ye are. Three hundred twenty thousand, entered to yer party’s account.”
He gathered up the ledger again and straightened. “Wait here a moment, if ye please. I’ll see the Guildmaster and come back directly.”
The dwarf returned in a minute or so, beckoning them toward a conference room.
Hedrin was already inside, seated at the far end of the table. He waved them in the moment they appeared at the door.
“Odrell tells me ye’ve brought back more than ye bargained for.”
Henry went over the operation, from their arrival to their escape. Of course, detailing Sera’s whole rollercoaster ride would’ve only served as entertainment, so he cut the embellishment and simply said they got away.
Hedrin sat back when they finished. “How far did the creature chase ye?”
“Past the geyser field, all the way to a waterfall at the edge of the basin. It turned back after we went over – probably decided we weren’t worth the distance. As long as no one goes poking around in there, it shouldn’t leave the area.”
“Aye, well, that’s something at least.” Hedrin seemed satisfied enough to let the matter rest. “Now then – while ye’re here. Ye’ll want to get yer affairs in order. We’re like to be moving on Velkrath within the week.”
That was quicker than Henry had expected. He leaned forward.
“That Sinclair lass will have yer details. She were in here not half an hour past – ye just missed her. Should be heading back to yer inn by now.”
Henry nodded. “Appreciate it.”
“Aye. Off ye go.”
They headed out. Most of the guys wanted to swing by the market and the quest board while they were out, so Henry let them split off and headed back to the inn with Sera.
They found Sinclair at a corner table in the common area, fiddling with her tablet as she nursed a cup of tea.
She glanced up as they came in. “Ah, there you are. I was just about to come find you.”
“Yeah, Hedrin mentioned you’d stopped by. Just missed you, apparently.”
“Figured as much.” Sinclair stood and offered Sera a handshake. “Lady Seraphine. Good to see you again.”
Sera took it with a warm smile. “And you, Miss Sinclair. I do hope we have not kept you waiting long.”
“Not at all. Gave me time to catch up on paperwork.”
Henry dropped into the chair across from Sinclair, while Sera settled into the one beside him.
“So, how’d the run go?” Sinclair asked.
“So, we picked out a Bralnor hunting quest to test out the guns. Shit said two small groups, but you know our luck. It ended up being a whole hive of the things, plus a Gigolith.”
“You’re kidding.”
“If only. All our weapons did jack shit. Long story short – we had to drive through a bunch of geysers and jump off a cliff just to get the Bralnors off our asses. Man, I wish we could’ve recorded that. I think our dashcam’s got the front view, but that’s basically nothing.”
Sinclair raised an eyebrow. “Huh. Well, how high was the cliff? Five feet?”
Henry chuckled. “A good fifty feet, at least. We wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for Sera. You’ll never guess how we managed to get out of there.”
Sinclair sighed. “Really? Wow. Alright. Enlighten me.”
“After waking up the Gigolith, it chased us for a while, matching our speed, if you can believe that. The only way back to the main road leading here was through a geyser field, so we went through it, followed a river – but then more of the damn things kept popping up on our side, so we had to keep following the river. And, well, the river ended up at a waterfall.”
Sinclair set her cup down and leaned forward.
Henry continued, “So with a Gigolith behind us and Bralnors all around and ammo running low, we had to make a play. Initially, we were supposed to just take our chances with the smaller Bralnors, and just run through ‘em. But then Sera here, she came up with the craziest fucking idea. She told us to drive off.”
Sera smiled, clearly enjoying the memory.
Henry did too, honestly. “The moment we drove off – and we drove off going, like, at least forty or fifty, for sure – she used magic to create a ramp, building it as we fell. Yeah, just imagine riding a rollercoaster, but the track gets constructed ahead of you in real time.” He glanced at Sera. “Needless to say, it was the craziest shit I’ve ever seen, even on Gaerra.”
Sera didn’t say anything to that, but the wide smile on her face said she didn’t mind hearing it again.
Sinclair shook her head. “That’s… something.” She looked between the two of them, then back to Henry. “So wait, the new ammo wasn’t enough either?”
“Pfft, I wish. That thing was the size of a skyscraper. It’s like hitting an elephant with a twenty-two. The stuff penetrated, but the Gigolith was just too big for the bullets to do any real damage.”
“Well, that’s what we get for assuming all Tier Nines go down the same way. Bit presumptuous in hindsight. Guess we’ll have to revise our estimates up when it comes to Tier Tens.”
Henry shifted in his seat. “Doc’s writing up everything from the engagement. That, plus the material samples, should give the folks at Armstrong a starting point. We’re shipping it all back on the next resupply.”
“I’ll make sure it gets flagged priority on our end.” Sinclair picked up her tea and took a sip. “Alright. So – Velkrath. I’ve been going back and forth with Drunn and the Guild since you left, and I think we’ve got the plan. We’re calling it Operation Kingslayer.”