Chapter 197: Abuse

December 14, 624

“How’s it looking, Envoy?”

“I’ve got three sandwiches in my sights and all of them are looking scrumptious.”

“Your code speak is getting out of hand.”

“Apologies, Blade One. I forgot to eat before leaving.”

“Why haven’t you eaten in the last six hours since then?”

“I fell asleep.”

Nonnen chuckled from atop a Steed. The troops around him shared a strange – most bemused, but plenty confused – look as the Envoy’s words echoed through the open channel. 

The new guys weren’t really sure what to make of him. Or where he was supposed to be. They knew he was out there somewhere in the snow, completely invisible, covering them from the many many vantage points in the area. Even more strangely, Nonnen had let the summoner saunter off on his own without so much as a guardian knight. 

The veterans within the Snow Doves didn’t mind, but the fresh bodies that recently joined the platoon all wondered why this summoner, only Authority 6 at that, was being allowed to do whatever he damned pleased. They didn’t believe he was supposed to even be in the Snow Doves, being as weak as he was. 

It didn’t help that little was known about him. All they knew was that he was a “good intelligence agent,” according to everyone they asked, often accompanied by a knowing smile and shared inside-joke. 

Well, they’d find out soon. They were on a strike mission, laying in wait in the area set up in a “classic” “L-shaped ambush”. Just another one of the Envoy’s things, but it did work, according to the old bloods. More curious was the intel. The military seldom carried out ambushes because it was almost impossible to catch the Scourge off guard. You could never know if there were Scouts lingering in the area watching you and your troops, sending information back to their horde and preparing to ambush your ambush. 

They just followed along though. If the Brigadier was going along with it, then they had no right to question it. Besides, they had never seen a summoner so ballsy as to actually go out with any platoon on any mission, let alone a strike mission. Apparently this one could fight too.

“Eight minutes. Envoy going dark.”

The soldiers could feel Nonnen sharpen up when those words suddenly came through. He changed channels and spoke into the Aerial.

“All units, silent at your stations. Seven minutes until Scourge arrival. Raise camouflage.”

Nonnen jumped off the Steed as troops stationed around the ambush site started preparing. 

Blankets of camouflage were raised over the metal vehicles, Aerials were shut down, engines were killed, and everyone hid themselves amid snow and trees, most behind some sort of trench they dug beforehand. 

They spoke in whispers until the first Scourge monsters started appearing. Some Scouts walked ahead and to the flanks of the main force, composed of about 200 beasts including Royals, the strongest of which sat at Authority 10. 

The overall strength of this force was high, and they outnumbered the Snow Doves about five to one. However, if anything at all was confirmed upon sighting them, it was that they didn’t know the Snow Doves were lying in wait. 

Nobody attacked. The Snow Doves waited, holding bated breaths, ears open for the signal they had agreed upon beforehand, as the monsters approached the halfway point between contingents.

Nothing happened. A tremor of concern passed through some troops as the majority of the Scourge, excepting the Authority 10, passed that imaginary line. But their hopes were met and exceeded by the booming report that rippled through the atmosphere. 

Thomas, no more than 10 feet away from a Scout, watched, fascinated, as its head turned from previously bulgy, like an overripe tomato, into a mess of slush. Even with his eyes peeled the whole time, he still couldn’t pinpoint where the shot came from as the explosion lost its own piercing qualities reverberating off hills. 

That was the signal. The warlocks let loose their spells, elements crashing through the air and wreaking havoc on the panicked group below them. Each spell killed at least a dozen, more often multiple dozens, and the mayhem compounded in the valley as the clustered monsters devolved into chaos. 

The knights waited, watching as the spells hammered and softened their targets. Over half the enemy was killed in the first 20 seconds, and it was only when the monsters started charging up onto the vantage points that the knights started stepping forward, shields and spears raised, primed for battle. 

Every few seconds, another explosion would ring, and another Snow Dove would watch one of their enemies fall. Even as the knights began to engage, some lunging beast would find its head exploding before it could attempt to reach through a gap or flank an entrenchment. The ones killed were never too strong, no tougher than Authority 7, and sometimes the shots would only injure the beast, but it was helping, and very, very noticeable. 

Nonnen jumped in when the Authority 10 Royal started making its moves. He went all out as soon as his fight started, the Royal immediately placed on the back foot, taking some heavy wounds within the first 30 seconds as the savage knight held nothing back and pushed it to one side of the battlefield. The other green haired Brigadier, Cemil, went around and killed anything strong enough to threaten the lives of her troops. There were some Authority 9 beasts that she targeted and promptly slaughtered with her earth magic, strategic barriers of hardened stone rising amidst the battlefield and boxing in her unlucky targets. They would face her, or nobody at all.

Before 10 minutes had passed the battle started coming to a close. Stray beasts that tried to run away were picked off by the hidden summoner, dropping dead no matter how far they’d gotten. 

In the end, not a single one escaped, and to everyone’s great surprise, not a single soldier had died. 

The battle closed and everyone gathered, counting kills, collecting the valuable corpses, and preparing to return to base. It was only several minutes after the head count though that the summoner finally reappeared. 

He trudged down one of the hills, only noticed when he was already near the platoon. Some stared, scanned the netting he wore with white strips of fabric woven in with dried patches of the fungal biomat that existed all across the ground, all caked in snow and dirt. On his face he wore a white Owlykat mask, making him look like some kind of mythical creature of the woods, and held a long metal device in his hands, the source of those big explosions during the battle. 

Nonnen walked over when he approached. 

“All clear, Blade One. Nothing for at least a mile around.”

“Good work, Envoy. I think this is the most successful mission I’ve ever run.”

“Glad to hear it. Took some good intel to get this chance. Now the Scourge is down an Authority 10 and they got nothing out of its death. Nothing better than an enemy made worthless.”

“Agreed. I question the fashion choice though. I know I’m old, but you kids really know how to put together the weirdest things.”

The summoner chuckled before removing the mask, showing off a face marred with somehow aesthetic scars. 

“It’s called a ghillie suit, made for blending in by taking from the environment itself.”

“Even though it’s infectious, you decided to wear the corruption all over you?”

“It’s dried out and dead. Not as vibrant red as the rest, but relatively safe, and helps me blend in more than anything else. This and my stealth will help me hide from anything, even Brigadiers. Although if you can get me some bright red paint, I could probably get the entire platoon camo’d up as well.”

“Paint my troops red? I will admit it sounds humorous. Let’s go. If you’re still hungry I’ll snack on some rations with you.”

The two walked off while bouncing between various topics most couldn’t make heads nor tails of. 

Once at the Command Steed, something Nonnen had got a hold of since John gave him a good excuse to get one, the two dug into the rations stashed in a bulkhead. John took off the ghillie suit, carefully and meticulously stripping section by section off. 

Brigadier Cemil joined them at some point.

“Cleanup is finished. Everybody’s about ready to head back.”

“Mm.”

Nonnen brought up his Aerial. All of them had been turned back on with the end of the mission.

“All units, sound off once packed and ready.”

His command returned a few responses, but not all. They continued to eat, Nonnen barely paying attention as more responses came in over time. 

Once the last response sounded, John gave a thumbs up, prompting Nonnen to speak into the Aerial again. 

“All units, return to base.”

……

We pulled through the gates and had our driver swing us around headquarters. 

A wave of comfortable heat hit us as we went through the doors. The temperature-controlled headquarters was the most comfortable place to be, one of the reasons summoners were seen as pretentious spoiled children on the battlefield. We got the nicest things. 

I certainly wasn’t complaining. I was working both ends of the stick and damn if I was gonna downgrade the one refuge to warm my hands just to look better in the eyes of a bunch of grunts. 

Nonnen and I were greeted by Polly and Jasmine when we walked into the office. There were a couple other summoners around, but they were just doing menial work. 

I noticed some classified documents on her desk, my eyes instantly taking in every word on the top pages and memorizing it all.

“Another traitor? I thought they had slowed down after you threw the last few in jail.”

“Well, power is too tempting for those that don’t have it.”

“That is true…”

I sighed and glanced at the picture on top of the file. Another summoner. Lieutenant Colonel. 

Summoners were prime targets and composed the majority of traitors we found. They were too easy to tempt and, ironically, their intelligence was their downfall. They all thought they were smart enough to evade detection, thinking that their access to documents and records gave them the ability to hide their deeds. 

Of course, it was good enough. But ever since I had installed operatives in and around the archives and started monitoring summoner activities, they were exposed one after the other, caught like rats in scattered traps. 

Even now they continued to try and evade us, but we won every time. There was only one issue though…

I looked at Polly and filtered my words.

“Any progress on the Blacklist?”

“… No.”

“Have you tried?”

“John…”

Polly leaned back in her chair and sighed, rubbing her temple.

“I don’t believe there’s anything to find. We’ve yet to gather

anything on them. And your fixation on this can end up getting us the hammer as a whole. That would remove any chance of doing any good in the future entirely.”

“The fact that they’re completely innocent is exactly why we need to dig deeper. Bolster surveillance. Get 24-hour monitors on these guys.”

“Okay, why are you so intent on assuming that everyone has something bad about them? Have you ever considered that those on your Blacklist might be innocent?”

“Because assuming they’re innocent is far, far more dangerous than assuming they’re traitors. And the fact that we’ve found nothing almost guarantees their guilt in my eyes. I refuse to believe that not a single one of them is a traitor, and the sooner you can fish them out, the sooner we can save this place from getting destroyed altogether.”

“Well I’ve tried all I can!”

Polly shouted, but I continued to stand there unperturbed. I knew she was frustrated but this wasn’t something I would bend on.

“I’ve tried putting monitors on them and they’ve come back with nothing! Besides, a lot of these people leave the base periodically. You expect me to keep our monitors on them even when they go back to the capital?”

“Yes.”

“It’s out of our jurisdiction! I don’t even know if our monitors can handle that kind of surveillance either! Besides, I’m pretty sure doing that is illegal!”

“I would sooner break every law in the book than let a traitor slip through. Don’t think for a second that those laws aren’t in place to protect the very people we might be trying to watch.”

“Ugh! Yes! I know! You don’t care about the laws, you’ll do anything to keep the base safe, I’ve heard it all already. But consider, just for a second, how insane all of this is! I mean, you want our monitors watching them even in their rooms! When they take a shit in the outhouses! Disregarding how psychotic it is, it’s not even feasible! And yet you keep pushing me to document every waking second of these people’s lives!”

“Because that’s exactly what’s going to save all of us!”

I stepped forward and shouted, feeling my anger rise. It was this kind of complacency that I hated. 

“You make me think you’ve forgotten what’s beyond the Pass, Polly!”

“You know I haven’t forgotten!”

“Then you better start acting like your life is on the line! We’ve got millions of monsters ready to march over here and slaughter us all! They could come any month now, and we’ve got people within our own walls trying to let them through! If you realized just how dangerous this was, then you wouldn’t be arguing with me about invading privacy! This is the job you signed up for! It’s your responsibility to get your hands dirty, regardless of how insane you think it is! You think our enemy gives a damn about morals or ethics?! You think the traitors care?! They’re going to laugh as those traitors open the gates for them and then march over our warm corpses!”

“…”

I got no response, and that’s when I noticed the Anarchy slipping through my Aura. I pulled it back before Polly got overwhelmed.

She visibly eased, but she still remained quiet. 

At some point she stood from her seat, marching out of the room. 

“I’m getting a drink.”

I remained quiet when she slammed the door behind her. Then I looked at Jasmine, who was sitting in the corner with Nonnen, snacking on dried meat. 

I tilted my head at her. 

“Yes?”

“Nothing. This is just the third time you guys have argued since you got back. At this point it’s getting fun to watch.”

“Mm. You bicker like an old married couple.”

Nonnen agreed, making me roll my eyes.

“Well I only have a couple more weeks here, then I’m going back to the capital.”

“So three more arguments?”

“Maybe two if we’re lucky.”

The two chuckled in the corner, as if all my worries were but a few brief moments of entertainment for them. 

……

Some hours later I went to go find Polly, wandering a few of her go-to spots before seeing her walking back to the barracks. 

I caught up with her.

“Polly.”

“Quiet. You can speak when I’ve finished my drink.”

She put up her hand and took another guzzle out of the bottle in her hand. It was a small bottle of wine, but from the smell it would hit no softer than a normal sized bottle. Odds were, she had finished a few already. The stress was getting to her. 

I simply stuck to her side as we continued to walk into the barracks and up to her room. She finished the bottle right before she opened the door to her room. 

“You like secrecy? Then behold my room, the most sacred grounds in this base.”

I remained silent while walking in, seeing a surprisingly decorated room with a few pictures on top of the dresser, a painting, and other accessories and ornaments around the bed. She knew how to make herself at home. 

“Well, spit it out. Unless you don’t think you can speak freely even here, in which case you can just fuck on out of here.”

“… I think we’re fine.”

I didn’t take her brash words personally. She looked like she was already halfway to the moon, waving the empty bottle around like a proper drunk.

I said my piece. 

“I get that counterespionage is stressful.”

“It’s not stressful.”

“The added workload onto everything you’re already doing is, but yes, perhaps the job itself isn’t that stressful. You just don’t like what you have to do.”

“Of course not. Nobody could possibly enjoy trying to weed out the most vile people around you, realizing that they threw away all their humanity just for a tiny slice of power, only to kill the brothers and sisters around them. I don’t enjoy seeing acquaintances or friends, people I thought were good, turn out to be nothing more than sacks of shit.”

She sat on her bed and slumped against the wall by the head. This was the weakest I’d ever seen the woman. It seemed she had been really pushing herself lately. The war was ramping up, and it was exacting its toll on her. 

It was taking its price on me too, but neither of us wanted to admit that we were being worn down. At least I was getting some reprieve with my job in the Capital. Polly had been stuck at either Stronghold Charlie or the Treehouse for years. 

I nodded after she had set the bottle on her nightstand. 

“Yeah, it’s not fun hunting demons. I keep asking myself why and I have to keep reminding myself that some people are simply weak. Unfortunately, weak people with great strength end up doing some scary shit. That’s exactly why I’m trying to get you to target the generals, no matter how dangerous it might be for us.”

“…”

Poly was quiet, but I could feel her mind churning through her Aura. It wasn’t nearly as developed as mine so I could see through it pretty clearly, especially when she was drunk and vulnerable. I could practically read her mind and I knew she was formulating her response. It just took a bit longer. 

“… You’re insane, John. I’ve never known someone who was as eager to challenge authority as you.”

“You could say it’s in my heritage. Look, I know you’ve considered the situation. We either get the hammer brought down on us by offending a general, or we fail to weed out the traitor among those ranks and get a few million monsters breaking down our gates.”

“You’re so sure that there’s a traitor among them. Where do you get that unfounded confidence?”

“I just think the chances of one being corrupt are higher than all of them being innocent. The one thing I can acknowledge is that these generals are smart, and they’ve had a lot of time to think. I’ve tried to keep our operations relatively secret, but most people know we take down traitors, even if it’s only rumors. Any corrupt generals would have snuck back into their shells, if they hadn’t already before. It’ll be far more difficult to pull them out than anybody else we’ve caught. But it can happen, if you commit to it.”

I stood in the middle of the room, staring at Polly as she pondered. She was drunk but she wasn’t gone yet. Summoners retained most of their cognitive ability even when impaired. I found it unfortunate whenever I tried to get a nice buzz myself. 

“A wrong move can ruin my career.” she muttered, “I worked a long time to get where I am now. I’m close to becoming a general too. I don’t want to mess up, especially since these generals are still eager to keep me down.”

“… Yeah, I can understand that. I’m not going to ask you to put your career on the line either. But… you can use this position to your advantage. Who is trying to suppress you? You’re the most competent intelligence agent on this base and I fail to see any way they could possibly justify keeping you out of the running for a promotion, especially after everything you’ve done.”

“They can always find a reason, but there is one person. Major General Jaks Greyson. He’s an advisor to General Viskar but seldom shows himself. I feel like I’ve been fighting him in the dark; it’s always his name that shows up to dampen my efforts or outright steal my accolades when I try to make my move. He did that with you, boosting your name instead of allowing me to have a bit of the spotlight.”

“Hm, well, I can’t say I didn’t notice the amount of attention I got. I’ve heard little about him, though.”

I had come to just about the same conjecture a while back. They wanted to keep Polly down so they put me up front, a small time intelligence agent that managed to grab some juicy intel, a nobody that couldn’t possibly threaten a general’s position. 

“I gave you my position at the head of a new division though.”

“Yes, and that wasn’t something they expected to happen, because nobody realized that you were going to be working in the rear with Sawn Industries. Nobody would’ve guessed that you would have given up such a position either, and extremely few knew that you were working with me. Honestly, it’s given me a major advantage, but now you want me to use it to try and declare a General or a Marshal a traitor. Do you see why I’m reluctant?”

“Of course I do. But do you see how this can be used?”

I looked her in the eye. She seemed to be sobering up a bit. 

I explained so she didn’t have to formulate the words herself. 

“Use the position. You have the power to provide the Marshal with evidence of traitorous activities and get a General removed from their position and outright stripped of all their power. If that were to happen? Nobody would try and stop you if you went for a promotion. Hell, if you really want to abuse the position and threaten the person in charge of your promotion with it, then go for it. I don’t care at this point and you deserve to use this tool to advance yourself. At the end of the day, I can trust in your desire to weed out actual traitors and fight off the Scourge. You know who the real enemies are, and I want you in the position to do more about it just as much as you want the power.”

I crossed my arms and watched her think. She was still slumped but her Aura had sharpened up.

She eyed me through her brunette hair, “You’re really telling me to abuse this power? That’s unlike you, despite everything borderline traitorous you’ve said.”

“You need to play the game, Polly. It’s not cheating if the system is already rigged. I have no issues with it because these stuck up, brown nosing, geriatric summoners have done the same exact things to keep competent people like you down. If we’re going to survive the oncoming wave of Scourge, then we need people like you in control of our soldiers, not a bunch of cowards who can’t stand the thought that they might actually have to be good at their job to keep it. They’re scared of competing with you. What makes you think they’re fit to fight the Scourge?”

“They’re the furthest thing from it.”

“Then use the tools I’ve given you,” I turned toward the door, “And get that fucking promotion. Our lives depend on it.”

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