(edited by AVM.5746)
Guild Wars 2: River of Memories-Ch2: Packmule
The troops then began to march out the north entrance of Fort Mariner, over the bridge of Sanctumn harbor. About halfway across the bridge the young, blonde, spectacled, human Private Thompson came alongside her and gave her a smile of encouragement.
“You doing alright, Lilyia?” he asked her.
“’Am I doing alright?’? Lilyia parroted irately. “Do I LOOK like I’m doing alright? Tom what the heck is going on?!”
Still Tom smiled at her, though there was a hint of nervousness this time.
She particularity didn’t know the private personally. He wasn’t someone she’d call a ‘friend’ (they never hung out), but rather her most well-known acquaintance in the lionguard since her joining. Out of all the lionguard troops, Tom was the one she’d prefer to partner with on assignments (and it was by miracle chance the sergeant assigned him to brief her). Tom was the only lionguard who seemed to be sympathetic by the annoyance she received by the ‘ups’ and conscious of her well-being. That reflected when he saw that he was carrying the bow and arrows she unconsciously dropped behind when they attached the gigantic hobo sack on her back.
“It’s a Class-B emergency assignment. What did you expect?”
Lilyia frowned. “What’s a Class-B emergency assignment?”
Tom looked dumbfounded. “You don’t know!? You should know stuff that like. We’re the city’s soldiers, ya know.”
Lilyia rolled her eyes. “First of all. if you’re talking about those ridiculously lengthy refresher manuals we get every few months that we’re supposed to read and sign… Well guess what? I JUST SIGNED THEM LIKE MOST OF US DID!”
“. . . Well, I read them.”
“That’s cause you’re a geek.”
“…”
“Second, the day when the Lionguard stops being subjects of the greedy, back-stabbing merchants of this city will be the day I actually call the Lionguard a military instead of a ‘security company.’ Now tell me, WHAT THE HECK IS A CLASS-B EMERGENCY ASSIGNMENT!?”
At first, Tom opened his mouth as if to argue her previous statements… but then he sighed as it seemed it wouldn’t seem worth it. Then he replied glumly.
“Counter-Terrorism.”
(edited by AVM.5746)
The face on Lilyia immediately went from irate to stunned.
She wasn’t expecting that answer…
“Serously?”
“Yup.”
“Honestly?”
“Mmhm.”
“Uh… What are we ‘countering?’” Lilyia asked, with a hint of fear.
Again Tom sighed. But now he wore a face that looked dark and serious face.
“You ever heard of Scarlet Briar?”
In her hunched position, Lilyia’s eyes widened.
Who HADN’T known of that name? The crimson-headed sylvari who had launched a full invasion of Lion’s Arch ten years ago and conquered it in less than a day. She was known for her brilliance and master all 3 colleges of Asura education as well as an adept in both use of magic and technology. On top of that, she miraculously created 3 alliances made of 6 antagonistic groups known throughout Tyria: The Aetherblades, formed by airship pirates and the asura Inquest krewe, The Molten Alliance, from the out-casted charr Flame legion and Dredge, and the Toxic Alliance, from the sylvari Nightmare Court and Krait.
According to the history books, she attacked the city simultaneously in land, air and sea. Supplementing her hold, she held the city with both a toxic miasma that killed anyone within minutes and a gigantic, aerial ship that drilled into Sanctum Harbor. It was only when opportunistic coastal gusts that the miasma was push out of the city long enough for local military, mercenaries and volunteers to attempt to secure the city, rescue civilians and attack Scarlet.
After about two weeks of attempts, and thousands of deaths, one attack finally pushed all the way to her ship and they were able to take her out. What happened after that, things in records got sketchy… Why she did this and what her purpose was, it was never known (or at least released publicly as she figured).
After the attack, it took YEARS for the city to recover and rebuild. Though the building and businesses were brought back, the scars of the city still ran deep in every citizen, especially to the current generation. Many of the current civilians were the grown up children who were left orphaned and traumatized by the attack.
As Lilyia also recalled, Tom lost his father in the attack. As she figured, that was probably the reason why he felt obligated to join the Lionguard, despite being a ‘geek’ who would’ve been better suited as a scholar.
“Yeah, uh, I know the name.” Lilyia replied, rather nervously. “So, uh, what does this have to do with her? She died 10 years ago right?”
“Well yeah, but, if you recall from the history books, many military organizations scoured Tyria to eliminate any of Scarlet’s facilities after Lion’s Arch recovered. They didn’t want any remnants of her organizations or ‘creations’ to remain in order to make sure a travesty like that never ever happened again.”
“Yeah, and they took out every single one in five years, right?”
Tom nodded. “Thanks to the intel of the Order of Whispers of the Pact, yup, that’s what they thought they did. But…” Tom’s voice trailed.
Lilyia stared at him, intensively. “…They found one?”
“Yup.” He replied rather dark tone. “Not only that. It’s been fully operating this entire time.”
Lilyia nearly tripped when she heard that, but the heavy pack on her back reminded her otherwise that was a bad and quickly regained her footing.
“And they find this out now? NOW? After a decade!?”
“I know, surprising right?” Tom nodded once at her. “But it’s actually quite ingenious where she hid it: In the spot no one would ever look… Twice.”
The latter part made Lilyia’s eyebrow rise.
“Twice?”
“If you read a bit in the history, you’d know about one of her small hideouts that was directly under the Durman Priory in Lorner’s Pass. There was a bunch of stuff in there: Research notes, creepy drawings, journal entries and a particular console. After Scarlet died, all the stuff in there was cleared out and sealed, save for the console and furniture. Then after ten years—”
“Wait, wait, wait… Tom.” Lilyia suddenly interrupted. “This seems more than what Captain Magnus would brief to troops. How do you know all this?”
Tom shrugged and smiled prideful. “I’m a geek, remember? You wanna let me continue, or you wanna keep thinking about that thing on your back?”
“Uh… Yeah. Good point. Sorry, go ahead.”
“Thanks, now uh, where was I? Oh right.. So, after ten years, some of the newer scholars from the priory wanted to research more of the history of Scarlet. So they went and unsealed the hideout to see if there was anything they missed about her. ….And that’s when they took a closer look at the console and found something strange about it. It was still functioning.”
“So?”
“A console of that model,” Tom answered seriously. “would use a power source that would only last up to five years, even in sleep mode. It’s was ten years since it was last used, so the scholars thought ‘how the heck was this thing still functioning?’ As they looked closer at it, they noticed it was grafted to the bottom of the hideout, probably why they didn’t bother removing it ten years ago, but upon further inspection they noticed that the power source was physically wired. And this wire went deeper underground…”
At this point on, the weight on Lilyia’s back as she traveled seemed non-existent as stared intensively at Tom. “Wait.. You mean—”
“Yup” Tom answered quickly. “This console wasn’t just some personal console of Scarlet. When the scholars looked deeper into the console’s database, they noticed a hidden function that was password protected. After hacking the password and inputting it into the function, low and behold, behind the console, opened a big, rock door that lead to an underground facility: Fully operating and the size of a large factory.”
“And you’re telling me.” Lilyia said unblinking. “This was under the Durman priory the entire time and nobody noticed?!”
“’In the spot where nobody would ever look… Twice” Tom repeated the phrase, shrugging. “Like I said it was ‘ingenious’. With the surprise of first finding that small hideout, no one would ever think there was something much bigger under it. On top of that, since the Durman Priory does all sorts of crazy experiments above, nobody would notice or even care if someone felt an earthquake or explosion nearby, let alone below. She used her own hideout as a red herring.”
Lilyia shook her head, and looked forward as she marched on. “That’s crazy…So. What we’re doing now is…”
“We’re going to destroy it. The pact alone doesn’t have time or the manpower. They have a more important duty, fighting elder dragons, even after ten years they’re still fighting a close war. And the Lionguard personally signed up to do this task for them. That’s the reason for the thing on your back.”
Lilyia nodded. “Ah, now I get it. So that’s—“
Her eyes suddenly went wild as a horrific realization came to her. “HEY WAIT A MINUTE!” she looked hysterically at Tom. “ARE YOU TELLING ME THE THING ON MY BACK IS—?”
“Yup,” he replied bluntly. “They’re explosives. Military grade. At least two-hundred and fifty pounds worth.”
Lilith’s jaw dropped hard. “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME I HAD GIGANTIC BOMB ON MY BACK IN THE FIRST PLACE?!?”
“Plural.” Tom corrected with a lifted finger. “Not bomb. Bombs. And the correct term are remote charges. Why are you acting so hysterical?”
“’Why am I-?’ TOM! I-AM-CARRYING-BOMBS-ON-MY-BACK! What part of that do you NOT understand?! What if one of these things go off?!?“
“I don’t know what your problem is.” Tom said, unmoved and crossing his arms as he traveled forward not facing her. “All the combat-engineers, especially the grenade and sabotage units, do it all the time.”
“Well, then they’re freaking insane! WHO THE HECK GOES INTO LIVE COMBAT WITH OVER TWO-HUNDRED POUNDS OF EXPLOSIVES HANGING ON THEIR BACK!?! They might as well paint a big bulls-eye on it too!”
“Well you don’t have to worry about combat.” Tom reassured her. “You’re really just a ‘pack-mule’ until we get to the facility. So don’t worry your blue butt, I’d be more worried about what’s in the facility, mind you. …Or, in your case, the travel there.”
She squinted. “The travel there—?” Then another realization came to her. “Wait. You said it’s in Lorner’s pass, under the Priory, so…”
Tom finished for her. “The quickest way to get there is across Gendarren fields, into Vigils Keeps asura gate to the Priory. Then, when we get to the Priory, we have to cross-country down the snowy paths to where the hideout is, into the caves, then about a kilometer more underground through the hideout entrance.”
Lilyia was almost afraid to ask the next question. “…Just how long will this trip take?”
“Umm…” He rubbed his chin in deep though in a moment, “If I had to guess. Five… No, six hours tops?”
Lilyia immediatly made a weird look with her face and seemed paralyzed with it. But somehow her legs and body still kept marching. At that very moment, they had just gotten through the merchant quarter and was about to enter the exit toward Gendarran fields.
Tom patted her on the shoulder, but she seemed oblivious to it.
“I hope you had a big breakfast this morning,” He smiled.
(edited by AVM.5746)
=
Present time
“…How did this happen?” She murmured to herself again.
So here she was. She was stripped of her vacation, her breakfast (in which only consisted of two bites of stale cereal), mounted with over two-hundred pounds of explosives on her fragile back, while being forced to cross-country across half of Tyria down a cold, slippery mountain pass toward a underground facility in full operation that was built by the one of the most powerful psychos Tyria has ever known.
What did I EVER do to deserve this? She thought sadly.
“Uh, Lilyia?” Tom looked at her concerned.
“What?” She replied annoyed.
“Uh.. A-are you crying?”
“No.”
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
“…You wanna talk about it?”
“LEAVE ME ALONE!” She snarled.
That immediately shut him up. As soon as it happened, the charr lieutenant ahead held a closed, clawed fist in the air.
“Okay, maggots! The cave entrance is just ahead. The dolyaks won’t fit at this point. Unhook the gear. We carry the rest at this point.”
As Lilyia saw ahead of her, the rest of the troops began lowering boxes ammunition and rifles of the dolyaks she had been tailing ever since the beginning of the trip.
Suddenly, to her disbelief, she noticed something that didn’t seem to fit right and couldn’t believe she didn’t notice earlier. “Hey, Tom?” she asked.
“Yeah?”
“Why was it that they wanted to keep me in the back the whole time, farther away from the troops?”
“Uh.. Well yeah, about that…”
“AND…“ She continued, now looking directly at him with a very interrogating look on her face. “Why even use me as a pack-mule? Wouldn’t it be better, and safer, to pack the explosives on a Dolyak as well?”
Tom smiled nervously, his voice stuttered and he gazed the other way. “W-well, uh… Y-Y-You see Dolyaks are pretty expensive these days. And, uh… Maybe…. There WAS some discussion on how dangerous carrying over two-hundred pounds of explosives along troops was… So they, um…”
At this point, Lydia exploded with her hands and arms in the air, and shouted into the heavens.
“ARE YOU TELLING ME—- I’VE BEEN A SACRIFICIAL PIECE OF PLANT THIS ENTIRE TIME!? THAT MY LIFE AND EXISTANCE IS LESS VALUED THAN SOME BIG, DUMB, SMELLY DOLYAK?!?
Tom was frozen, unable to know what to say to her fellow comrade.
At that point, with the over-sized pack still on her, her body that was a moment stretched upward went limp. Her head and arms hanged down as she made no attempt hide the loud whimpering sound she was making.
With genuine sympathy, Tom came up beside her and patted her trembling shoulder. However it didn’t seem to have any effect. “I-I’m sorry, Lilyia! But it’s okay… Even though you were, someone had to do it. And since you got here later compared to everyone else during this important mission.. Well.. It’s only proper that—“
“SHUT UP!” She cried with a mix of sadness and anger. “LEAVE ME ALONE!!”
At that moment, the lieutenant noticed them and barked orders. “Hey, Curry! Stop goofing around. You got point now. So hurry up and get to that tunnel!”
For a moment, Lilyia was silent. Then she murmured loudly, as if so Tom could hear it.
“I got ‘point’ huh? Or is it… that if these things on my back were to go off behind them while in a tunnel, I’d block out the exit?”
Again, Tom didn’t know what to say. But the lieutenant still howled.
“WHAT’S WRONG CURRY? Hurry up and get your blue butt over here!”
“…”
Tom whispered beside her, true sympathy in his voice as he touched her shoulder. “C’mon Lilyia. You know this is important and we got a job to do. I’ll be right with you.”
He noticed an eyebrow twitch on her drooped head.
“You really mean ‘BEHIND’, right?”
“U-Uh-w-well…”
“WE’RE WAITING, CURRY!”
At that point, she coldly brushed aside Tom’s hand and trudged ahead. Her head and arms still handing down as she replied in a really, REALLY low voice.
“Yes, sirrr….”
(edited by AVM.5746)