Backyard Hero

Chapter 10: Catharsis

"Report," Cassandra ordered.

"Yes, Ma'am," said the tiny hologram of a soldier wearing the grey uniform of House Reech. "We've had some difficulty, but nothing we couldn't handle. Traps and a few more of those golems mostly. No casualties. We have a team cataloging everything in the main residence, a few interesting artifacts but nothing spectacular."

"Anything I should know about?"

"Well, a few relics that could only have come out of a dungeon. An old one too, perhaps even pre-cataclysm, but nothing specific worth mentioning ... other than the bo—"

"And the dungeon?"

"Well, that's just it, Ma'am. The obelisk is there, but we've been drilling and performing seismic tests for hours, and we haven't found a thing."

"That is hardly conclusive," Cassandra interrupted, "certainly there are more drastic steps you can take?"

"We'll have a thumper truck here by this afternoon, might give us a better picture. Blasting might work as well, but Ma'am I've got to be honest with you ... I've studied decades of seismic reports from the surrounding area and there is nothing below this location — no void and nothing unusually dense. If there is a dungeon down there it is either buried deep, collapsed, or hidden in ways that defy decades of research."

"I want the entire area excavated," Cassandra frowned, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. "Give me a full report on everything you've recovered so far, oh and lieutenant?"

"Yes, Ma'am?"

"If any of this leaks, you and all your men will find yourselves on a flight to Antarctica faster than you can say 'please, no.' I don't care if the First Spear himself descends from the heavens and asks you to tongue bathe his pointed phallus, you keep your mouth shut. Do you understand?"

"Yes, —"

"One last thing, send the obelisk to Reech Industries, I have a team standing by to receive it."

Cassandra terminated the call before the soldier could respond. She knew he would perform his job, she had hand-selected everyone on the team, after all. It wouldn't do, however, to let them forget who was in charge or what the stakes were.

Antarctica was always in need of fresh ... volunteers.

She shivered at the thought. No one, not even Cassandra, knew for certain what happened there, only that the great families had all called a truce over the area. Occasionally, high-level classers would be recruited for expeditions, but none returned.

"Slav," Cassandra yelled, waving towards a large man in bulky black armor.

Yaroslav looked over his shoulder and gave Cassandra a crisp salute. He dwarfed the technicians around him, his wrench seeming like a toy in the bearish man's hands. He gave a few curt orders to his maintenance techs before passing off his tools and heading towards Cassandra.

He had filled the Defender role in Cassandra's Quad for three years now and had served her predecessor for several years before that. Like his role suggested, Yaroslav had always shown remarkable loyalty and dedication to his teammates. He had earned a reputation as one always ready to put himself in danger to save others — trusting his remarkable strength and durability to see him through even the toughest encounters.

He had seemed stern and taciturn at first, but Cassandra had spent many summers at his family's lake house and she had seen how gregarious he was over a grill and a few cans of cheap beer. His sons even attended the same school as Katie.

"Yeah, boss, you got something for me?"

"Where are Striker and Gen?"

"Gen's in the simulator, like usual. I think Striker was down in R&D chatting up a piece of ... I mean he's speaking with one of the squints down in the lab. Should I get them?"