Guardian(Part IV): Revelation

Chapter 16: The Mayfly

I was right outside the ruins of Fort Arclight with Lieutenant Riley and his men. It was both a garrison for the Regulars and a military prison. We were meant to free the imprisoned Trident soldiers held in the dungeons, then capture the fortress in order to garrison it. When Riley was briefing us about this mission, I could tell that he was hiding something from us. He wasn't lying when he said that there were POWs, and he wasn't lying when he said our orders were to take the fortress, but he was lying when he told us that our orders included freeing the POWs. Did General Woodford not consider them a priority or something? I wouldn't know. It wasn't my place to question such a thing. Lieutenant Riley was who I took orders from, not Woodford. Besides, I didn't want to know what kind of treatment Lord Chambers gave prisoners that aligned with anyone who he called rebels. They needed to be freed before we captured the fortress, which is why I offered to go in myself first.

"Are you sure about that?" asked Lieutenant Riley.

"Absolutely," I answered. "If we rush in as is, we'll risk the prisoners being killed along with us, and we're outnumbered."

"Well, it's an even fight with you on our side," said Riley. "But I understand."

"I'll look for any secret passage," I declared.

"If you need backup, call for it," Riley warned. "Those are our soldiers being held in that place."

"And I'll get them all out," I promised.

"Good luck," Lieutenant Riley wished.

I slid down the cliff that overlooked Fort Arclight, turning my cuirass white to camouflage against the snow as I reached the bottom. Crept up to the walls of the fort, watching the Regulars carefully to make sure they didn't see me. I scanned the entire fortress with my APID for a hidden way inside, and the device highlighted a section that it labeled "weakened bricks". The walls of Fort Arclight were old and crumbling. It didn't surprise me that there were sections of them that were falling into disrepair. It was captured by the Dark One's forces during the Third Great War because the walls were so easy to break through, as well, and it would also be the reason that Trident would capture it. The POWs had to come first, though. I made my way to the crumbling section of the wall as quickly and as silently as I could, avoiding the eyes of the Regular sentries. I eventually did make it, and drew my sword to cut through the bricks, then slipped through the breach to enter the fortress. I went to the lower levels of the fortress, where I knew the dungeons were. They were underground, with no hope of escape if the prisoners managed to get out of their cells. That rarely happened, even at a crumbling fortress such as this. I dodged every Regular I could, and killed the ones who were about to spot me, until I reached the dungeons. Hopefully, I killed enough to where Riley and his men won't have any problems. I killed the last two guards outside the dungeons, taking the key to the door from one of them, then went inside. I looked in the first cell I saw, and instantly recognized the uniform of a Trident soldier. They all wore white jackets to camouflage against the snow of the Last Winter, similar to the Regulars, but our soldiers had the insignia that resembled the three prongs of Suonan's trident sewn into their jackets' collars. I put the key in the lock and turned it to open the door. The Trident soldier quickly looked towards me and rose to his feet hearing the door to his cell open.

"Ma'am," he greeted, saluting me, lowering his hand when I saluted him back.

"How many others are here?" I questioned.

"Including me, a hundred, ma'am," the Trident soldier answered.

"And your weapons?"

"There's a whole armory not far from here."

"Take this and free the others," I ordered, handing the prison key to him. "I'll get the weapons."

I made my way to the armory, grabbed as many assault rifles as I could, and warped back to the dungeons as the soldier I freed opened their cells as fast as they could. I did it over and over again, until the armory was empty, and all of the POWs were free and armed.

"Attention!" I shouted, and every Trident soldier looked my way.

"This fort is surrounded by nearly a thousand of our comrades," I informed. "But even so, we're outnumbered. Most of the enemy soldiers are concentrated on the walls, to defend from an outside attack. What they won't expect is an attack from the inside. What they'll expect even less is an attack from both the inside and outside. The only way this works, however, is if we attack first. The plan is to lure the Regulars towards us to get them in one place, then our reinforcements will rush in and finish them off. Is that clear?"

"Yes, ma'am!" the Trident soldiers shouted.

"Then let's move out," I urged. "Come on."

I went ahead of them out of the dungeons to kill any Regulars on the inner wall so they wouldn't be killed in a crossfire. Once enough of them were dead, I knocked on the door, then warped away from it for all of the Trident soldiers to rush out. Once all of them positioned themselves along the inner wall of the fortress, they began to fire their rifles below them. The surprised Regulars began to go down one by one, and their reinforcements began to charge towards us. I jumped from the inner wall to wear down their numbers, dodging every plasma bolt they fired and cutting down the ones that fired them. The rounds that did hit me shattered against my aura shield, but not enough of them hit me to break through it. Eventually, though, enough of the Regulars were on our side of the outer wall to where we needed Lieutenant Riley and his men, now. I warped back behind the inner wall to send the call to him.

"Lieutenant!" I shouted. "Rush in, now!"

"Ten-four," Riley acknowledged. "All units, move in!"

Three battalions surrounded Fort Arclight, including Riley's, and they all charged forward with his word. They caught the Regulars by surprise. Eventually, the enemy soldiers were completely surrounded by Trident forces, and they all died. Fort Arclight was ours. I met up with Lieutenant Riley once the fighting was over completely.

"Lieutenant," I greeted.

"Mayfly," the Lieutenant greeted back.

"How many did we lose?" I wondered.

"A little over a hundred," Riley answered. "But we'll have reinforcements in a few days."

"May I ask you something?"

"What?"

"Did our official orders from General Woodford include saving the prisoners?" I questioned. "You weren't exactly honest when you were briefing us."

"Fine," Riley admitted. "For some reason, no, our orders weren't to free the POWs. Woodford knew about it, but he didn't consider them a top priority."

"What?" I whispered. "Does he know that Lord Chambers sees our soldiers as traitors?"

"Yes," Riley answered. "And I brought this up with him, but he wouldn't even talk to me about it."

"He wouldn't talk about our soldiers taken prisoner by our enemy," I said. "And the fact that they could have been executed for treason if we hadn't saved them."

"Maybe he wasn't worried about that," Riley guessed. "It's a war crime to execute POWs, isn't it?"

"I know who Lord Chambers is," I reminded. "He's not above that."

"Well, it's a good thing we were here to save them," said Riley. "But we still have a war to win."