B2 Chapter 48: The Copyright Infringement Was Necessary

Hugo's impassioned speech went for over five minutes before he realized that he was starting to lose the crowd. The monkeys weren’t known for their patience and when he noticed it; he began wrapping it up.

“And on this day, let it be said we will not go quietly into the night!” his voice boomed. “Out there on the battlefield is glory and triumph. So let’s take it!”

The monkeys roared back in agreement.

When the noise died down, they were ordered to gather outside of the temple.

“That went well,” Hugo said to me. “I should make speeches more often. I have a gift.”

“You stole lines from at least half a dozen movies, but at least you got the point across. Which I guess is all that matters.”

Hugo ruffled his feathers, feeling nervous. “You don’t think I’ll get into trouble for stealing from movies? Because I know they broadcast us doing this around to people and I can’t afford to get sued.”

“I think in this instance, if the movie studios still exist, they’ll let it slide and the look the other way.”

Hugo nodded, relieved. “Good.”

Sebastian joined us and asked, “so what now?”

“The Shanker know this terrain better than anyone, so they’ll lead the war party,” explained Hugo.

“Right, but the monkeys aren’t subtle creatures,” I added. “It’ll be an all out an assault and we need to ensure that the Shrikon can’t retreat into the water. Hugo, are you okay using your followers as a diversion?”

He tutted, irritated that I would even ask such a question. “Lucas, they fling their own poop at one another to settle disagreements. As much as I love the spotlight, I think I can find a way to live without them.”

I nodded. “Alright then. Let’s go fishing.”

The three of us stayed close together as we followed the Shanker through the jungle. We hoped that our close proximity would widen the distortion field even further on the tracking collars and hide our presence among our monkey army.

I’d asked Hugo about the outpost, but he was vague on the details, claiming he hadn’t gotten a good look at it. All he could tell me was that it was a fortified position close to the beach. Follow-up questions like how many Shrikon would we face were met with equal vagueness.

In the end, I gave up and focused on hunting any red blooded creature that crossed our path. Most of them were small, so by the time we got close to the outpost, I had enough for a few weapons, but not enough to heal myself if things got dicey.

Damn, I wish we had more of the others with us. Hugo claimed the Shanker had explored this whole island and that other than the Shrikon, we were the only bipeds on it. The others were scattered on the various other islands, still being hunted. I just had to hope that they held on until I found a way to release their collars.

A hunting party of four Shrikon did eventually happen upon us as we made our way through the jungle. Or at least they tried to. Several gorillas fell upon them and tore them apart before they even knew what was happening. One of them licked the blood from its face and glanced at me. It felt like a challenge and so I looked away to avoid trouble.

It was dark by the time we reached the outpost. Hugo gave the command to hold, and we hid at the edge of the jungle so that we could take a look to see what we were dealing with.

The outpost on the beach wasn’t what I was expecting.

I’d assumed some basic wooden fence structures with maybe a couple of spearmen posted out front as guards and a few archers or spellcasters if we were unlucky. But that wasn’t what the Shrikon had.

They had a large fortress made of an alien metal that had a strange blue sheen to it. There was no door or gate that we could see and the walls were thirty feet high that the Shrikon patrolled.

These particular Shrikon wore armor on their chests made of the same metal as the fortress walls and held something long in their hands.

Sebastian noticed it too. “Wait, what are they holding?”

I used Heightened Awareness to improve my eyesight and focused in on them. As soon as I recognized what it was, I sighed. Of course, it was never going to be that easy.

“They’ve got guns,” I said. “Long sci-fi looking rifles, to be exact. Oh, and they’ve got even larger mounted guns set up at both corners.”

Sebastain clapped me on the shoulder. “Well, we tried. Let’s head back to the temple to think of a plan B.”

I shook my head. “No, we stay. I can figure this out.”

“Are you insane? Those guns will chew the monkeys to pieces before they even reach the walls.”

“I know that. That’s why I said I need time to think.”

There were at least two glaring problems with our assault plan. We had no way of avoiding the guns and no way of getting inside. The walls weren’t climbable, but there had to be some way that the Shrikon were getting in and out.

But the longer I thought about what to do, the more restless the monkeys became. Hugo moved among groups to quietly talk them down. It seemed to pacify them for the moment, but time was growing short and they would remain in hiding for too much longer.

I had a couple of ideas that might work, but I decided we need more information first.

“Hugo, send one of your birds out,” I said. “We need a better look at the structure.”

Hugo nodded and summoned one of his spirit crows. The monkeys were awed by this display of power and started kneeling.

As the spirit crow took flight, I used Animal Sense. It let me see what Hugo saw and because Hugo was using his abilities to pilot his spirit summon, we could both see through the crow’s eyes.

“Keep the bird high. We don’t want it seen,” I warned..

“I know what I’m doing,” Hugo said.

“Also, go around the whole base. I want to see if there’s a door on one of the other walls.”

“I will, but not because you told me to,” he huffed. “But because that’s what I was going to do anyway. You know nobody likes a backseat driver.”

I watched through the crow’s eyes as it circled the outer perimeter wall. As I suspected, there were no obvious signs to get inside. The outer wall was like one solid piece of metal that had been folded into a square. This could only mean that something on the inside had to be activated to allow people to come and go. Finding that thing was crucial.

As the bird flew around the walls, I also noted two mounted guns on the opposite end, pointing at the water. Looks like they were afraid of other intruders like the sharks.

Eventually, the bird flew up higher and over to give us a look inside the fortress. Inside was a large courtyard with several single-story buildings. The way it was arranged reminded me of a military base, or at least what I’d seen of them in movies before.

There were these long rectangular huts that I took to be barracks, and then several other squat buildings.

“Can you get closer to see what in those buildings?” I asked.

Hugo nodded and directed the crow the down. None of the buildings had doors or windows. They were like huts. Maybe the Shrikon needed a certain amount of moisture in the air? It would certainly explain why they’d chosen to build this thing on the beach, close to the water.

No, not build. The base looked like one solid piece of infrastructure. Even the floor was made of the same metal. This was something that one of them had bought or brought with them when they entered the tower.

As the crow swooped down, a Shrikon was coming out of one of the square huts. The crow extended its wings at the last second and glided above their head. The Shrikon didn’t notice as they wandered over to the barracks, where many of the fishmen seemed to be sleeping.

The crow swooped down again to investigate the hut he’d just come from. It was a room filled with crates. Some of which lay open. This hut seemed to have one purpose and one purpose only, and that was to store guns. Lots of guns.

There were crates with a sun and the word Helix stamped on them. More items they’d purchased from the Helix corporation. The crow delved deeper inside and saw open crates displaying more of those mounted guns and a crate with explosives in it.

The crow pecked at the weapons to identify them.

*Item identified* [Standard Issue Helix Pulse Rifle] – A common pulse rifle can fire ten shots before its energy core needs to dump its excess heat and recharge. This process, barring environmental factors, takes an average of twenty seconds. Note: the electronics are highly sensitive to moisture. Do not get the rifles wet!

*Item identified* [Mounted Pulse Cannon] – Similar in design to the pulse rifle but with a much denser energy core built into it. Due to this, it makes handling difficult, and it is advisable to mount the weapon on a fixed structure. Its pulse blasts are several orders of magnitude greater than what a pulse rifle can produce. However, like the rifle, its electronics are also sensitive to moisture.

*Item identified* [Handheld Demolition Devices] – Small explosive devices that bring two volatile elements together to create an explosion. Simply twist the top until you hear a crack. That is the dividing wall inside the device breaking. Detonation occurs four seconds after the top has been twisted.

So grenades, in other words. Yeah, we need to destroy this armory asap. Hugo was about to do just that when I stopped him.

“We need to find a way inside first and to disable those pulse cannons,” I said.

At least we had a way of disabling them. Their electronics being so sensitive to water made them seem like an odd purchase, but I think that was how the System allowed them in the first place. They were powerful weapons counterbalanced with a fatal flaw. It wasn’t like attacking the fortress would be easy, but we now had a possibility of evening the playing field. I just had to find out how to get us inside.

But getting inside proved simpler than I’d imagined. There was a large panel on one of the walls with a series of buttons on it. Each button was stamped with an alien symbol. The translation ring I wore allowed me to understand their language but apparently not read it.

“How much longer do you think this will take?” said one of the Shrikon on the wall above the spirit crow.

“Dunno. The Captain has been more irate than normal lately. Apparently, our equipment is being sabotaged left and right. He’s been going from island to island, making the rounds to try and help some of the hunters.”

Damn, so the Captain wasn’t even here. Do we hide and wait for his return before attacking, or do we try to take the fortress in his absence?

Before I could decide which plan was better, a monkey down the line who was tired of crouching stood up to stretch its legs. A Shrikon on the wall spotted it and yelled, “intruder!”

Moments later, a loud alarm began blaring.

“Hugo, open the gate!” I shouted.

His spirit crow pushed buttons on the panel at random, but they seemed to have no effect.

“I’m trying!” he yelled back.

Some Shrikon ran to take positions while others woke up in the barracks confused. I mean, who would be dumb enough to attack their fortress when they had guns? I watched from the tree line as Shrikon ran to the pulse cannons and switched them on. A dull red light appeared on the side of them, indicating that they were armed.

“Come on. Hugo, we can’t wait here much longer,” I said.

I watched as the crow kept punching buttons with its beak. It was getting nowhere.

One of the pulse cannons fired a blast into the jungle. A bright ball of flame hit a nearby tree. Five monkeys that were close by were dead as the bark exploded like shrapnel.

That was it. The monkeys could remain still no longer. They howled as charged out onto the open field, right into the sightlines of the Shrikon’s rifles.

“I’ve got it!” Hugo cried suddenly.

A large part of the wall shimmered and retracted to make a door way. The way the metal shifted reminded me of Jason’s liquid armor.

It wouldn’t matter. The monkeys would stand no chance against the guns. I grabbed Hugo and moved away from the fortress. Sebastian followed as I explained the next part of my plan.