Station Cores Book 3 - Prologue

Prologue

“There have been reports of increased beast activity toward the southwestern part of the forest – near Hearthtide. I say we send a few groups down there to substantiate these claims; it has been relatively quiet all along the border lately, and these sightings worry me,” Karm proposed, before adding concernedly, “if there has been a buildup of beast groupings, we could get blindsided by a large force—”

“We don’t need any of your farfetched doomsday scenarios, Karn,” Dravel interrupted him with a sneer on his face, “it’s been quiet because we’ve been beating them back for years, and they are just now finally figuring out that we’re in charge. There isn’t a ‘buildup of beast groupings’ out there, because our scouts would’ve seen it by now.”

Gereld watched the highest-ranking members of the Guardian Guild leadership council squabble and bicker over the smallest things. Although he was technically the head of the Guild, he didn’t interfere with their arguments unless they couldn’t come to a decision; which rarely happened, but it wasn’t unheard of for the massive Physical Augmenter to step in when he was needed. They were all smart people, so most of the time he let them figure it out.

He missed the good old days; the days where he would go out and patrol the border, beating back seemingly random incursions by small hordes of all manner of beasts. The days where he could use his skills to affect something tangible, something that made a difference in the lives of the common people. Sitting behind a desk all day making grand decisions and proclamations didn’t have the same kind of appeal.

Instead, being the second-most powerful Physical Augmenter in the entire Kingdom led him to this job, his experience and successful leadership of various Guardian contingents lending him the proper credentials. He never wanted the position, but he supposed that was a good thing; if he had coveted it, he might do whatever he had to do to keep it. As it was, he would gladly step down to someone more powerful and worthy of the title.

Unfortunately for Gereld, the only two people powerful enough to command the respect of the everyone there had no interest in it.

A long time ago, he had been jealous and envious of the power and famous exploits of the most powerful Physical Augmenter to have ever lived; at least, until he learned that the ridiculously overpowered Moxwell had no need of fame, fortune, or even flaunting his superiority. Gereld had only met him a few times in person, but every time he did, the Guild Leader had been humbled by the friendly, modest attitude he presented.

The fact that he had no desire to use his power to take over the Guardian Guild – nor his wife Rosewyn (who was, in fact, the most powerful Elemental Caster he had ever heard of) – just underscored his greatness. He lived to protect the Kingdom from the incessant threat of the monstrous beasts surrounding them on all sides.  Gereld loved the Kingdom and the people himself – but Moxwell took it to a whole other level. Now, the only time he saw action – as well as a one of the few chances to improve his own abilities – was when there was an imminent threat of a major monster incursion. 

Which hadn’t happened in years. 

Even though he didn’t care for Dravel as a person (or any other way, come to think about it), the Elemental Caster had a point: it had been quiet all along the border. That’s not to say that there wasn’t any threat; on the contrary, there were attacks every day. But they were more “one-off” attacks – not part of an organized force. Despite being classified as “beasts” or “monsters”, they were more than capable and intelligent enough to band together into what they usually referred to as a horde.

Horde might be a bit of a misnomer, since it didn’t always consist of waves after waves of beasts, but it was usually what was used when there were more than 15 in an attacking group. After it was classified as a horde, most members of the Guardian Guild determined the threat level it represented by a simple classification: tiny, small, average, big, colossal, and, finally, nightmarish. As a point of reference, the “Beast War” was classified as a nightmarish horde.

At one point an Inventor tried to simplify the classifications based upon the number of beasts inside the horde, but it didn’t quite work. A horde full of 20 spiderwolves was a completely different threat than a horde of 20 Picows. So, the system they had in place stuck – it worked for them. The only problem, at least in Gereld’s eyes, was that they hadn’t seen more than a small horde in almost five years. Normally that would be a good thing, but Karn also had a good point:

They could be unwittingly attacked by a big or colossal horde at any time.

The scout reports they had over the last couple of years showed that the beast population outside of their borders weren’t getting smaller, despite the lack of significant attacks; instead, it appeared to be just the opposite. The forest and mountains surrounding the Kingdom were practically bursting at the seams with monstrous beasts – they just weren’t attacking.

Efforts to go to the source and thin out the populations were marginally successful; however, it was always easier to defend on your own territory than to attack into the unknown. The Guild, although they had some of the best scouts around, couldn’t hope to identify every major grouping of beasts outside of their borders. They didn’t have the numbers for an all-out attack in enemy territory; they best they could do was to defend and plug any gaps in their coverage when a major threat appeared.

And they were damn good at it too.

Unsurprisingly, as the border skirmishes seemed to settle down, there was a drastic reduction in the number of people looking to join the Guild. They used to have to turn prospective recruits away, as many of them had seen first-hand the threat that the beasts represented. With dangerous attacks at an all-time low, however, there was less and less reason for them to want to defend a Kingdom against a non-threat. Or, at least, that was how it was seen. 

All of the leadership council (other than possibly Dravel, as he seemed to agree with the common people) knew that the threat was always there. It hadn’t gone away; even with the relative “peace” they’d had lately, it was only a matter of time before a major strike came their way. Which was why he had to speak up.

“I agree with Karn, we must prepare for any possible threat. Send a couple of full groups to the southwest, and start fortifying the rest of the border outposts. This could be just the start of the all-out attack we’ve all been worrying about.”

Dravel snorted in his best impersonation of a Picow, apparently, “That you’ve been worried about, not me. Nor have the majority of the other Guild members worried about it – we know we’ve won, the beasts know their place beyond our borders, and there’s no point in jumping to conclusions and wasting money and resources on some fanciful ‘threat’. 

I really, really, really want to punch him in the face sometimes. “Well then, if it is only me, then let’s have a vote to see what the ‘other Guild members’ think,” he responded, doing his best to keep his anger in check, “all in favor or sending out reconnaissance teams to assess the threat?”

Every single one of the 12-person council raised their hands, especially the enthusiastic Karn…all, of course, except for Dravel. He looked like he wanted to murder everyone else for voting against him, but he settled for storming out of the room. No one stopped him, since Gereld was fairly confident no one actually liked the pompous – yet extraordinarily-talented – asshole.

Before he fully left, though, he turned to the room with his customary sneer, “You’ll all regret this; you have no idea what’s coming.”

Gereld actually wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but he disappeared through the doorway before he could. He forgot about the matter, however, as other issues came up that they needed to discuss before they could break up their meeting. Hours of boring conversations about logistics, patrols, and finances crawled by, and the Guild Leader sighed in relief as the last of the problems needing his attention was finally done.

Just before they all broke up to follow-up with the various decisions that had been made, someone unfamiliar to him burst through the doors with a frantic expression on his face. From the badge on his shoulder, Gereld could see that he was one of the new recruits, still in his first year with the Guild. During their initial training period, every new member of the guild spent the first year as part of their messenger service, learning the land as they delivered correspondence. It was important for both the recruit and the Guardian Guild in general: it provided real-world experience while also performing a valuable service. Especially since they would and did carry messages from everyone, not just members of the Guild.

Knowing that the guards stationed outside the doorway to the conference hall wouldn’t have let him in unless there was an urgent message, he beckoned to the young man – it feels like they get younger every year – as he looked around confusedly at the various high-ranking guild members. He could hear the exhale of relief as he rushed to Gereld’s side, still out of breath from his apparent all-out dash to get there.

“Karm, can you get this young man a glass of water?” he quickly asked, giving the recruit time to catch his breath. “Now, do you have a message for me? Has there been a breech in the border somewhere?” he asked, before slamming his hand down on the table, causing a small crack to form, “Damn, I knew we should’ve sent those groups down to the southwest as soon as I heard about it.” It’s been less than a day since I got the information, but if we had acted sooner it would’ve made a big difference. I just hope there weren’t too many hurt because of our delay.

With a quick gulp of water that Karn had graciously handed him, “No, sir. Sorry, Guild Leader.”

“Don’t stand on formality, son, now spit it out – time is obviously of the essence.”

“Yes, sir—uh, Guild, uh—anyway, I just came from the capital where I was stationed to deliver messages, when the Guild House we had there was attacked.”

That was unexpected. “What do you mean, we had there? There were at least a dozen guild members stationed there! What happened?”

“They came in the night, sneaking in through the front doors and the ground-floor windows, killing everyone they came across. From what I could see, they were wearing dark clothing and had masks on, so I was unable to identify them. As far as I know, no one survived.”

What? There were at least a dozen members there, if not more. I’m not sure if some of the patrols had gotten back there yet, but they were due back any day. And Norlana…Norlana was there…

“So how come you – a new recruit – managed to survive and escape?” Karn asked in threatening voice, though it didn’t sound like it was solely directed toward the messenger. He must remember that Norlana was there too. The two of them had an on-and-off again relationship for years, which Gereld allowed to continue despite the danger always inherent in their jobs. Sometimes you need to find comfort where you can.

“Uh, well…I…I wasn’t exactly inside the Guild House when it was attacked,” his face blushed red at the admission, and he shrunk in upon himself when he saw the hostile eyes staring at him, “I was…in a nearby alley, meeting with…a friend of mine and we were occupied…enough that we didn’t see anything until it was too late.”

He was doing it with some girl while his fellow Guild members were slaughtered?! Gereld almost lashed out at the irresponsibleness of the man – boy, was more like it – but he restrained himself. Don’t kill the messenger.

That didn’t stop Karn as he launched himself over the table, aiming to snap the young man’s neck with his giant fists. Fortunately, Gereld didn’t become the Guild Leader because he was soft; on the contrary, he was more powerful than almost everybody. He intercepted his fellow Physical Augmenter and slammed him down on the table, causing it to widen the crack he had started earlier.

“HEY!  Calm down! I know you’re pissed off right now but killing him won’t bring her back!” As soon as Karn stopped struggling against the superior strength leveraged against him, Gereld continued, “Besides, if he hadn’t been outside the Guild House at the time of the attack, we might not have heard about it until it was much later.” He let his friend go, knowing that the murderous impulse that had taken ahold of him had passed.

“What else can you tell us?” he asked the now-shaking boy huddled on the floor. He obviously knows how close he came to dying a few moments ago. “C’mon, you’re safe now, I won’t let anyone hurt you. In fact, I have to commend you for coming all this way to tell us about the attack. Now, get up and show me what it means to be a member of the Guardian Guild!”

The Guild Leader’s words had the desired effect: the shaking stopped, his hands wiped away the tears starting to form, and he stood up with a faux-brave look on his face. He cleared his throat a couple of times before continuing, “Thank you, sir. Like I said, I didn’t see anything identifiable about them; however, as I was fleeing for my life, I happened to overhear some gossip making its way through the capital. If what I heard was true, the King and most of the nobles who had been gathered in the castle for the Beast War Remembrance Celebration had been killed down to the women and children.”

“What? There’s no way that could be true!”

“I don’t believe it, that’s impossible!”

“We would’ve heard about it by now!”

“Whoever did this needs to be found!”

The discussion and arguments flew back and forth across the table, as the council grew more agitated at the possible implications if what they had heard was true. However, Gereld was watching the young man, and it seemed as if he had more to say – but didn’t want to interrupt the yelling that was now taking place. He shut everyone up again with another loud slap to the table, causing the young man to jump in surprise and for the table to get dangerously close to breaking.

When it was quiet again, he addressed the messenger, “Do you have anything else we should know?” 

He gulped, as all eyes turned back to him, “Uh…yeah…I also heard that the Cordpower Company had taken control of the government side of things, dissolving the monarchy, and is doing all they can to hunt down those responsible for the ‘heinous acts’ committed upon the royal family and visiting nobles.”

Silence reigned inside the conference hall, a direct opposition of the previous noise. Gereld may not be the smartest of all those gathered there, but he would have to be a moron not to comprehend what was going on. He glanced around at the others and he could see the same understanding mirrored in their faces.

Those greedy bastards are going to kill us all!