Tensions Abound

Cain, Rina, and Gunnar all entered operations together. Cain was reminded of the busy atmosphere that enveloped the room the last time he was here. This time however, the main control room was empty. Instead, Cain heard voices coming from an open door to the left that he hadn’t noticed before. It appeared to be a conference room, or at least something in that same vein. Valerie, Shadra, and Eagrin were each already present. When Cain and the others walked in, Valerie took notice and greeted them.

“Welcome Rina, Gunnar, and…Cain. I wasn’t aware you’d be here.” she commented, her everpresent angry tone sharpening her words.

Gunnar must have sensed that Cain was about to make a sarcastic comment, because he spoke up first in his gravelly voice. “I invited Cain. I wanted him to be present to try and help him grow more accustomed to things.”

“Very well, I suppose it’s better he’s here anyways.” Valerie replied. “Everyone take your seats and we’ll start the meeting.”

Once everyone had taken their seats, the debrief started in earnest. Cain noticed that despite the room having around twenty chairs, there were only six people present—seven if he counted Star, but he wasn’t quite sure if he was supposed to do that or not just yet. Rina had mentioned before that they had lost some people recently. It was possible that some of those members were mission-critical, leading to all of these chairs being empty. Cain tried to quiet his thoughts when the meeting began.

Unfortunately, the Avcad mission debrief meeting wasn’t nearly as exciting as Cain had hoped it would be. Valerie started the meeting by asking how many Bottomless each present member of the Vanguard had defeated, then comparing those numbers to the estimates they made of the Bottomless’ numbers before the mission. The general consensus seemed to be that each member had defeated at least a few hundred, Shadra taking first prize with four-hundred and nineteen kills. Cain’s victory suddenly seemed much more paltry in comparison. Valerie noted that those numbers were slightly larger than their initial estimates, but she moved on to the next order of business: the evacuation of the citizens.

Shadra spoke up, her voice like a low melody. “Of the 1,034 citizens of Avcad present at the beginning of the operation, I counted roughly 850 that were successfully evacuated by Eagrin and Finn. Sadly, that also means there were around 184 casualties.”

“That casualty rate is up 15% from the rescue operation in Nabaan two weeks ago. I hope things aren’t going to get worse from here on out.” stated Valerie, making a pained face.

The room fell silent for a few moments. Everyone seemed to be either deep in thought or mourning the lives lost in battle. It was understandable that they’d regret not being able to save everyone, but surely being able to save the majority of the village was better than none at all, Cain thought to himself. He wasn’t exactly well-versed in this kind of thing, but it was clear they were all blaming themselves for those casualties. If he was going to be part of this team, he had to at least try to support them.

“I get that losing people is not ideal, but isn’t it a good thing that we managed to save as many villagers as we did? Better some than none at all, right?” Cain interjected as he raised his hand like he was asking for permission to speak in a classroom.

Valerie sighed. “You’re right. The fact of the matter though, is that our casualty rate has been increasing over the past few months. It seems like either the Bottomless are getting more capable, or we’re becoming…” she trailed off, peering around the room at each of the empty chairs.

Cain slumped back against his seat. So much for making everyone feel better. Maybe it would be a while yet before he could truly consider himself part of the team. Especially if he kept screwing things up like that. The awkward, depressing silence continued for a few more moments before Eagrin finally spoke up.

“Speaking of the survivors, approximately 788 of them were successfully evacuated to Paradox. The remaining 62 decided to break off and form a caravan to try to traverse the wastes. They mentioned heading towards Grant-Pomé, despite my warnings.” he reported with a squawk, clearly trying to change the subject.

“Seven-hundred and eighty-eight new residents, huh?” Valerie muttered. “I hope we can handle them. Especially with the supply issue.”

Before Cain could ask what they were talking about, the meeting continued. He was happy they had finally moved on from the depressing topic of villager casualties, but Cain quickly became overwhelmed by the statistics and numbers the others began throwing around. He wasn’t able to keep up with what they were saying at all, and soon, his eyelids became like lead. The droning sound of the others speaking soon became nothing but background noise, and everything blurred together as Cain began to drift off.

A swift crack broke through his half-slumber as a sharp pain blossomed at the back of his skull. Cain whipped around to see Valerie suddenly standing behind him, holding her collapsed flagpole in her hand like a baton and glaring at him like he was trash.

“Quite brave of you to come to a debrief just to try to sleep through it, Cain.” she growled. “Almost as brave as disobeying orders and running off by yourself with no one to vouch for you.”

Cain opened his mouth to defend himself, but she quickly cut him off before he could get a word out

“I don’t want to hear your excuses.” she continued, “What I want to hear is an explanation to why nine crates of supplies conveniently went missing during the time where you were unaccounted for.”

“What?” Cain let out a short, nervous laugh. “Are you seriously accusing me of stealing supplies? Do you have any idea how insane that sounds?! Why the hell would I try to sabotage the only people I know in this world?!”

Rina jumped up from her seat. “He’s right Val. That makes no sense, I have a replay of Cain fighting a Bottomless in Avcad the other day. Why would he risk his life like that just to go behind our backs and sabotage us? Not to mention we’re the ones who brought him here.” she said, jumping to Cain’s defense as she quickly scrawled the glyph for Pastseeker’s Replay and let the footage of Cain’s fight play out.

“While I am hesitant to lay the blame on Cain, that replay does not exactly exonerate him, Rina.” said Shadra, voicing her thoughts. “It only shows him fighting the Bottomless, not what he was doing between that point and the time when he left operations. And it is like you said, we are the ones who ripped him away from his world with no concern for his thoughts on the matter. He could easily harbor some kind of vendetta against us.”

“Shadra, please! You can’t be serious!” Rina pleaded.

“I am sorry, Rina. I am simply trying to see both sides of this issue.” Shadra replied, a passing tone of guilt in her voice.

Valerie turned to Gunnar, who had remained silent until this point. “Well? What are your thoughts?”

Gunnar grunted, folding his arms across his chest like an exasperated father whose kids were fighting again. “As much as I want to say he’s a good kid and leave it at that,” he began, “I also have to think about this from the perspective of a Chief of Security. While I don’t think this is enough evidence for us to act, I think we should at least consider house arrest for the time bein’. At least until we have more to go on.”

“Very well then.” Valerie announced. “Cain, until further notice, you are not permitted to leave the barracks without a member of the Vanguard as an escort. In addition, Gunnar, I would like you to start back with Cain’s training and increase the intensity. I want to see results sooner rather than later. With that, this meeting is adjourned. Dismissed!”

No sooner than those words came out of Valerie’s mouth did Cain storm out of the room. He stomped down the stone hallway with rage in every footfall, his forceful steps echoing off the walls. Finn tried to greet him as he passed the fork to the infirmary, but Cain hardly registered his presence. This was ridiculous. He risked his life, and this is the thanks he gets? Cain slowed down and took a deep breath. No, that’s not right. He did what he did for the sake of those villagers, not to receive accolades or rewards for it. Even if he no longer knew what his idea of justice was, he knew something like that wasn’t the answer. A few moments later, Cain heard a heavy set of footsteps trailing after him, and a familiar strong hand clapped him on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, kid.” came Gunnar’s gravelly voice from behind him. “I understand it’s not fair, but if I did nothin’, she probably would’ve taken things into her own hands.”

Cain turned around and sighed. “I can get where you’re coming from, Gunnar. But I don’t understand what her problem is with me. I mean, it feels like she’s targeting me on purpose. Why do you guys even follow someone like her?”

“She…” Gunnar trailed off before starting again. “She’s still learnin’. Our former leader, Lionel Noxveil, was her father. He was a militaristic man, but he was also one of the gentlest souls I’ve ever met. Before the Bottomless invaded, Valerie was taking classes at the same academy her father graduated from, trying to follow in his footsteps. Thanks to the invasion however, she never got the chance to graduate.”

Cain said nothing, but he leaned up against the hallway’s stone wall, indicating to Gunnar that he would at least hear him out.

Gunnar continued his story. “A few months after the invasion, when things started lookin’ bleak for most places, Lionel contacted a few old friends—includin’ me, the twins, and a few others. When we were all together, he told us about this crazy plan of his that involved buildin’ a huge mobile base and goin’ around helpin’ people so that we could build up a resistance force to fight back against the Bottomless. As stupid as it sounded, we were all sold on the idea. So, together, we built the MOLE and founded Last Bastion. Things went well for a few years. We had a solid base of operations, recruitin’ efforts were goin’ well, and we were gettin’ the hang of the whole resistance thing. Until around a year ago, when several kingdoms that had been holdin’ out pretty well were suddenly wiped off the map. There was chaos and panic all over, and we spent the next eight months travellin’ and splittin’ into groups to try and do damage control. Despite the hardships every group came back not too much worse for wear. At least, until four months ago, when Lionel left on a rescue mission to a remote mountain town.”

“What happened?” asked Cain, now invested.

“Lionel and his group never returned. We went to the location they were supposed to go to, but all we found was a crater where the mountain was supposed to be, and no trace of Lionel, his group, or even the town. A few days later, the Council at the time voted Valerie as the new commander due to both right of blood and her strategic knowledge from studyin’ under her father the past few years. Poor girl didn’t even get a chance to properly grieve. Since then, Last Bastion’s been strugglin’ to gain a foothold and we’ve lost a good portion of our members either to battle or them just leavin’. I can’t tell if Valerie blames herself or not, but I can tell that it’s taken a toll on her. Shadra and I have both tried givin’ her advice and lessons, since we’ve both been in leadership positions before, but you can’t teach experience. That’s somethin’ Valerie will have to figure out for herself. Despite her inexperience though, she is a skilled strategist.”

“If you and Shadra have experience, why didn’t one of you take command?” Cain inquired, raising a curious eyebrow.

“Well, I can’t claim to know Shadra’s reasonin’, but as for me, I swore I’d never again take up a leadership role for…reasons that I don’t particularly like to talk about. Anyways, I didn’t tell you all of this just to make you feel sorry for Valerie, or even to get you to forgive her for the terrible way she’s treated you. I just wanted to try to get you to understand her a little better. Can you do that?”

“Fine, but only if you’ll agree to tell me your story if I can beat you in a sparring match.” Cain replied.

Gunnar considered it for a few moments, then let out an amused huff. “Alright, kid, you’ve got yourself a deal. We’ll start back trainin’ tomorrow, so take the rest of the day to try and get some rest. And for the gods’ sake, go by the cafeteria and get some food in you, I could hear your stomach growlin’ the whole time durin’ the debrief.”

Cain had a moment of realization. “You know, now that I think about it, I don’t think I’ve eaten anything since I got summoned… Huh, no wonder I’ve been so tired these past few days.”

Cain and Gunnar looked at each other for a few moments, both slightly dumbfounded. Then they burst out laughing and stayed that way for nearly a minute. They each went their separate ways: Cain to the cafeteria and Gunnar back to operations to try to smooth things over with Valerie a bit.

Cain swiftly made his way to the cafeteria now that he realized how much he was starving. As he entered his nose was immediately assaulted by the scent of fresh bread, smoked meat, and many other delicious smelling foods that he didn’t quite recognize. He snatched a plate and walked over to the automaton presiding over the strangely school lunchroom-like food counter. After getting a bit of everything, most of which were foods he didn’t even recognize, Cain sat down at a nearby table and devoured his meal in record time.

Just as he got up to get seconds, he spotted a plate of what appeared to be a homemade chocolate pie, nearly identical to the one his mom made for neighborhood potlucks—with a single slice remaining. Upon seeing such a taste of home, he nearly lunged at it. Before he could reach it however, he was reminded of how cruel Ranael could be, as he had to watch Ravel take the last slice right in front of his eyes.

“That just figures.” he muttered, walking back to the food counter.