Dimensional Travels: World at War-Chapter 44: Inside the camp

After the inspection, goods were loaded onto the carriages. The process was cyclical at this point, and no one spoke as it was carried out. Food shipment from HQ had significantly increased for their newest prisoners. Writtle thought it was pointless. Why did they need to feed prisoners that served no use? The prisoners all spoke in a weird language, an carried unfamiliar devices. He had no idea why they Empire insisted on keeping them alive. He sighed when the process was completed. After ensuring that all carriages were loaded properly, the commander motioned forward. "Move out."

Eric stood on a pass above the caravan, watching them while they began the trek back. He nodded to Hewitt, and they began following the caravan. Weapons were at the ready in case anything out of the expected happen.

"Team A, confirm presence of tree branch." Eric commands into the radio as they reached one hour from the linkup point. Their entire plan hinged on blocking the caravan. There is only one road leading from the encampments due to the terrain, and after following the caravan for three straight nights, Eric had plotted a point where the terrain allowed for a perfect ambush point.

"Confirmed, Sarn’t."

"Alright, standby for Hewitt and I. We will initiate operation pending any changes."

After linking up with the other team, the soldiers stood in a circle around Eric as he gave one last confirmation of duties. "Alright, when the guards move to check on the felled tree, we will engage from the spots already pointed out. Once the carriages are taken over, we will destroy one of the carriages by pushing it down the mountainside. The story will be that we were attacked, and one guard/carriage was lost."

Writtle groaned as the caravan had to stop. "Are you kidding me?" He growled. He was already tired and hungry. The added weight of the new shipments had slowed their current rate of travel drastically, but now a tree sat in the middle of the road. "I wish the empire would come through and cut all these trees down for good so that-" His words never finish as he felt a sharp pain penetrate his head. He fell down in shock as his vision went dark.

"Fuck this world."

After the ambush concluded, Eric searched for the papers the element would need in order to enter the encampment. He found them in what he assumed functioned as a wallet in this world. "Hmm. Writtel." He said, sifting through the deceased soldier’s wallet. He donned Writtel’s gear, tossing the body over the ridge. "Rest in peace."

The last carriage was thrown over the ledge and they moved the tree. The trek to the encampment began.

"Sarn’t, what are we going to do about the blood?" Hewitt asked as he pointed out the clothes. Eric sighed and looked up at the sky. "Throw on one of the cloaks from the carriage like I did. Did you not notice me doing so? Or the rest of the team?"

Hewitt scratched his cheek before donning a cloak. "My bad." He said before heading back to his position. They were cresting the final ridge that lead to the encampment. They stopped at the alloted location where outpost guards would check documents. "Papers." A guard said gruffly, before noticing there were only two carriages. "What happened?" He said, eyeing the driver in front. "We were attacked by bandits." Kane responded. "One of the carriages was lost, and a guard was killed." The guard nodded while sighing in frustration. "Goddamn riemskin bastards." He said under his breath. After checking the papers, he waved the caravan through, nodding at the Eric while they walked in. "Those boys had it rough." He thought after noticing specks of blood.

Once the carriages were offloaded, the element was free from duty until the next delivery was due to take place. They walked to a hotel, paying for seperate rooms with the money they acquired. They met up in Eric’s room later. "Alright, we have bought ourselves approximately twelve hours. Here is what will happen. I will head to a bar and listen in on chatter. Hewitt and Kane, you will walk around. See if this is a military only outpost, or if civilians are present. Liam and Yates, you will check for any signs of ADA assets. From what our allies have told us, if cannons are pointed straight up, they are ADA. We will meet back up here in eight hours."

At the bar, Eric sat in a corner and drank a beer. He subtly thought about the taste while listening to the chatter of the soldiers. Subconsciously, his fingers ran along the edges of his wedding ring. They had already been out on this mission for a week, and he missed Mia dearly. Suddenly, a man roughly his age sat down. Eric looked up from his beer while the man flagged a waitress to pay for his own drink. "How long have you been away from her?" A gruff voice intoned while the man clinked his beer with Eric’s.

Seeing no reason to lie, Eric sighed. "7 days now." The man sat back in his chair while sipping his beer. "Thats rough. Especially in a place like this." He chuckled. Lost in his thoughts. "Where were you at before?" Eric looked off in the distance, over the horizon. "Doing paperwork while trying not to get my nose brown." He responded with a chuckle. "You could say my wife saved me from that fate."

The man laughed and shook his head. "Ah, so true. When ya get to our age in this line of work it seems the only way to get higher is to brown nose. So, who did ya piss off to get sent to this hell hole? Oh. By the way, forgive my poor manners. My name is Lieutenant Strizen." He held out his hand. Eric took it.

"Names Lieutenant Riel. And I managed to earn the ire of General Heque." Eric responded. Mia had mentioned that name to him when they were pouring over doctrine. His strategies were archaic to say the least, and he was known to execute men just for small disagreements.

"Ah. Heque." Strizen responded. He laughed while paying for another round for the two. "Prince Heith sent me here." He grumbled. "Apparently the civilians keep causing an uprising. We already feed them better than most of our other camps... and those strange devices they carry? We let em use em a few hours a day. Why the fuck would they compain?"

Eric chuckled as he clinked the new round of beers with Strizen. "You give people an inch, they take a mile." He growled. "My soldiers are the same way. I keep telling em’ to keep theirs hands off, but they bark back at me like dogs in heat."

"Tell me about it." Strizen responded. "If I had my way we’d just get rid of the prisoners and investigate the strange devices. But no... the commander wants em alive so he can find out how they work."

Eric sighed as he got up from his seat. He finished his beer and shook hands with Strizen. "Well, appreciate the beer and the laugh. If I see ya around again, I’ll buy next time." Strizen chuckled and nodded. "Yep. See ya then. Good luck keeping those dogs on a leash."

Eric returned to his room, jotting down notes while he waited for his team to return. One thing on his mind as he thought back to his conversation with the empire lieutenant. "There are earth civilians here." He groaned. This job had just gotten a lot harder.

After night fell, the team met up in Eric’s room. Kane and Hewitt were sifting through photos on their phones, while Yates sat with his notes in front of him. Liam was standing in the corner, watching the street to ensure they hadn’t been followed.

"Alright. I am sure everyone has a lot to share, but let’s keep it brief. We have to be back at the caravan in four hours. I’ll start. I have confirmed the presence of Earth civilians here. We don’t know how many, or where, just that they are here." He said as he looked at the group. Silence answered him.

Hewitt then took the chance to speak up. "Sarn’t, we found shops and hotels all lining the streets. There are merchants that come in every few months to supply the stores. It seems like the most common product the soldiers buy are alcohol." The group laughed together while Eric rubbed his face. "So that trope is alive and well here too, eh?"

Yates then spoke up. "Sarn’t, I was able to document some assets i believe may be linked to ADA. The encampment has multiple areas cordoned off, with large cannons pointed upwards. It appears as though they have mages nearby, ready to man the cannons with a rapid response time if need be."