Today's Earth date: June 26, 1992

We lost the wind yesterday. The ocean is just dead still, and it's pretty creepy. The ship captain says sometimes these quiet periods last for several weeks, but that's rare. He believes we'll be back on course by tomorrow or the day after at the latest.

-The Journal of Laszlo the Paladin

***

The fighter planes Kenny collected from the Deadzone were single-pilot planes. Though it was in pieces now, the plane on the other side of the orc portal was much larger. Judging by the shape of a surviving wing, this plane originally had two giant propellers flanking its long body. Wayne guessed it was perhaps fifty feet in length, an extra tricky estimate because the plane was broken into three separate pieces. Even partially buried in sand, it was taller than he was.

Midway down the top side of the plane, there was an open hole. From the ground, it looked like it might be a hatch, but then Wayne spotted broken glass around the rim, so it may have been a gunner turret at one time instead of an entry and exit point.

Wayne wasn't a WWII buff, but he had played enough video games to recognize a desert camouflage pattern, but he didn't recognize the symbol on the lone exposed wing. It was a large blue circle with an orange circle within. There was no telling how much had been rubbed away by blowing sand or simply faded by the desert sun, so there may have been more identifiers than that at one point.

Presently, an orc family used the plane as their home, building a shanty structure of boards and tarps to bridge the gap between broken pieces.

Hector came through next, slamming into Wayne's back. Though the impact forced Wayne to stumble forward to avoid falling, his attention was still fixed on what lay beyond the wrecked plane. They appeared to be in an orc city of sorts, hidden beneath a giant bubble of illusion magic. Beyond the fighter plane were countless squat buildings, vaguely organized into clumps to allow roads and paths to run between them. These too had the ramshackle look of shanties built from scavenged pieces.

Which made sense. Trees didn't grow in the desert, and the town was too far for the mountains to be a practical source of stone.

Like the repurposed Bristol Blenheim Mk IV, Wayne spotted several other Earth-looking items, the largest of which looked like a steamship.

Wayne didn't know much about boats, but its smokestacks vaguely resembled the Titanic, so he estimated it probably came from the same time period. The orc town seemed like it was built around the ship, obscuring much of the hull beneath crude additions, but Wayne could distinctly make out the letters W A R A T A H.

In addition to several smaller fighter planes dotting the town, Wayne spotted a plane that wasn't quite as modern as the Boeing in the Gentle Forest, but it was still relatively modern. It had the dimensions of a passenger liner but had a silver body instead of the white common on modern aircraft. He didn't notice the plane at first because of how much had been built around the cabin, but now that he looked closely, it was unmistakable.

The faint ghosts of four letters were still visible on the side. It read "G TIG" or maybe it was "G TIO." It was tough to say, but it was definitely from Earth.

Wayne wanted to use Resource Values on the plane and the ship immediately, but he had to be close enough to touch them to do that. That would have to wait until after the orcs agreed to their terms. If they agreed to their terms.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Follow," the orc leader grunted.

The Zeroes obeyed, winding through the orc town. They passed several glitched areas along the route, all of which had been fenced or barricaded in some way to keep orcs away. Most of the locals didn't have the build or demeanor of warriors. A few looked like tradesmen of some kind. There were also female orcs, elderly orcs, and orc children. They all froze at the sight of humans and watched them, unblinking, until they were out of sight again.

The attention didn't surprise Wayne, but the abrupt and near-perfect silence of a dozen orcs, clearly in the midst of daily chores, was unnerving. The sound of the orcs resuming their lives seconds after the Zeroes had gone somehow made it worse.

The party stopped in the shadow of the steamship, and the orc leader pointed to an empty shack. "You work here," he said to Vanilli before turning to Wayne and adding, "Get arm stuff. Bring back."

Hans looked at his HUD map. They were more or less in the center of the orc city. If the orcs turned on them suddenly, they would have a significant distance to fight through. Wayne didn't love orcs to any degree, but most of the orcs here seemed to be noncombatants. No matter how hard his party tried, if they had to fight, many of those noncombatants would be in danger.

"Umm…" Wayne said, attempting to buy himself more time to think. "I'd rather our people stay together."

"Orcs sick now. No wait."

Vanilli spoke before Wayne could reply. "I'll be fine."

"I don't want to leave Vanilli here."

"We can stay with him," Armond suggested.

"I don't want to leave you guys behind either."

"I dropped a few contingencies on our way here," Margo said. "If things go bad, I'll set them off. We'll get out from there just fine."

"By contingencies, do you mean…"

"Yep. Boom."

Wayne again thought of the noncombatants. A battle between good and evil he could rationalize, but no part of him wanted to head down the road of terrorism.

"Please reserve those until the last second. A lot of non-fighters would die."

"Understood."

"Okay," Wayne said out loud to the orcs. "I'll Blitz back and bring a few wagons with proper supplies."

[chat]

V: No gate?

W: Shit. I didn't even think of that.

[/chat]

"Actually, one moment, please." Wayne stepped into the shack that was to be Vanilli's workspace.

He navigated to his train menus. Vanilli was right. He could set a Station Gate and a Quick Gate in the orc town. If the system counted this as a city, that made everything monumentally easier. The train should have even autofollowed them to this location as well.

That put Wayne at ease, but he thought of a new problem. If the orcs gained access to a Quick Gate, they could immediately invade half of the major cities on the continent.

"Guard the gate. Say the word, and I'll close it. No orcs can be allowed through under any circumstances."

"Roger that," Armond replied.

Wayne bought another Goods Storage car and activated it. A gate appeared on a shack wall.

Sticking his head out once he had stepped through, Wayne said, "I'll be back."

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.