171 Los (1/2)
Far Harbor, Civic Center
The reception room's furniture had been rearranged the night before, now a long table was set in the middle of the room with high back chairs all around. Yet only two of the chairs were occupied, one by Fleet Master Dijon while opposite him sat the Princess. The rest of his Captains and aides stood respectfully behind him while the Princess's retinue did the same.
A piece of parchment was placed before each of them, with a pen for them to sign the terms and conditions listed. ”The Isles will provide, 10,000 stones* of iron, copper, zinc, lead, nickel, and tin each. 5,000 heads of egg-laying bird wyverns and 1,000 heads of muffalo. 2 Flying Fish class schooners and a dozen fishing boats.” Princess Sherene read from the contents written down on the contract. (*1 stone is 100 kg)
”In exchange, We will provide 10,000 repeating crossbows, 10,000 sets of half-plate armor, 10,000 sets of half faced helmets, 20,000 sets of cutlass and 10,000 sets of long daggers, all made out of carbon steel. 20,000 small sized 'mason' jars with lids for food canning, and 1,000 pure glass panels.” Sherene looked up from the contract and smiled sweetly, ”All to be traded within two month's time.”
”Hmph,” Fleet Master Dijon frowned, acting like he got cheated by the Princess. The two flying fish class schooners were over 5 years old and leaking, and well below the Isle's standards for an ocean faring ship, while the fish boats were small sized and cheap and easy to manufacture.
Princess Sherene smiled despite knowing that Dijon most like will be giving her two of the oldest ships in his fleet, but Blake had said that it was alright to accept the deal, as they plan to tear the ships down to learn how to make their own and with the discovery of the shipwreck off the coast of Goblin Sea, Blake had told her not to inform the Islanders about the discovery, as he planned to salvage the wreck for their own use once the Islanders has returned.
Well. at least glass was cheap and easy to make for us, thought Sherene, as she signed and stamped her official seal onto the parchment and did the same with the other copy. ”Pleasure to do business with you, Fleet Master. I hope there will be more opportunities for more trade between us.”
Dijon nodded and gave a bow, ”The pleasure is mine, of course, as a merchant, we will never turn down our clients.”
”Now, let's us celebrate!” Dijon grinned, his early expression of a stern face disappearing as he picked up a glass of wine and toasted to the Princess.
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Somewhere in the Forest, North of the wreck
Mills cursed, as he slapped at some insect buzzing around his ear. He wiped beads of sweat off his face, his helmet long removed hours ago and secured to his harness webbing, and he wore a jungle hat instead.
He looked around at his surrounding men, looking at their tired and listless faces as they toiled through the forest mindlessly, barely keeping an eye around their surroundings. They had been following the tracks for more than a day and their supplies had run out, while the LT tried to call for a supply run, the interference in the forest blocked all of their attempts to communicate out.
The tracks there were following led them deeper into the forest, an unexplored region the Marines and Surveyors had barely touched, hence there were no maps, nor even transmission towers installed and the dumb fuck LT had to bring them in without any re-supply, Mills cursed in his mind.
”Sarge!” One of the Marines called out, ”Where are we going?”
”Hell if I know...” Mills replied harshly. ”Keep your eyes open! We are in an unknown territory!”
”Damn, Sarge, does the L T knows what he is doing?” The Marines gestured to the rear where the Lieutenant was.
Mills looked back, spotting Lieutenant Coraths flipping over a map. Mills shook his head as he watched the antics of the Lieutenant. Does that idiot know this area is not mapped?
Finally unable to bear the embarrassment the Lieutenant was causing to the rest of the platoon, Mills went up to Coraths and gently took the map away from his hands. ”Sir, this area is not mapped, you can't find anything in this.”
”Wh-what?” Lieutenant Coraths looked up in surprise, ”Why did you tell me earlier? You made me look like a fool!” He hissed to Mills angrily.
Mills sighed, ”Sir, I think we should stop and retrace our steps back to the wreck. We have been out of radio contact for at least 16 hours!”
”No! We came so far already to give up, and HQ ordered to follow the tracks!” Lieutenant Coraths stubbornly replied.
”Sir, we have no lines of supply nor communications, HQ most likely has dispatched another platoon to look for us.” Mills replied. ”We need to re-establish comms as the priority!”
”No, our mission stands,” Coraths glared at Mills, ”Sergeant, do your duty, don't teach me how to do my job! We continue on!”
”Alright, enough slacking around! Let's move!” Coraths bushed past Mills and yelled at the rest of the Marines who grumbled and continued on, following the point men.
Mills closed his eyes as he counted down to one, cooling his temper before he turned and followed the rest of his men, muttering under his breath, ”Don't make me shoot you behind your back, asshole...”
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Camp Alpha, Commandant's Office
Major Frank frowned as he looked at the screen of his computer. He picked up the handset and keyed for Master Sergeant Pike's communicator. ”Top? What's the news with the missing Alpha Company's platoon?”
”Major, we lost contact with them roughly 18 hours ago. They were supposed to report in every two hours, but as that area has no radio coverage, the communication operators did not sound out the alert till just now.” Pike replied.
”Damn, send out a search party, and request for air support from the Air Force,” Frank ordered, ”Who's leading the lost platoon?”
”Lieutenant Coraths Riveria, ranked 49 out of 175 Officer cadets in Class 2. Decent grades and command scores.” Pike replied as he forwarded the dossier on Coraths over to Frank from his workstation at Sawtooth Mountain Command. ”His instructors' comments were that he is quite a mission focused and likes to follow the book to the letter.”
”I see,” Frank nodded, ”Sent the search party out, dead or alive, find them.”
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Sawtooth Mountain, Air Force Base, Dragon Pen 2