Puskurunuwa, Urses, Aden, Volodar, Christina, Nikos
Cowritten by @Tackytaff, @Terrans, @Bingelly, @Tackytaff, @Shadow Daedalus
Puskurunuwa trailed behind, content to be quietly forgotten by the other, armed, members of their group as they made their way through the abandoned fortress. His lack of sleep and weariness of new travel-mates had left him with a stone of worry in his chest that only sank lower the further they progressed with no signs of resistance. By the time they crossed the gates, Nuwa was twitching with nervous energy; tugging at his sleeves and pacing a path between bastions while the others continued chatting. No job should ever be so easy, no matter how planned, how much luck.. But that wasn’t the sort of thing Nuwa, the Circus Performer and Nothing Else, was supposed to know, and so he remained a quiet shadow.
Even reaching sight of their goal, sparkling and waiting just passed an open door didn’t loosen the grip of dread that continued to coil around his insides. The exact value of gold bars and different currencies was all rather lost to Nuwa, but the aching want that came with seeing shiny, valuable things stirred in him anyways, right alongside an itch starting in the centre of his palms. He tore his eyes away before drool could start puddling from his mouth. Nuwa could be patient; and had little desire to spend the rest of the day doing manual labour besides.
“I’ll look around the place too,” He said, turning from the vault to stand beside Urses and give a too-wide grin to Zoe as he looked between her face and the weapon placed in her hands. “You’ll come rescue us if you hear shouting right?”
Aden hung at the rear as the others descended on the gold. Plans for the future and how to get rid of the gold dominating their minds. He could admit that the amount of gold was rather staggering; mind boggling if Zoe’s claim of more levels was correct. But what his mind was stuck on was the absence of everybody from the fort. No communalists were within easy striking distance and yet no one was within the walls. No patriots or diehards. Aden had only been a part of the military remnants within Inbur and they had held their posts even as the Communalist artillery had emplaced on the outskirts. And the Private was definitely not the most die hard trooper of the Inburrian army.
He sidled over to Zoe waiting till the others were a distance away, “For an ordinary girl you seem to know a lot about this place. Tell me… what would cause every single person to abandon the national reserve? No questions or malingers?”
"Orders," she replied after a moment of thought, "Take what they can and shift it North to Grendell. Blow the rail line to stop the communalists getting from Inbur easily and hope to retake this position when the front is stabilised," she shrugged, "Though I was expecting to have to charm my way in."
“Orders…..” Aden said the line with strained amusement. Huffing a laugh as he went off not to the hole but to find the castle’s ammunition. Gold did not concern him; the fact the zeppelin did not have his sniper’s caliber did.
"Mister Petrides, Private Robertson," Volodar called out, interrupting with a well practiced tone that made it clear he was giving orders under the thin veil of politeness. "Your assistance with the gold would be appreciated. Mister Mallory should be able to find the medical wing well enough on his own"
Urses was about to comment on the idea of exploring the rest of the fortress alone being a tad reckless, but he adjusted his reply as Aden started to go off on his own. Sighing, he turns to the others briefly. "I'll go with Robertson, just in case there's any nasty surprises the garrison might have left behind." Slinging his rifle, he caught up to the marksman with a short jog and fell into step next to him. "Probably not the best idea to go wandering on your own before we've cleared the place, hmm?"
“What? You think the garrison left a horde of orcs behind?” Aden didn’t seem concerned as he mounted a short flight of stairs and took them slowly.
The medic gives a dry snort in return. "Hand grenade on a tripwire, primed beartrap hidden amongst supply crates, Maybe a straggler with a hair trigger... Plenty of ways a retreating force can rig a trap if they're clever about it, and if one of us does get caught by one when they're alone, their chances go way down. "
“Plenty of ways sure. But such devices would be closer to the value of this place. Mainly that giant stack of gold everyone is salivating over.” Aden exited the staircase into a new corridor. Wooden doors interspersed the hall; lights in even intervals cast shadows from their mounts above the doors. Besides the doors hung wooden placards with stenciled black letters, “Let’s see where they keep the ammo in this dump.”
"Even leaving this, arsenal might be the one place they bothered to rig." Chamer warned, testing the cart with first load of gold to see how easy it was to move. "Blow this whole place sky high."
“A trap is left where you know someone is going to be. Like perhaps the main door we waltzed through or perhaps those gold pallets you all rushed without any thought!” Aden shouted down the stairs. Trying a doorknob next to a door labeled ‘Ammo #18’.
***
Back on the ship, Christina scowled as she walked into the cargo hold and found Nikos hard at work, rearranging stores so that they could be moved out of the hold to make room for the gold, "Oy!" She called out, her mouth a grim line.
"What?" Nikos called back, "Oh, it's you. What do you want?"
She met his scowl with one of her own. "When gold is loaded, count it. No more than 1,153 bars. center of compartment."
"Yes, I worked it out," Nikos retorted, glaring back at her.
"Good, I hate explaining repeatedly," the mechanic retorted, then walked back into the interior.
