Chapter 53: Hope and Fear III

  Marcus loved the last guard shift. He didn’t need much sleep anyway and he enjoyed the sunrise more than any other time of the day. He watched how the rays of a strange sun pierced the thick treetops and brought light into the dark. A small red flower with sprinkles of purple grew on one of the trees. Morning dew dripped from its petals and Marcus mused how many secrets were hidden in this jungle alone. Legions of biologist could work for ages to uncover them all and it would only be a fraction of what this planet alone had to offer. But there was no time for it, humanity had no time for things like this anymore. Everything had become so absurd, Marcus thought. We are overloaded with hundreds of new worlds, alien technologies and the whole class system.

  He enjoyed the silence of the morning and was very happy that once again, a night ended without an incident. It was the start of their fourth day on this world and they were only an hour or so away from the portal. After the first day no further large scale attacks had hit them and they eventually had a bit of good luck. The forest got more sparse improving the travel speed.

  From time to time the hell monkeys had gotten close but Janette and an Elemental Mage had made it their sport to shoot them down before they got too close. Janette’s performance had greatly improved the opinion of the other class holders. With no further combat Marcus had avoided revealing his healing ability, for now.

  The camp was rising very quickly this morning, even so most of the scientists were exhausted from the trek. Everybody was feeling anxious about the meeting with the orks, Marcus thought. He walked back to his tent and the tension in the air grew with every minute. Once they were through the portal, the city was only about a dozen kilometer away and the land on the other side was far easier to travel on. Janette crawled out of her tent, already fully geared and ready to go “Ready for some peace making?” she said weighting her rifle in her hand. “Just hope, we will not need that.” Came from behind her, Ms. Taylor walked by with a smirk on her face.

  After a hasty breakfast the convoy pushed through the last stretch of jungle in record speed and soon enough Marcus could see the faint glow of the portal through the foliage. When they arrived, the front team had already secured the portal and put a burner unit on it. Marcus looked at the small device that was just a gas tank and an adjustable burner head. The small flame pierced the portal and the small amount of thermal energy was enough to ensure the portal would be stable for now.

  Marcus and the rest of the convoy tried to get a look through the portal but all he saw was grassland, a few rocks and trees. It could have been Earth for all he knew.

  The commander waved them over “I want your eyes in the front. Your team will be with the first to step over.” Ms. Taylor talked to Janette. Over the last days her opinion on Janette and the team as a whole had greatly improved. Kou had been very helpful with floating heavy equipment over problematic parts of the path and Janette together with Achara made for great scouts. Only Marcus was once again a little bit useless. Not that Janette pointed that out, every time.

  “Okay everybody!” Ms. Taylor shouted and everybody turned and fell silent. “Remember this is a peaceful mission, hold back as much as you can. There will be tension but it is up to the diplomats to make things work. IF things go pear shaped we will fall back beyond the gate and hold it as long as possible to allow the civilians to get away safely. But I’m an optimist and I believe we will today make the first contact with an alien civilization. Let’s make history!” People clapped and then it was go time.

  They stepped through the portal and a drier and colder air welcomed Marcus. They were on a hilly grassland, as expected, but Marcus could also see forests in the distance. The spearhead of class holders quickly fanned out and covered the area around the portal. The civilians with the rear guard followed a minute later. Everything was peaceful and Marcus could hear some bird cries. He looked into the sky and spotted a colorful bird circling high above the grassland. The scientists were already whispering and discussing what they saw, while Janette stepped to the commander.

  “How is it?” Ms. Taylor asked without looking at her or giving away what was said. “We are already surrounded.” Janette said with a cold voice. “How many?” the commander asked “I would guess about a dozen but…” Marcus could see the tension in Janette’s face. “..they are all extremely strong. At least level 100 I would say.”

  There has never been a scientific explanation how class holders can estimate the strength of others. But may it be experience or some subconscious ability, when you meet a class holder you quickly get a feeling if they are stronger or weaker. Marcus had learned this too in time. A monster like Kim was of course very easy to spot, the same was true for Cherry or Jack from Sleeping Sky. It was not an exact science but the bigger the difference in level the greater the feeling of oppression. Marcus would not dismiss the idea that this was a passive feature of the class system. But right now he hoped against all reason that Janette and her eyes were wrong, because a dozen level 100 could wipe them out in less than a minute. And what genius predicted that the orks would only have low level class holders?

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  Ms. Taylor gasped and clenched her teeth. “Keep me up to date what they are doing.”. She walked to Carmen and some of the diplomats and whispered with them. A minute later Janette gave a signal “They had a talk and now one of them is approaching.” she pointed in the direction of a nearby group of trees. Marcus did not see anything until a large figure moved out of the shadows of the dark green leafed trees. The man wore fitting armor that looked well crafted and made from alien materials, he had no weapon in hand and moved slowly towards the human group.

  “Everybody keep your weapons down.” Ms. Taylor said over the com line. The stranger had come closer and now Marcus could clearly see the dark green skin. The man stopped about 50 meter away from the group and waited. Two of the diplomats, a man and a woman, slowly made their way to the man, only armed with a tablet. Marcus watched them greet the man and he made a little bow and said something but Marcus was too far away to hear anything.

  “This is good. Talking is good.” Ms. Taylor stood next to Marcus, and like him she watched the meeting. Marcus looked back at the ork and he agreed with Janette, this man felt extremely strong. Even so he was alone he exuded an air of confidence and Marcus instinct said that he was far stronger than him or anybody else in the security group.

  The talk went on for some time. Marcus saw a lot of gestures and the use of the tablet helped greatly. Ten and then fifteen minutes went by and everybody started to relax. Another of the diplomats had joined the conversation and they seemed to make progress. The tall ork made a hand sign and only seconds later another ork joined him. It was a woman and she moved with incredible speed and agility over the grassland. The two exchanged words and the woman went away again.

  Shortly after ten more orks slowly walked up to them. They were armed but did not make any signs of hostility. “They are going to escort us to their city. They understand we are messengers or traders maybe.” One of the diplomats explained shortly after. Ms. Taylor nodded and gave the order to move out.

  Marcus stayed next to Janette on the way and watched the diplomats talking with the first ork and two of the others. It was the exchange of very simple ideas. “They seemed to be as interested in us as we are in them.” Janette said after a while and Marcus agreed. He could see the eyes of the orks wander over the human faces and the equipment they had with them. The thing that surprise Marcus the most was how smooth everything went and how disciplined the orks were. He had a very different impression of them until now. That said, now that he was this close to them he could tell they were different than the ones he had faced so far. Even if you ignore their equipment and power level they looked more refined. Their faces, their hair and hands, everything felt a bit more elegant than the rough bodies he had encountered until now.

  The quick ork woman vanished eventually and Marcus expected she went ahead to give news of their arrival. As they approached the city after over two hours of walking, Marcus realized that the walls were much higher than he thought. Fifteen meter tall, thick stone walls and a heavily reinforced metal gate welcomed them, but the gate stood open and no array of archers threatened them. They came to a stop about 100 meter from the walls “I think somebody important is going to greet us now. Things are looking good. They are very intelligent and sophisticated I must say.” The male diplomat Jerry “something”, Marcus tried to remember the name, said in a hushed voice.

  The orks left them alone and a larger group of orks moved out of the city and Marcus’s legs turned to jelly. If the gear of the orks was not enough of the sign the raw power they exuded made it clear that they were facing the elites of the city. Two dozen ork men and women clad in various armors and arms of great quality marched up to them in a show of power. But it was the pair of women in their midst that made Marcus doubt his eyes.

  The woman at the front of the ork group wore armor of unknown material and origin. It looked like silver and perfectly matched her tall body. Her head was hidden behind a large ceremonial mask of silver material, that was adorned with long red feathers. She stopped only a few meter away from the humans and took her mask off and Marcus was overwhelmed by terror and fascination. She was beautiful, regal and absolutely breathtaking.

  Her perfect face was framed by long glossy black hair and her eyes were dark and perfect like pearls. But she was also the most terrifying person he had every met. Her eyes moved over the humans and Marcus felt like something heavy was dragging him down. She was strong, unbelievable strong, even Kim could not hope to measure up to her. Level 150? no, 180! 200? Marcus had problems breathing and the other class holders were struggling too.

  Was she the leader? She had to be! The woman engaged the diplomats into a conversation and Marcus could hear a beautiful and clear voice speaking in a rhythmic, unknown tongue.

  The other woman stepped out behind the leader(?) and walked slowly along the human group. Marcus watched her and cold fear ran down his spine. The woman was nearly as tall as the other woman but they were nothing alike. She had shoulder long black hair and her neck was unusually long. She wore a long ornamented robe covered with unknown symbols. Her face was painted completely white and reminded him somehow of a hawk, it was sharp and her eyes seemed to be on the hunt, moving from human to human. One of her hands gently touched an ornamented, curved knife on her hips. Marcus knew, just knew, she was a Blood Mage and while the other woman felt regal this one only caused terror in Marcus’ chest. She moved along the human lines and eventually her eyes fell on Marcus and she stopped.

  The female Blood Mage pointed at him and started shouting…