P2: Chapter two

1¢op

“I think we should put our arm bands back on before we head into camp.” 1¢op said to SHEgamI, who nodded in agreement. That done they were once again visibly ranked members of the Blue Army. That done 1¢op spoke the pass phrase. Nothing happened. She tried again louder this time, with the same result. She started to turn towards SHEgamI, to ask if she had any ideas. A sound from above startled her and she quickly dropped into her ready stance, and swiveled to try and identify the source of the sound.

It was a ladder, she gestured to SHEgamI as its bottom rung stopped moving about two feet off the ground. Anrkey with an arrow still strung on her bow said, “I should stay down here, keep an eye out while you you check out what’s up there.”

“No need, this area is completely secure, one hundred percent Blue Army!” This declaration was followed by many hoots and cheers of “Blue is better!”

“I guess a lot has changed,”  1¢op said.

SHEgamI shrugged, then unstrung the arrow and replaced it in her quiver, 1¢op started to climb. Soon she could feel the ladder sway slightly as SHEgamI started climbing. Soon a platform came into view. Upon reaching the opening, entrance, of the platform she was greeted by hands. With the help of those hands 1¢op and SHEgamI were standing side by side on the platform, The hole from which they had just emerged at their backs. 1¢op saw that the platform that they stood on was a small part of a sprawling tree structure, seeming a natural part  part of the leafy canopy; a single bridge woven of branches, rope, and planks connected it to another platform.

“Welcome to Bluetopia of the Trees. My name is Toadanaga, I oversee this Gate.” The speaker was a maybe four and a half feet tall toad wearing a kimono carrying a katana in its left hand. “I check in all new arrivals,” Toadanaga said. “I am also charged with debriefing all returning missions. Are you returning from a mission?”

“Yes we are, we have been gone for a while can you please point me towards LeBlu?” 1¢op’s orders had been clear.

Toadanaga blinked then spoke, slowly as if speaking to a child. “Of course, just as soon as I take your report to my supervisor, she will talk with the commander. If he then desires, you can see him. Let us start simple with your name and rank.”

Tired of being talked down to by this piss ant bureaucrat 1¢op snapped, “Sargent, I order you to direct me to LeBlu.”

Eyes bulging Toadanaga turned and yelled, “AnrKEY! There is a Lieutenant here demanding to see the commander.”

The hut was perfectly hidden among leaves, 1¢op had missed it completely. AnrKEY a dark elf, with spiky pink hair, black saggy pants, a worn leather jacket completed the outfit. When AnrKEY stepped clear of the hut, 1¢op saw that her face was heavily scarred, it looked like a circle around what might have been an A. She wore a perpetual smirk, and her voice reflected that. “Then you better tell her where he is. Nevermind. Come on,” this to 1¢op, “I was going there later anyways, I’ll take you.”

“Thanks, I’m Penny, this is SHEgamI.” 1¢op said.

They shook hand all around.  “Let’s go,” AnrKEY said, leading them across a bridge which terminated at another landing. From this landing they took a flight of stairs. “You know? I know your name. Yeah crazy, a little while back I was told to keep an eye out for you.” AnrKEY laughed. “Its coming back now, you are supposed to have important information. LeBlu will be so happy to see you.”

The top of the stairs was a little market lane through the treetops. The lane lead to a three story building which was built into a majestic, almost unbelievably big trunk at the point where many of its huge branches separated. When it was clear that this was their destination, 1¢op asked the question that had been bothering her. “AnrKEY can I ask you a question, I don’t want to be rude?”
“Sure go ahead, I don’t offend easy.”

“Ok, great. How did someone with your name end up a lieutenant in an army?”

AnrKEY scoffed then said “I guess I like irony more than an ideology.” She opened the door then gestured them in. She lead them through a mostly empty social space with a few tables set up. On the far side of this room there was a short flight of stairs. At the top of the stair was the door of LeBlu’s office.

He looked up from his desk when the door opened. 1¢op thought he looked frustrated, but when he recognized her, the lines fell away and his face visibly brightened. “Penny! Welcome back! SHEgamI Welcome. Your timing couldn’t be better. I want to begin implementation of Operation Blue Grass. I have finally gathered the right people, The information you bring me is the final piece. Please sit down. You too AnrKEY, you have a place in this council too, that right, here on Penny’s right.”

Once seated Penny could see that what she had taken as a tablecloth was actually a map of AntruA, or at least a small portion of AntruA. LeBlu spoke again when they were all seated, sitting across the map covered desk from him. “First sync your maps with this one. This is the map that I'm using as the Blue Army’s master map. Once you’ve done that, please begin your debrief.”

It was cool to watch the information flow onto the map, it looked like someone blew the fog away revealing the land beneath. “As you can see we followed this road west a pretty good distance.”  1¢op started. “We crossed those two bridges. After the second bridge the road turned south, It was near here we saw the first soldiers in the Red army. It was a squad of three, They weren’t expecting us, so we got the drop on them. The road leads to the town of Norca, This is where the Red Army was. They seem to be very aggressive in recruiting. They control the all business in the town, but other than that we got no sense of any organization. We talked with many recruits, they all told us the same thing; they were paid. Fifty gold. It was hard to get a head count but We estimated about fifty to sixty Soldier displaying their colors, for the most part they were gathered in one spot, a tavern call Red Room.

“We spoke with many of the Red recruits, but were unable to gain any more useful information. We tried to get them to talk about any missions or if any of them had gone further west. No one knew anything. They all talked about this Tokening. Have you heard anything about this?”

“Yes, some,” LeBlu said, “please tell me what you learned.”

“Ok,” SHEgamI took over the debrief, “it seems that if your Token is looted, you no longer exist in AntruA. Your character is deleted. No one knew that the character got from this but the consensus was they got something. It seems to have them all pretty scared, some are leaving their Tokens in town when they go exploring. It is having the effect of limiting their growth, we didn’t see a single level three. We thought that maybe people were staying at level one because you can’t be Tokened if you don’t have one.”

“That matches what we’ve also found.” LeBlu said, “We have learned what the Tokener gets. Taking a Token will give you some of the Token’s power it also leaves you with some kind of trophy, generally a grizzly one. I recently spoke with the Leader of the Red Army, we both agreed that this brought a level of darkness to AntruA that we didn’t like. Any soldier, from either Army that takes a Token is to be returned to their Army where they will be Tokened. Do you guys have any objection? Good. This Intel is just what I needed. I have only one follow up question. What was the furthest spot that you saw any Red soldiers?”

“Here,” 1¢op answered, “it was that squad of three we ambushed where the road turned south. Those were the only soldiers we saw outside of Norca. I assume they are focusing their attention south. We should send another mission that way to find out what’s there.”

“I agree,” LeBlu said, nodding, he pointed to the map. “I have sent missions south from here and east to Sha. I will send whichever squad comes back first. I need you to start Operation Blue Grass. I am dubbing the road you followed the Crescent Road.” As he spoke the words they appeared on the map. “The first phase of Op BG is to establish new Blue Army outposts at strategic positions. The first one will be here in the delta between those two bridges, its mission will be to monitor and tax the traffic. If we can control both bridges we can control all traffic between Orup and Norca. Hopefully this will have the added benefit of keeping the Red army bottled up. I’m also hoping that this outpost will grow in the same way that Blutopia has.

“AnrKEY I’m promoting you to major. You’re going to be in command of this base. You will pick four soldiers to join you. A key component of your mission is to recruit new soldiers. It is up to you to build a forces that can hold those  bridges. How you do that is really up to you.” He turned to 1¢op and SHEgamI, “I have another important task for your team. I want you to patrol the woods between Norca and the river, do everything you can to keep the Red Army in the dark about the new outpost. Let’s call it The delta.”

“No,” AnrKEY said, “if I’m in command it's Gilman.”

“Perfect. You are both working towards the same goal. To see Gilman grow into a self sustaining fortress. AnrKEY you have overall command to this end. 1¢op, you work independently when you’re in the field. I want you to report back to AnrKEY every few days at first until you have a feel for the delta. Once we have a shop set up there you’ll be able to resupply on unlimited Blue Army credit. Ok take a few minutes to go over the map and cordiant your first moves.”

“I’ll take this lower road to Ourp,” AnrKEY said, “I would like to pick up a recruit or three along the way.”

“We can move fast along the upper road, we’ll bypass Ourp, then scout the road to the first bridge.”  1¢op said, “we’ll back track and meet you in Ourp, we can plan our next move based on whether we find the bridge clear or not.”

“It’s a good plan,” AnrKEY acknowledged, “I’m going to go pick my troops, I’ll see you in Ourp.” She left the office.

“Shall we SHEgamI?” 1¢op asked.

“Yes, let us.” SHEgamI said, with a smile.

1¢op nodded to LeBlu, he smiled and waved, “Good luck, have fun storming the castle.”

SHEgamI was quite as they left Bluetopia. When they had reached the road she started to laugh, soon 1¢op was laughing with her. “It’s all so ridiculous. I mean can they really be this serious.”

“I don’t know,” 1¢op was still laughing a little, “either way I’m having fun with it.”

“Yeah, you’re right, me too. What do you say should we go for it?”

“When I was going through some work training, they taught us to help with our improve skills, like our ability to think on our feet. They taught us to accept the gift, to just say yes.”

“Accept the gift? Say yes? You mean just go with it, right?”

“Exactly, I think we should go for it.”

“Ok.” with trees for witness SHEgamI saluted.

1¢op grinned and saluted back,