LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 30 - Preemptive strike
Chapter 30
Preemptive strike
“So… um, yeah, here’s the situation. I’m on a mission at the moment to find out where these zombie guys are coming from. I would take you back to our village, but I need to continue on. I don’t have time right now to help you guys. So, here’s what’s going to happen now. I have some extra armor and weapons you can use until I return. We’ll find somewhere nearby where y’all can hunker down for a few days. Then, when I return, we’ll all head to the village, okay?” Yeah, they were definitely not okay with that. There was a lot of yelling and begging, which got really awkward, but I had made up my mind. These Ectovizzors were too dangerous to leave so much unknown about them.
With the group I’d rescued complaining the entire time, I found a place where they could hide for a few days, gave them a small bag of holding with some rations, and taught them how to use it. Then, finally, I gave them some weapons and shields so they could at least attempt to protect themselves if something happened to find them. I did all this to the many protests of our new potential citizens, and once I was done handing out stuff, I made my leave. Once again, I was on the hunt for Ectovizzors.
It had been just after three pm when I left the group. I said I’d be back for them and then kept heading north. It was starting to get dark when I got lucky again. I had stopped to eat a snack less because I needed the food and more to break up the monotony. I was dangling my legs off the edge of a collapsed apartment complex, enjoying the evening breeze. I was watching a herd of these cute as fuck, field mouse-looking things. They looked like regular old field mice but with a few minor differences.
First, they had six feet or hands, maybe paws, and they tended to pick up and eat food with the front two. The second thing was that they were three feet tall, but fuck, they were so cute.
I really wanted one as a pet. Instead of pulling a Janet, however, I just stayed where I was and enjoyed watching them hop around looking for food while I snacked on mine. I was just about to get moving again. It had gotten dark, and I needed to return to the hunt. I had put a foot on the ledge of the building, readying myself to drop down, when I saw a large pack of maybe a hundred Ectovizzors burst into the area where the field mouse guys were chilling and started tearing into them viciously. Most of the field mouse creatures took off quickly, but a few weren’t so lucky and were being torn to pieces by the mob.
I stayed on the roof and watched them devour the creatures, and I’m glad I did. They had been munching away at their victims as if their hunger could not be quelled, but when the corpses were about halfway gone, they stopped. It was as if a ripple flowed through the mob, and every Ectovizzor backed away from the bodies. Then, all at once, they walked up to the corpses again, but instead of eating them this time, they picked up the bodies and started carrying them away.
I dropped off the roof when they were gone and made my way over to the scene of the attack. The bodies of their victims had been carried away, but there were several Ectovizzor’s bodies lying dead on the ground. I was glad that the mouse guys didn’t go down without a fight. They were super cute, the mouse things, not the Ectovizzors, and I was pissed off that this was how I found my prey. I looked over in the direction the mob had run off in, and I could make them out about half a block away.
They weren’t moving fast, encumbered as they were. I felt like I had a second to take a look at one of these fuckers for a moment. They were so fucking ugly. Fuck, I mean, they looked like a person but half rotten and bloated. Their eyes were bright orange, and so were the hundreds of little veins that covered their bodies. The hump on the upper back was a whole other ball game. That thing was creepy, and as I looked closer at one glowing orange sack, I could swear I could see something floating around in there. I took another look, checking on the progress of the mob, and I could still make them out about two blocks down now, so I decided to cut the weird orange sack thing open.
I popped a knife out of my bag and stabbed it into the top of the sack. As my knife sliced in, a thick orange blood-like substance started pouring out. I sliced down, cutting through the sack completely. I pulled another dagger from my bag to help me hold the sack open so I could see what was inside. As the goopy, thick, orang ooze poured out of the sack, I could start to make out what seemed to be something that had been living inside. As the fluid finished sloshing out, the inside of the sack began to come into view. I almost wish it hadn’t. It was revolting. It was a truly horrifying creature.
The actual body of an Ectovizzor was a millipede-type thing. It looked like it was made of mercury or some alien metal. It had hundreds of metal legs, each with multiple joins ending in a sharp, thin needle. Most of its metal leg-like things were dug in and fussed to their host. They also had a long, spiny tail buried in the host body, and if I were to guess, it was connected to the spine in its human host body. There was a small head on the other end of the creature with itty bitty teeth that looked sharp as hell, but I couldn’t make out any eyes on the thing.
Shit, I guess when you spent your life linked to the senses of a host body, you really didn’t need many of your own. The thing was dead for sure, and by that point, the mob had left my view, and it was time to go. I wiped my daggers on a piece of dead Ectovizzor clothing and put them back in my bag. I started a slow jog that was still faster than I could have sprinted pre-integration, so I was making good time and quickly caught up with the back of the group.
I kept my distance and continued like that for a long time. Only as dawn began to light the sky did it finally look like we had reached our destination. I had totally lost my bearings and had no idea where I was. We might be near Antioch or Pittsburgh. I really couldn’t tell. The Ectovizzor headed into a large cave cut into the side of a hill. The opening was about sixty feet wide by maybe thirty feet high, and as they headed in, I broke off from following to find somewhere I could hide and observe.
After an hour of sitting behind a flipped car with nothing happening, I saw a group of fifty or so Ectovizzors leave the cave and head off. I assumed to do some more hunting. I tucked myself farther behind the car I was hiding behind so they wouldn’t see me, but I need not have worried as they headed out in a different direction than my hiding spot. That was a relief, but I still had to find out more about these Ectovizzors one way or the other. I sat there for another twenty minutes. I decided fuck it. It was time to dig a little deeper. Maybe it was out of boredom, maybe it was my genius tactical mind, but I entered the cave to see what was going on inside.
I made my way over to the cave mouth and peered inside as discreetly as possible. Nothing, well, not nothing, but no Ectovizzors. It was just a large empty chamber with a tunnel leading deeper into the ground at the back. I guess I was going in there. I wasn’t going to find out anything from here. I gave myself a soft slap to the face and walked inside. I had been wandering in almost complete darkness for what must have been an hour at least. I could make out the tunnel’s walls, but it felt weird not to have seen any Ectovizzors by this point.
Almost as if my thoughts were prophetic, about a few minutes later, I saw light begin to flood the tunnel I was in. I started moving more cautiously and preparing myself for a fight as I inched closer to the light. Again, I shouldn’t have worried because when I reached the end of the tunnel, it opened onto a significant camber. I was about fifty feet above the chamber floor on a ledge. I looked out into the massive chamber, and my mouth dropped in shock.
The chamber was about four square acres, and there were hundreds of Ectovizzors moving about down on the chamber floor. The centerpiece of it all was a giant pyramid made from various materials. At its peak, it almost reached the roof of the space. There was a large table at its base, but I couldn’t see much more from my position. I was a little confused about how the group of Ectovizzors had gotten down from here when I noticed a small path that led down to the chamber floor from where the tunnel let out.
Honestly, this was a lot. I mean fuck, I truly thought if their force wasn’t too large, I would just kill them all, then go back to the village and tell them the problem was dealt with, but this, this was a lot. There were maybe fifteen or twenty thousand of them down there, and it was overwhelming. I needed to stop and think for a second. Yep, I was getting the fuck out of here. I almost threw some goblin grenades into the chamber, but I figured I had made it this far without being discovered. Why push my luck? Besides, it was really better if they never knew I was here. Didn’t want to let them know we knew where they were. That would ruin the whole surprise attack thing we would try to hit them with later.
I made my way out of the cave and retreated through the tunnel, but my luck ran out during my retreat. Halfway to the cave exit, I heard the shuffling and groaning sounds that indicated a group of Ectovizzors was headed my way. I started freaking out for a second, trying to find a place to hide, but there was nowhere to hide. I was fucked. I began to ready myself for a fight when I remembered I was fucking Jesus! It was a habit now to circulate my Mana at all times, so it was only a quick jog, and I was standing on the tunnel’s ceiling. I stood there and watched the Ectovizzors pass by underneath me. Never the wiser, I was right over their heads.
After they passed, I returned to the streets and headed back to the village. On my way back, I tried to retrace my steps to find that group of people I’d left behind. Probably not one of my better ideas, but as my stats had grown, I’d definitely noticed improved memory and, more specifically, better recall. For instance, I could remember my dinner three weeks ago if I thought about it. I could tell you who I ate with and what the night was like, warm, cold. Fuck I could even remember what I had been wearing down to my underwear. Look, maybe some people could do all that pre-integration, but for me, it was mind-blowing. Before the integration, I was lucky if I remembered what I ate for breakfast or what underwear I was wearing at any given time. Shit was still tripping me out.
Thanks to my fantastic recall, I found them. They were alive but had to fend out something or other. There were some fresh wounds on them, for sure. Hey, they were all alive and would be doing much better as soon as we got back to Treehouse, so I’m gonna call it a win. They were still pretty pissed off at me for leaving them, but they seeded to not want to upset me too bad, at least for now. Once we got back to the village, I’m sure they’d let Beth know, and then I might be in some hot water, but that was future me’s probably.
Right now, I just needed to get these people back to the village safely. Then, I’d let the council know what I found out about our Ectovizzor problem, and problem it was. We made it back to the village by morning. We reached the walls, and I could see the visible signs of relief on the group’s faces. I called for the gate to be opened, dropped our new citizens off at intake, and then headed to the council room. Well, I went to my room first to take a nice hot shower and change, then headed to the council room. It was too early for anyone to be in there, but I figured I could take a nap while waiting. I ended up taking a nap, I got fucking board, okay, and everyone slept in or some shit. So, no one got to the council room till around noon.
That was when Janet walked in with Beth. The door closing woke me up, but I guess they hadn’t seen me on the couch, so they both jumped out of their boots when I said what’s up? Janet even turned around and threw a dagger at me. The dagger landed in my arm and sunk in up to the hilt.
“Ow, good morning to you too, Janet. Hi Beth. So, I found ’em. We should get everyone together. We gotta talk.”
“Shit, Travis, you ass. Don’t fucking scare people like that. Fuck. You’re lucky I saw it was you and aimed for your arm at the last moment instead of your heart. Hell, still probably wouldn’t have done shit to you. You heartless ass. Sorry about the dagger. Just fuck! You know?” I laughed at Janet getting pissed, then switching to concern, and then back to pissed. It was so cute. I pulled the dagger out of my arm and tossed her the dagger.
“My bad, but no harm, no foul, and seriously, we need to get everyone here ASAP. We need to discuss the Ectovizzors.” I said.
“Is it that bad?” Beth asked, and I just gave her a look. Beth looked at my face, then took a step back. With a worried look on her face, Beth said,
“You’re scaring me, Travis. Are we in trouble?”
“We need to talk about it, but I don’t want to repeat myself. Let’s just gather the council.” I said. Janet stepped over to me and put a hand on my arm.
“Hey, you, okay? Travis?” Janet asked me.
“Yeah, or well, I think I will be. It was just a little overwhelming.” I told them. Janet and Beth both gave me a look and then they were off to find the other council members. I had made a push to bring on Dean as a new council member, but Beth had told me that we would be getting new council members after the vote, which was still scheduled to take place in two weeks. Beth had been spending time socializing with our recent additions to the village to reassure voters that she was the best choice for the job. We had made a rule, however, that if you arrived at the village in the last thirty days, you would not participate in the voting.
It would just cause chaos with the results, and no one wanted that. Beth had at least one main opponent in the election, a man named Finneas Ballantine. He was the leader of a group that had joined the village pretty soon after we defeated the master. Their group had been one of the more problematic groups we had brought into the village. The dude was super charismatic and charming but gave me a totally creepy vibe. Honestly, the guy gave off more of a cult leader vibe than anything else. I had even asked Beth if I could just kill the guy, but she said that would be wrong. He really hadn’t done much more than spit out promises and assurances he had no way to deliver.
Beth wasn’t very worried about him, and I don’t think she even saw him as competition for her position, but I had been less and less sure about that as the weeks went on. He had developed a small group of ardent supporters who were quietly sowing unrest among the population. Several public gatherings had to be dispersed because they became disruptive to the other citizens. He was his own worst enemy in a way, but he was still slowly gathering more and more support. I think the real reason Beth didn’t just cave and let Dean on the council was because if she let Dean in, She’d have to let Finneas in as well, and she was not going to let that happen. I sat there thinking while everyone was gathered. It took about twenty minutes for everyone to assemble in the council room, but we got straight to it when we were all gathered.
I told them about the Ectovizzors, and then I told them about the captives, probably going to be used as host bodies. I told them about their massive underground town and their numbers. That meeting was not fun, but inevitably, we all came to the same conclusion: extermination. Even if we could find a way to coexist, their nature and being were fundamentally incompatible with humanity. They saw humans as food and vessels for the species. We were no more than cattle to them, seen as less than. I was pretty sure they saw us as less than, and that would make any negotiations much more difficult. So extermination was really our only recourse.
The plan came down to two things. First, a small group, probably just consisting of Janet and I, would make our way into the cave and then to their underground village. Once there, we would run along the ceiling till we made it to the back of the cavern, and then we would start a mass bombing operation while making our way back out. The second half of the plan was to use the cave to create a pinch point that would funnel any Ectovizzors trying to escape toward our waiting fighters. Our troops would then proceed to systematically destroy them. I liked it. I even thought it had a good chance of working, but when the battle started, it always seemed to find a way to devolve into chaos at some point. I just hoped we could hold strong and eliminate the Ectovizzor problem in one fell swoop.
Brianna, Devin, Tess, and Dean would lead the force that would block the Ectovizzor’s escape and hand-pick a group of two hundred fighters to join them. We had a fuck tone of the goblin grenades from all the dungeon runs our people were doing. So Janet and I had no problem filling two bags of holding with as many grenades as would fit, and it was quite a bit. Each bag had five slots, and each slot would hold ninety-nine grenades. You do the math. We were ready to go in and fuck shit up. Things were about to get rowdy in the Ectovizzor village, that was for sure.
It took the rest of the day for Brianna, Devin, Tess, and Dean to get their team together, but by dinner, everything was ready for us to head out first thing in the morning. The atmosphere of the evening wasn’t quite as raucous as a typical night in the village. I think everyone knew that some of our people probably would not be returning after tomorrow’s battle. It was inevitable that we would lose some of our fighters. We were, of course, trying to minimize losses at all costs, but people died in battle. That was just what happened, and I think everyone could feel the tension in the air.
The village went to bed early that night, and most people spent time with the people in their lives that they loved. Even if they wouldn’t be headed out to fight in the morning, they still felt the need to hold the ones they cared for close. This new world was full of unknown dangers. At any point, a day may come when you could lose everything. We were trying to make Treehouse Village a place where people would be safe, but nothing felt completely safe anymore. I think the vulnerability everyone experienced during the integration was still too raw. It felt like they could be right back where they were before they made it to the village, scared, confused, and in constant danger.
I was afraid the emotions of the night before would carry over to the morning, but it seemed I couldn’t have been more wrong. As I walked through the village, people were mobilizing to leave, and even the village members not participating in the battle had hard looks on their faces that spoke volumes. The people of Treehouse Village wouldn’t go down without a fight. They were ready, if not willing, to meet our enemies with violence at their fingertips and rage in their hearts. As I reached the staging area for the raid, every member of our force walked around with fire in their eyes. They were ready to destroy those who had shown themselves to be enemies of Treehouse Village, and nothing would stand in their way.
I had to lead our force to the Ectovizzors, seeing as I was the only person who actually knew where they were, and once everyone was suited up, we headed out. It would take a while to get there with this larger group, but with stats, it would go quicker. I knew where they were now, so we could also take a straighter route than I had the last time. That made the trip much shorter and would also shave some time off. When I figured we were about twenty or so minutes from our target, I called a halt to our march. I was pretty sure I knew where the Ectovizzors village was from here, but I thought it was best if Janet and I went ahead and scouted out the situation.
When Janet and I returned, we could then plan accordingly from there. I led Janet the twenty minutes to the cave that was the entrance to the underground village, and we stacked out the place for a good twenty minutes before we felt confident that we could bring our fighters up without a problem. The cave mouth had been inactive the entire time we had sat there watching, and we didn’t see any signs of that changing. We returned to our people and clued the rest of our team in on what we had seen. The plan hadn’t changed, and it was time to get ready to move out. In the next ten minutes, we were headed towards the cave mouth to get our fighters in position when things went to shit.
We were crossing an intersection five minutes from our target. A mass of fallen buildings was blocking our view of the streets on either side of us when we were attacked. Our people were about to pass through an intersection when fifty Ectovizzors poured out of the street to our left. Our forces were caught by surprise, but they were already amped for the fight to come, and it only took a second for them to start tearing into the enemy with tariffing ferocity. In under five minutes, the entire force of Ectovizzors was dismantled, and we were ready to keep moving. Once our fighters were ready and waiting on either side of the entrance to the cave, Janet and I headed in to play our part in the plan.
We stayed on the tunnel floor, not wanting to waste Mana unless necessary, running on the ceiling. We were almost to the tunnel’s exit when we heard what sounded like a hunting party of Ectovizzors headed towards us. I looked at Janet, and we walked up the wall and onto the ceiling, where we crouched and tried to make ourselves as small as possible. Sure enough, a group of about fifty Ectovizzors ran underneath us a minute later and then were gone just as fast, not a single one the wiser we were there. We dropped back down to the tunnel floor, and soon, we stood at the tunnel exit looking out at the Ectovizzor village.
I let Janet have a second to look around, and I could tell she was a little overwhelmed by the view. As I took a second to look around myself, and as I did, I noticed the Ectovizzors were having some kind of ceremony. At the base of the pyramid, most of the population must have been gathered before the large table. There was a line of what looked like unectovizised people off to one side of the table, and the line stretched behind a building and out of view.
This wasn’t good. We knew Ectovizzors might have some captive humans in the village, but we weren’t expecting anything on this level. We had thought the numbers would be low and had just called it acceptable losses, but this wasn’t part of the plan. There weren’t supposed to be this many humans in here. This was supposed to be a seek-and-destroy mission, not a rescue mission. If we didn’t want to kill a fuck ton of humans in the process of exterminating the Ectovizzors, we would have to change our plan on the fly. “Fuck.” Janet finally said.