Path to the Apocalypse

“What the shit Chris?!?” Zack exclaimed as the squad filed into his space for the night.

“Hm?” Chris blinked at him, still pretty exhausted from the day. “Oh, the space. Yeah, it got bigger.”

“Why!?!” Zack asked.

“I drained that one's energy.” Chris waved at Tibolt, yawning as he did. Fuck he was tired. He'd only gotten to sleep for an hour or so before he had to go on watch for four hours. “Absorbing energy makes the space grow. And possibly stronger. Haven't fully tested that part yet.”

“I think we could fit the whole platoon in here.” Derek muttered, looking around. “And it can get bigger?”

“Should be able to.” Chris nodded, rubbing his eyes. “Look, guys, I'm exhausted. Can we talk about this in the morning? I need to report all this to Captain Nefred anyway.”

“Right, yes, everyone get to sleep!” Beth clapped her hands, shaking herself from her own thoughts. “We've got another long day ahead of us tomorrow!”

The rest of the squad hesitated for a moment before nodding in agreement, finding spots to bed down for the night. Now that the space was bigger, Chris really needed to add some more material so he could make actual beds for the squad. Plus the new minions. Chris dismissed the thoughts as he curled up next to Beth, Jello still stubbornly insisting on being his pillow, dimming the space and leaving a portal open to the camp in case the platoon needed them, before sleep finally took him.

*

The next morning, while the squad was getting a quick breakfast before heading out for their scouting rotation, Chris headed over to Captain Nefred. “Did you manage to dominate one of the imps?” The captain asked as Chris arrived.

“I got all four, sir.” Chris confirmed.

Captain Nefred blinked. “Did you now? Impressive. Have you discovered any pertinent information?”

“I haven't had a chance to interrogate them yet, sir.” Chris replied. “I was wondering if you'd prefer to ask them yourself, or wait until I have a chance later today.”

Captain Nefred considered it for a moment. “The interrogation can wait until you can perform it yourself.” He finally replied. “Who am I to deny you a chance to demonstrate your capabilities?”

“Yes, sir. I'll have a report ready for you by tomorrow morning.” Chris saluted, then returned to the squad. Not much later the squad before them in rotation returned, handing over the map, and they quickly packed up and headed out for another six hours of clearing tunnels.

“Hey Chris, your new minions should know where all the traps are, right?” Derek commented as they made their way to where the last squad had stopped. “Couldn't we just have them clear the tunnels for us?”

Chris frowned, scratching his head. “I guess… I'm not sure how comfortable they'd feel helping us attack their tribe though.”

Zack rolled his eyes. “Chris, they're minions. Who cares if they're comfortable?”

“I do?” Chris replied. “Even if they have to obey me, I'd rather they do it willingly than have to micromanage them constantly. It's better to have friends than puppets, isn't it?”

“Doesn't that sort of defeat the purpose of capturing them in the first place?” Nadia pointed out. “Why have them if you can't use them?”

Chris shook his head. “I'm still going to interrogate them, and if I need to use them to keep the squad safe, then it's happening whether they like it or not, but I don't think there's any benefit in pushing them for a minor convenience. They're already in a bad position, and I'm not going to make it worse for no good reason.”

“That's reasonable I suppose…” Nadia muttered, mentally adjusting any plans to only involve the imps if necessary, more because she knew she couldn't convince Chris otherwise than because she actually agreed. Not that Chris wouldn't listen if she did tell him to use them, but a good tactician didn't antagonize their squad by forcing them to do things they didn't want to do… On second thought, maybe she did agree with Chris.

They soon arrived at the most recently cleared tunnel, briefly checking it over before moving on to the next. They were getting closer to the imp tribe, so the traps were becoming more complex and better hidden, forcing them to double and triple check for anything suspicious. Thankfully there weren't any interruptions this time, so even with the slower progress, they still managed to clear eight tunnels before their shift was over. They returned to the camp and did their two hours on watch before their four hour break.

“Alright, I'm heading in to talk to the imps.” Chris announced as the next squad took over the watch.

“I'll come with you.” Beth replied. As the squad strategist, figuring out what the enemy was capable of and how to adjust for it was what she did. If anyone should be involved in questioning the imps, it should be her. Chris could get information, but she'd make sure he got the right information.

Chris shrugged, not even questioning her as he opened a portal to the space. “Imps, get over here.” Chris called out as he created a table and chairs for them, sitting down next to Beth as the imps shuffled over warily. “Sit.” He ordered, gesturing to the other side of the table. The imps grimaced slightly but did as he said. “Alright, now… actually let's start with names. I'm Chris, this is Beth, I know you're Tibolt, and you are?” Chris pointed at the barrier imp.

“Girolt.” The imp replied with a slight growl, glaring at Chris, clearly not happy to be a minion.

Chris moved his finger to the ice imp, who hesitated nervously for a moment. “Fri- Fribolt. Or Frig! If- if you prefer.”

Chris raised an eyebrow at that, but ignored it for the moment as he moved on to the fire imp. “Fiona.” She replied almost numbly.

“Or?” Chris prodded. There was a clear pattern in the imps' names, and Fiona didn't fit it, so he assumed she had a second one like Fribolt.

She blinked at him. “F-Firbolt?”

Chris nodded. “Got it. Tibolt, Girolt, Fribolt, and Firbolt.” He spread his arms. “Welcome to the team.” He then leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. “Now, as you've probably guessed, we're here to attack your tribe. It isn't something I particularly want to do, but unfortunately your tribe is growing stronger and expanding, and that's bad for the balance of the Maze, so it needs to be taken care of, whether we like it or not. But here's the thing. All we need to do is cull some high-tiers. We don't need to kill anyone else. In fact, leaving a population around to hunt down the various packs in the area is beneficial for us. Unfortunately, your tribe isn't going to just let us do that, which means a lot of people who don't have to die will. So what I need from you is any information that will help us do what we need to do so that the least amount of your people die in the process. I'm not going to ask you to fight your people or even sabotage them. I just want you to tell me what I need to know to spare as many lives as possible.”

“You could leave.” Girolt replied defiantly.

Chris rolled his eyes. “As I've already established, that isn't happening. Getting pissy over it isn't going to help anyone.”

Girolt gritted his teeth, gearing up to retort, but Tibolt stopped him with a hand on his shoulder, turning to Chris. “Is there any way this conflict could be avoided? If we could convince the tribe to stop doing whatever it is you have an issue with, would you leave?”

Beth sighed, deciding it was her turn to speak up. “It isn't that simple. Could your tribe stop growing, even if it wanted to? Would you stop having children? Stop getting stronger? Stop doing everything in your power to give you and yours the best lives possible? You could, maybe, for a generation or two, cut back a little, but eventually you would become dissatisfied with your lot, and you would begin to grow again. And because you know of us, you would hide it, keep it secret until you felt ready to strike. And then people would die. And then we would have to eradicate you completely, to erase any knowledge that might lead to someone doing this again. Because humanity isn't in the position it's in because we're smarter, or stronger, or in any way better than any other race in the Maze. We have our position because we've had time to grow and prepare. That's it. And if we give you the same luxury… we lose. It's how we lost the upper levels. It's why we can't take back the upper levels. Because the creatures there are too entrenched, too prepared for us to have any chance against them. So now all we can do is prevent them from moving deeper.”

“What if the entire tribe became my minions?” Chris suggested. The situation wasn't all that different from what he planned with T'ka and the kobolds.

Beth frowned for a moment, before shaking her head. “It's a matter of resources. Even if they're your minions, eventually it becomes a matter of who do we feed, us or them?”

“Well, I was planning on collecting some kobolds, for T'ka, and just throwing them at the upper levels once they got strong enough.” Chris replied. “Might even be able to take some land on the surface at some point. I figure as long as I keep them moving up, it shouldn't be an issue, you know?”

Beth blinked. “That- there could still be an issue if you drive stronger creatures down, but… it could work? I think we'd need to talk to Captain Nefred first… and my dad. And possibly the Mayor.” She hesitated. “This may not be something we can do immediately… There are too many factors involved to say whether it's feasible or not, not to mention the fact that we haven't verified whether or not you'd be capable of controlling all these creatures.”

“True…” Chris agreed. He was probably getting a bit ahead of himself. It just felt wrong to kill people if there was potentially another way. He'd still do it, obviously, he just wouldn't be happy about it.

“What if the tribe was weaker?” Fribolt interjected. “You- you said the issue was the high-tiers, right? What if- what if you didn't kill them, but instead weakened them, like you did with Tibolt?”

“Maybe…” Beth muttered thoughtfully. Without any high-tiers, the imp population would fall naturally, as without any high-tiers to protect them, gathering food would become more dangerous and they'd be more vulnerable to raids by other tribes. That's why they were targeting the high-tiers in the first place, because once they were gone, the rest would happen naturally. She supposed it didn't particularly matter if the high-tiers were simply weakened instead of dead… “Would they actually agree to that?” She asked skeptically. “Because otherwise we're just warning them we're going to attack, which is unacceptable. We aren't risking our own lives for this.”

“If you could subdue them-” Fribolt began.

“We don't have that kind of leeway.” Beth shook her head. “If we show ourselves, we're going for the kill. To do otherwise would be too dangerous. Remember, we aren't stronger than you, we're just more prepared.”

Fribolt's expression fell. “But- how can we convince them if we can't prove that they'll die otherwise?!? They won't give up power for no reason!”

Beth sighed. “That's my point. My entire point. We aren't giving up control of the Maze and you won't stop trying to control the Maze yourselves, so we need to put you in a position where you can't control the Maze, and we don't have the power to simply suppress you, so… we have to weaken you, and the only method we have of actually doing that is death. Even if we wanted to use Chris's space to weaken or control you, it would necessitate talking to you in some way, and that's just too dangerous for us to reasonably do. Not when we're about to attack your tribe. Our safety trumps yours, and if you were in our position, you'd be saying the same thing.”

“Well, shit, I thought we might have something there.” Chris shook his head in disappointment, before turning to the obviously distressed imps. “You can still help us spare as many as possible. We aren't interested in killing anyone we don't have to.” The imps shared looks, before nodding numbly. It was clear they couldn't stop this from happening. Making sure as few imps as possible died in the process was all they could do.

*

A small shadow crept through a series of carved tunnels, occasionally pausing to leave a small portal in a hidden corner before moving on. Imps were a relatively more sophisticated race, so their tribes often carved homes out of rock instead of simply setting up tents in a convenient cavern. They still lived communally, however, about a dozen imps living in the same unit, even those with status, though the imps with status had noticeably more members of the opposite sex in their units. Chris scurried deeper into the tribe, borrowing the form of a rat and Sidulpek's ability, relying on his spatial sense to set up their plan.

In essence, the plan wasn't terribly complicated. The high-tier imps all lived in the center of the tribe, so all he had to do was open portals to them, drop some stink bombs, take them out while they were disoriented, and run. In conjunction with this, flashbangs would be set off all around the tribe, causing confusion and hopefully distracting the imps while the high-tiers were dealt with. The tricky part was that the high-tiers were spread across six different units, and not all of them were asleep, so the odds of an alarm going up were high. It wasn't something they couldn't handle, but it'd mean more imps would die, which Chris would find… disappointing.

As soon as he finished placing the portals down, Chris slipped into the private section of his space to return to his human form and put his equipment on, before joining the rest of the platoon in the main space. Not that he would need his equipment. For a battle like this, Dyrdek would be taking his place so Chris could focus on coordinating his minions. Chris signaled Captain Nefred that everything was ready as he sat down and projected his consciousness into Dyrdek.

Captain Nefred raised a hand, counting down slowly, and as his last finger fell, the attack began. Stink bombs flew through portals, the squads rushing out after them, everyone wearing gas masks to protect themselves from the smell. Scouts and utilities remained behind, tossing flashbangs through the other portals to start the distraction. As the recruits assaulted their unit, Carter's squad waiting on the other side of the portal just in case, Chris sent Cabbage to guard the entrance, getting Sidulpek to cover him in shadow so he wouldn't be spotted. It made it almost sad when a panicked imp rushed inside to get the high-tiers, only to get her leg half torn off by a savage chomp of the cave wyrm. Her cry alerting the rest of the imps to their presence was even sadder as the imps began to converge on their location.

With a shake of his head, Cabbage sent the imp flying through a freshly opened portal, plopping her in the lap of Chris's imps. *Take care of her.* Chris ordered through their connection as Dyrdek warned the squad of the incoming imps.

Everyone glanced at Beth questioningly, wondering what they should do, since they'd already handled the high-tiers and knocked the rest of the imps out with tranq darts. “Are they all coming for us?” Beth asked.

“No, but they could be.” Chris informed her through Dyrdek, getting an idea of what she was thinking.

Beth nodded. “Do it. We're going to draw them all to us, distracting them until the other's finish.”

“Right, Chris, give Jello the barrier ability and have her cover the door! Cabbage, Beth, and Derek hold the front while Zack and Dyrdek harass! T'ka, we need threads over that door to keep them from charging through! Just make them and I'll put them in place! Carmen and Chris, be on guard for anything that slips past the barrier! Sidulpek blind anyone who gets close!” Nadia immediately barked out orders, everyone getting into position as Chris had Cabbage let out a roar, drawing all the imps towards them. No one was about to ignore a cave wyrm popping up in the middle of the tribe.

As the first imps arrived, Cabbage hunkered down in the doorway, his carapace covering him as a barrier snapped into place over head, attacks raining down on both. However, as a full twenty imps began to crowd around the unit, the barrier didn't last much more than ten seconds before it started to break and the attacks began to slip through, smashing into Cabbage's carapace. That's when Derek and Beth began to attack, Derek swinging out with the flat of his blade to stun any imps he could reach, huddling behind his shield for protection, while Beth's fists snapped out through the breaks in the barrier to send imps flying, the wounds on her arms growing each time she did. Nadia strung T'ka’s threads over the door, focusing on covering Cabbage to give him even just a little more protection, while Sidulpek blinded those further away from the door. Zack and Dyrdek found angles to fire into the crowd, Zack sending flurries of weaker wind blades that wouldn't kill, but would still tear up an imps skin, while Dyrdek fired tranq darts. Chris and Carmen covered everyone where they could, Jello reinforcing the barrier as she recovered her energy, but with the number of imps sending attacks their way, it didn't take long for the squad to start getting beat up, particularly Cabbage.

They held on for almost a minute before Nadia called it. “Retreat! Sidulpek, Carmen, Jello cover the door! Chris, portals!” The three covered the door with their abilities as portals opened all around the squad, everyone jumping through the nearest one, or in Cabbage's case, collapsing through the one that opened beneath him. The cave wyrm was barely conscious after taking that barrage.

Captain Nefred looked the platoon over as the last squad retreated into Chris's space dragging the corpses of the high-tiers behind them so they could confirm they were in fact the high-tiers. He frowned slightly as he caught sight of the state the recruits were in, before dismissing it. He'd get the details from Carter later. He gave them some time for the supply managers to finish checking the bodies over to confirm they were the high-tiers before calling out. “Squad leaders, report!”

“Units one and six cleared, sir, four high-tiers confirmed dead!” The first squad leader reported.

“Units two and five cleared, five confirmed, sir.” The second squad leader reported.

“Unit four cleared, two confirmed.” Beth reported, breathing hard.

Captain Nefred nodded. “Unit three cleared, three confirmed. Looks like we missed one, but a single high-tier won't make much of a difference, so I'm calling this mission accomplished! Let's pack up and head home!” Chris opened a portal back to camp so everyone could start packing up, Captain Nefred signaling Carter to follow him off to the side. “How'd the recruits do? Did they make a mistake with the stink bomb?” If everything had gone right, they shouldn't have had any issues with unit four, so he assumed they'd made a mistake somewhere.

Carter shook his head. “No, sir. They cleared the unit easily.”

Captain Nefred frowned. “Then why do they look like they just fought off half the damn tribe?”

Carter smirked. “Because they did, sir. An imp stumbled in on them and alerted the rest of the tribe. Instead of running, they decided to use it to buy time for the rest of the platoon to complete the mission. They held the imps off for a good minute before they retreated.”

Captain Nefred blinked. “They did?”

“Yes, sir.” Carter confirmed.

Captain Nefred paused for a moment, considering everything the recruits had accomplished throughout the mission, before letting out a cough. “Carter, see if we have space for another squad in the platoon.”

“Yes, sir.” Carter saluted.

“And if not-” Captain Nefred gave him a serious look. “-make some.”