Year 19

The day of reckoning is coming soon for all traitors; particularly the shadows and you're just itching to play your part. It was you after all that influenced the Emperor on such an important decision. You just wonder what that role will be since the Emperor is currently explaining part of the plan to you and you're still not entirely sure of how this is going to play out.

"But isn't the military already going to wipe out the shadows?" you ask.
"I told you son, I had a contingency plan for the shadows a long time ago. Our military isn't even going to be involved for the most part. Maybe a few soldiers to mop up a few escapees, but their subterranean fort called Gloom is also serving as their handy underground tomb…heh that rhymed. Anyway what I'm saying is I have an old alliance with the derro and the fort the shadows are currently using as their headquarters was originally created by the derro who abandoned it because there wasn't any worthwhile mining prospects in the area any longer. The derro still know every secret passage and inch of that place and can launch a surprise attack at anytime. And before you even ask, yes they'll be MORE than enough to finish off the shadows. Personally I wish I could use them against the Felkans, but that's not meant to be since they don't do favors like this on a regular basis."
"Can we be sure to get all of the shadows though? Won't a lot of them be on topside?"
"Well we're trying to coordinate the attack so there won't be a lot of shadows on the surface at the time. However we do keep track of their patrol routes and schedules, we even try to keep track of their unofficial patrol routes that they seem to prefer. Basically the derro will get most of them underground, the more tedious thing isn't getting rid of the shadows, it'll be wiping out any of non-shadow sympathizers they've recruited to their cause. I might use specialized teams to take care of that…in fact I think I'll put you in that group. It'll give you an opportunity to put those combat skills of yours to good use! And it'll also give you a good opportunity to be in demonstrating your ability to lead since I'm also putting you in charge of it."

You don't know what to say. Not that you're displeased with such an opportunity, its just you really weren't expecting it.

"I won't fail you Emperor." You remark.
"Of course you won't since it's not an option, but as I said I have complete faith in you. Now I'm going to tell you right now all of them have got more battlefield experience and in some cases several decades, but don't let that intimidate you. YOU are in charge. Never forget that."

The Emperor goes on to explain that while you'll be working with a specific group, you naturally won't be working without the full support of the Empire. He states that there will be other groups like yours scouring the countryside for shadows and any other potential rebel types.

"Most of those scum are probably going to be hiding out in that backwards swamp province of Delerg, so that's where you'll be heading. It'll probably be a good idea to do a purge anyway, so you've got full permission to use whatever means to stomp out anyone who even remotely is showing signs of rebellious behavior. The derro are still getting prepared, so you'll have a little time to get to know your team before we stop this misguided revolution before it starts. You'll head to Delerg in a couple days and await further orders there."

Your trip to Delerg is an uneventful carriage ride, though it does give you time to see a little more of the Empire countryside. Along the way you read up a little more about the Delerg area and how it used to be the original home of the shadows. It was there where the Emperor first made his alliance with them. You also refresh yourself on the shadows themselves and how they typically go about fighting. Their favored tactic is to remain cloaked invisibly and then launch a sneak attack followed by hasting themselves to finish off anyone else.

When you reach Delerg you stop in a rundown town appropriately called Sinkhole. From there you are told the rest of your team is meeting you there. No sooner have you gotten off the carriage when you're approached by a large scarred orc in battle armor.

"You the Emperor's boy?" he asks in a gruff tone, though much more coherent than you were lead to expect from his kind.
"I am in his service and was sent here, if that's what you mean. Who are you?"
"All business, I guess you're him. I'm Captain Gruz at your command I suppose since I've been informed that you're in charge of this thing. The most of your command is in the local barracks. The svelk mercs have been busy scouting though, better that they stay out our way until its time anyway."
"Wait, svelk mercs?"
"Yeah, they're trying to find any hidden safe houses and such that the shadows might have scattered about in the deeper reaches of the swamp. Figured you knew seeing as you're buddies with the Emperor and all."
"I'm not his buddy, I'm his dedicated agent who is honored to serve him to the best of my ability!" you say starting to get annoyed by the orc's choice of words.
"Okay, I meant no disrespect…I will say though you need to lighten up a bit lad. Even the other Eternals I trained weren't quite as serious as you seem to be."

While this is news to you that he was a trainer to some of your other classmates, you don't see as that having any bearing on how he should tell you how to behave.

"Well YOU didn't train me, because I surpassed my classmates! I survived ordeals that would've most likely killed them! So do not presume to tell me how I should act!"

Captain Gruz's stoic expression cracks a bit, you at first think his face is going to turn into an expression of anger, but instead he smirks a bit.

"Mistress trained you didn't she?" he asks.
"Yes, and what of it?" you snap.
"Nothing, just explains some things. Come then, I'm sure you'll want to talk to the troops and enlighten them how you're going to be running things. Now I know this is your first command, but don't worry, I'll be here to give advice and make sure the rest of the troops take you seriously."
"If I want your advice, I'll ask for it captain. And the troops should be taking me seriously regardless of your presence. I am here by the orders of the Emperor himself! That should be more than enough motivation for them to obey my commands!"
"…I suppose so sir." Gruz answers though you get the impression he'd like to say more.

When you and Gruz enter the barracks, you're welcomed to a surprising sight. It's filled with orcs! First svelk mercenaries and now orc troops! You didn't know you were going to be leading two distinctly different races! When Gruz notices your expression, his own is one of amusement. The other orcs stop their loud discussions and begin to study you. They appear unimpressed.

"Ey cappin' ooo dis humie in da fancy leather armor? You get 'im from the local 'orehouse fer me? Har har har har!" one orc says which is followed by loud laughter from the rest.
"Alright everyone calm down this is…" Gruz tries to interject, but you stop him.
"I can speak for myself!" you say realizing that you must take an aggressive stance. It is clear that the Emperor put you in this situation to force you to deal with surprises and how well you can handle commanding unruly troops.

"All you need to know about me is that I am your superior for the duration of this operation and you will cease behaving like the near mindless beasts you are and start earning your keep for the Empire by following my orders!"

This works on a few of the orcs, but the outspoken one has decided to keep pressing the issue of challenging your authority.

"Beast iz it? I'll have you know ima fookin' lady!" the orc says standing up. To be quite honest you thought the orc was male, but between the battle armor and ugliness of all of them they all look alike to you.
"I don't care what gender you are, you WILL follow my orders or…"
"Or whut? Whachu gonna do?" the female orc says getting closer and staring down at you ready for a fight.

You look over at Gruz who just gives you a look that expresses "Hey, you said you didn't need my help." and you're right you don't need his help. You know how to handle this.

You scan another orc who is egging on the loud female. The orc looks fairly formidable and is on the larger side (though they're all bigger than you).

"HEY YOU!" you shout out to the orc.
"Huh? Whut?"
"You male?"
"Yeah."
"Good." You say and immediately attack him after pushing past the female orc.

While this battle could be over within seconds if you used magic, you can't do that here. The orcs need to respect your natural battle skills if they're going to properly respect you. Of course you need to beat said orc first and one you've decided to make an example of isn't about to just let that happen and readies his morning star.

You go for his legs

The orc assumes you're going to go for his head, but unless you're trying to kill them, merely smashing an orc in the face with anything less than an iron maul is likely to just piss them off, so while he guards up, you strike at his legs.

Naturally he's still armored down there, but he's taken a bit off guard when you duck down start chopping your sword at his shin protectors. Since your own face is now closer to his feet the orc attempts to kick you in the face and that's what you were hoping for. You drop your sword and catch his foot so he's at your complete mercy. The orc is already so off balance that you barely even need to shove him so he crashes to the floor.

As he tries to get up, now you smash a heavy-duty wooden chair over his head. It doesn't break the first time, but when you do it again three more times the legs you were holding loosen enough that the rest of the chair flies from your grasp. While his helmet is protecting him somewhat, the repeated impact of the chair to his head is still enough to keep him dazed. In fact he ends up spitting out a couple of teeth. Despite this, he still seems as if he's going to continue to oppose you, but you see him briefly look at Gruz who seems to give him a certain look back. The orc then puts up a hand as if to say he yields. You accept his capitulation.

Victorious, you've made it quite clear you are not to be questioned. The rest of the orcs stop their jeering at you and a few go over to help their companion. Gruz walks over to you and his expression is now one of being impressed.

"Well I guess you definitely walk the walk. You recognized that by beating the head in of one of the bigger males that you'd earn more respect than beating the female that was openly mocking you. You also weren't trying to kill him, which shows that you were just trying to establish dominance rather than punishment. I'm guessing the Emperor must've told you about orc culture?"
"Not really, I just sort of guessed."
"Ha ha ha ha! Well I suppose we usually aren't that hard to figure out. Though you might have more problems on your hands now. Looks like you impressed the lady over there."

You look over where Gruz is pointing and it's the same female orc that was mocking you earlier. Again its difficult for you to tell exactly, but from Gruz's suggestion and the way the orc is blinking (fluttering?) her eyes you can only make one conclusion.

"She's…she's not flirting with me is she?" you ask in hesitation.
"She was flirting with you the moment you came in the door!" Gruz laughs.

Not wishing to think about that any further, you call everyone to attention and explain how things are going to be done in an organized manner and how you don't want to leave anything to chance when it comes to this mission given that it is of vital importance to the Empire. They seem to understand, though Gruz sometimes reinforces the point to them in a more direct manner. You ask Gruz when the svelk are due to arrive back with their report and he says they should be back within a day or two.

Seeing as you haven't much else to do, you just wait for the svelk and your orders to proceed with your mission for the next couple days. You don't interact too much with the orcs though you do converse with Gruz about minor things concerning the mission as well as your increasing annoyance that the svelk still haven't reported in yet.

"We're paying these fools good money to do a job, is it too much for them to act like professionals?" you exclaim.
"With the svelk? It's too much to ask them to do anything. Though it is rather odd they haven't reported yet. Even they tend to obey the rule of money unless someone else has offered them more."
"Wait, what are you saying? You think the svelk are in league with the shadows and were bribed?"
"Probably not. The shadows aren't known for hording wealth and anything valuable they might own is probably sacred to their god or something. I'd be more inclined to believe they got themselves discovered and perhaps even ambushed. For all we know they're all dead and we've just tipped our hand."
"Well, we'll continue to wait for the official word, besides the svelk have been the ones doing the scouting correct? We can't very well attack anything if we don't have a target."

Gruz nods at your decision and goes back to what he was doing. Another couple days pass and at last the svelk do show up.

"Ugh. Tyren, did we really have to come back to this place? The stench of these green beasts is offensive." One of them says as he enters.
"I know, but apparently the person we're supposed to report our findings to should be here now…hey any of you foul smelling gentlemen seen our fearless leader yet?" this Tyren shouts. You guess he's the svelk captain.

As irritated as the orcs are by the svelk's words, you're more irritated by them for everything else.

"I'm in charge of this operation, and where the hell have you been, you were supposed to report in days ago!" You exclaim.

Tyren looks at you as if he's unimpressed by you barking orders at him and continues to remain dismissive.

"So we're here now, is it time to attack or something?" he replies.
"No, but as I said, you should've reported in days ago."
"So what's the big deal? Maybe you're not aware of this, but scouting this swamp isn't exactly the quickest thing to do."
"I don't want to hear your lame excuses! You could've easily sent back a single messenger to give me an update!"
"Couldn't do that, I needed all my men in case we ran into trouble. Dangerous business out there, I'm sure you know."

The svelk has an answer for everything and him giving an arrogant smirk the whole time isn't helping matters. It reminds you of HER and you begin to get angrier. Captain Gruz starts to notice and even interjects trying to smooth things over.

"Tyren I know it's difficult, but you might want to rein in the whole smug svelk act that your people are so proud of. This man isn't just your superior, he's a direct rep from the Emperor himself."
"Maybe he's YOUR superior orc, but he's not mine. Nobody fucking tells me how to do my fucking job. And I have a very hard time believing that this young whelp is a representation of anything other than a sign of how desperate the Empire is getting for officers!"

Something within you snaps and all you can see is a svelk you want to kill for all the shit Mistress put you through.

"Fucking bitch!" you utter and unleash a small ball of flame into the face of Tyren. He screams in agony as the flesh on his face burns. The rest of the svelk are taken by surprise by this move, though they don't do anything to stop you. You kick Tyren to the floor while he desperately tries to put the flames on his face out. You help him put the flames out by smashing his face in with your fist repeatedly. Unlike the tougher orc bone structure, the bones of a svelk aren't as resilient and you can hear the crunching sound of his nose, jaw and skull cracking as you continue to do major mayhem on his face. Tyren's face is a mass of burnt gory meat at this point yet you still aren't done. That's when you take your dagger and scoop his eyes out with it. As you carve out the two bloody orbs, the shrieking is enough that the residents of Sinkhole who happen to be walking outside the barracks quickly run home in fear.

Your actions while excessive are probably made slightly more disturbing due to the fact that you're muttering incoherently and making small giggling noises the whole time you're doing them. It's enough to establish to everyone that they're obviously in the presence of someone who isn't just in charge, but also may well be a madman. One things for sure, after Tyren's makes his last gurgling pleas while you're slitting his throat and you're up to your forearms in his blood, nobody is thinking about pissing you off now.

You stand up from your bloody work feeling surprisingly much better. Happy even.

"Remember this." Is all you say to the group of svelk, before you turn to go to your own private quarters.

The next day Captain Gruz gives you the scout report from the svelk. You thank him and go over some strategies since you're feeling in a better mood now. Gruz is all too willing to give his opinions on how certain places should be approached and handled. He really does have some good ideas. Makes you wonder if you weren't being a little too hard on him when you first met him.

"Captain, when the orders come in, I want you to be in charge of a second team. We'll cover more ground that way and they'll be less of a chance for potential rebels to escape." You say.
"Are you sure sir, you don't think we'd be better off keeping a larger force together? I've always found that it's always preferable to have more numbers than you potentially need. But you're in charge of course."

Just as you're about to discuss and ponder the pros and cons of each plan, a messenger walks in. It's the official orders. Looks like the time for planning is over.

You go with your plan

While you're sure Gruz probably means well, you were put in charge of this mission and you're not going to second guess your own judgment, which has been sound so far in dealing with the situation.

"We'll proceed with my plan and split the team up into two strike forces with you commanding one of them." You say.
"As you say sir."
"Did the svelk report say they saw any actual shadows at any of these places?"
"Not at most of the locations as they seem to be just safe houses for normal rebels, but there was one in particular which seems to be more of an actual armed camp that they saw more than a few of shadows hanging around."
"Okay then, I'll take the svelk and attack that place first and your group can concentrate on the regular rebel locations."
"Are you sure you want to do that sir? I mean being alone with all the svelk?"
"I'm well aware of their treacherous nature, but as you just saw I am not intimidated by them. They just saw that as well. Besides, they're being paid well for this job and I trust that their greed along with my example of their leader is not going to incur any more disobedience or grand standing."
"Probably not sir, but just be careful."
"Noted. Anyway, let's get going we've got traitors to purge and I'm anxious to see it through."

You and Gruz get the troops ready. You give a quick briefing of the plan the pair of you take your respective groups and part ways. After a march through the swamp you reach your first target and it does indeed resemble a small military compound. It's really just a walled village though. You'd guess that this particular place is so far from normal civilization that this just went unnoticed and the shadows eventually just subverted the entire place or at least started placing sympathizers there.

You order the attack and all goes well. The svelk and yourself easily scale the walls though given how pathetic the opposition is though, you almost wonder if you couldn't have taken this place all by yourself. You still haven't seen any of the rumored shadows in this place though and that slightly concerns you. Did they already flee, or did they just cloak?

"Keep alert! There may be shadows still lurking about!" you shout as you cut down one of the rebels.

No sooner have you said that, when you sense something amidst the chaos. A feeling like you're being targeted…

Unfortunately you still don't know where the attacker is located until its too late. A female shadow decloaks and fires a bolt that sinks into your chest before you can move out of the way.

Shadow bolts tend to be dipped in a poison and this one is no different as you begin to feel the affects. Fortunately being an Eternal you're immune to it killing you, unfortunately it still is enough to start making you feel dizzy.

The female shadow is moving faster than anything you've ever seen and she's moving right towards you.

You order the svelk in a slurring tone to fire their crossbows, but nobody answers your call. You can't be sure if it's due to the fact that in the chaos nobody could hear or understand what you said or if the svelk have conveniently decided to not follow your orders. In any event you're on your own.

You block the shadow's attack with a force shield and follow up with a stream of fire from your other hand though the shadow easily dodges your attack. You feel two sharp pains in both of your sides and at first you think the shadow has moved so quick that she's gotten behind you to stab you, but it turns out it's a second shadow that has snuck up on you.

In the end it doesn't really matter as the result is the same and you collapse face first into the ground. A final blade through your back finishes you off for good.