The fallen solider

Chapter 4618

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Stepping into the air-conditioned room, you took a glance around. To your left was a shelf full of books and blueprints, while to your right was nothing but a wall with a painting of the bird you're about to meet.

You quietly clicked the door shut and turned to the overloaded shelf, none of the books made sense to you. As it was all in some other language, and no amount of running it through your already large archive of languages will help you.

While reading the books was out of the menu, you could at least look at the pictures on the blueprints. So you grabbed a few random sheets and simply looked at the drawings. One had some odd design for what seemed to be a flying cannon?

Hard to tell. Someone scribbled all over the damn thing.

The next one was pretty clear. A.... Uh, stone that exerts some kind of force? It might be one of those magical rocks the princesses told you about, the ones that absorb and cancel magic. Sounds simple. On paper that is.

Your fun was cut short by the sound of a chair being pushed back on wooden floor. You quickly put the papers back and hugged the wall. Talons clicked on the floor, echoing until it reached the other side of the wall you were resting on.

Shuffling papers and some angry grunting later, the clicking talons echoed back to the chair. Where it screeched itself back to wherever it was beforehand. You sighed and inched to the edge of the wall.

A quick glance out into the room and you immediately spotted a giant bird sitting in a chair. And unlike every other convenient time, the bird wasn't facing the opposite direction. But he was far too buried in his work to even notice you peeking out from the corner.

You weren't sure on how to proceed, possible information was valuable, but you couldn't risk getting discovered this early into the mission. Staying incognito would prove to be invaluable when it came time pull off a heist of the century.

One quick decision later, and you decided to ask a few questions.

You pulled your SAS from its holster and stepped out into the open. The bird coughed and scribbled more on his notes. You took his inability to pay attention and examined his feathered face. And for someone who isn't really a people person, you're pretty damn good at picking people apart mentally. And this oversized bird is looking pretty damn stressed.

You lowered your pistol and coughed.

Julis muttered something and spoke, "I thought I told you lot to leave me alone!" The bird grumbled afterwards. "I need to finish this by tomorrow!"

You proceeded to coughed again.

The bird looked up, "Are you dea-" He narrowed his eyes. "Oh."

You pulled your hood down, "I've got questions for you Julis."

Julis sat back in his chair, a sigh left his beak as he ran a talon through his ruffled hair. "A human? They sent a Human?"

You responded, "Why? You expecting company?" You glanced out the all glass wall and onto the factory and its workers below, before snapping attention back to Julis.

Julis crossed his arms, "No, but I was warned of a possible attack by the Zebra nation. I guess a Human never crossed my mind."

"Well, sorry to surprise you." You reply.

He began to stand up.

"Don't even try it." You wave your pistol.

Julis chuckled and still stood up, "And what's that little thing gonna do?"

You pulled the trigger and destroyed the coffee mug sitting on his desk.

The bird sat back down, "Point taken. Now what are you here for? Or who are you here for?"

"I'm here because we need to discuss the project you've been working on."

The oversized bird folded his arms once again, "Which one is that?" He smirked. "I have many."

You step closer and glance at the blueprints on his desk, "How about the one you're working on now. Tell me about it."

Julis replied, "It's a automatic cake baker."

You frowned, and watched his left hand try to sneak its way under his desk. Waving your pistol again, you demand, "Keep your talons where I can see them."

He complied and brought both talons back into view, resting them on the documents sitting on his desk. "You got what you came here for. So leave."

You shake your head, "Now, I understand that you watch over mining operations for the Griffin army. Why don't you talk about that now, starting with what you do with all the metal you transport."

Julis replied, "Where it goes is where I draw the line. What we do with it isn't my problem."

You ask, "Then why are you stationed in a busy factory such as this one?"

"Bad luck." He shrugs.

Your eyes re-focus on the blueprints. "That's a pretty nifty cake baker you got there. What's the grooved brass barrel for? Precision cake making?"

"Think of the children."

"I am, I am. But how can you expect to satisfy children as rambunctious as the ones today with such tiny cakes?" You ask, stepping closer.

Julis faltered, "Uh, my children love cakes as small as these. We call them bite-sizes."

"Don't lie to me Julis. Your children are grown birds. One of them even owns a bakery." You took another step forward. "I've been there actually. " You lied. "Real great place."

The hair over his eyes bent inward, Julis was looking pretty upset.

"What did you do to him!?" He demanded, suddenly standing up and sending the chair flying backwards

"Nothing." You answer. "At least not yet." You continue.

Julis started to reach under his desk again.

"You shouldn't do that. Just answer my questions and we'll both leave here happy."

The bird growled and stepped away from his desk, he grabbed his chaired off the floor and sat back down in it.

"You wanna know about these designs?" He asks, sighing heavily.

You nodded, "Start with its purpose."

"To hurt others."

Your eyes narrowed, "Who ordered the creation of this device?"

"The King." He grumbled.

"How far along are you?"

"We're already mass producing them. So what do you think?"

This was no surprise.

"How many factory's are producing these weapons?" You demanded to know.

"Enough." Julis replied.

You frowned and took a moment to think, another question pops up and you ask it. "Do you know how soon these will be issued into the ranks?"

Julis shakes his head, his eyes glance to a grandfather clock standing guard nearby. You follow his eyes and look at the time. It's 11:36Pm.

"Worried you'll miss bedtime?" You ask.

Julis simply replies, "Go rot in Tartarus."

You chuckle, "Been there, done that." You glance down at the factory below again. Things are still running normal. Good.

"Who else is helping you?"

"Friends."

You really didn't like his attitude. In a forceful manner, you say, "How about you tell me more."

Julis opened his beak, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. You shook your pistol and his beak clamped shut, you turned and made your way to the door, before a muffled voice spoke, "Sir! Sir! Are you in there? We need your approval on the designs!"

He knocked on the door a couple times. You turned around so you could motion for Julis to respond. But was welcomed to the sight of Julis wielding a giant hand-cannon, which he was pointing at you...

You froze in place. Julis then spoke up, "I'll be down in a minute! I've got some work to finish." He growled.

"Alright sir! I'll let them know." Then the clicking of talons started and faded as he walked away.

"Drop your weapon." Julis commanded.

You followed his instructions, gently placing your SAS on the floor. A plan started forming in your head, if Julis would only get closer, you could quickly disarm and dispose of him.

"On your knees." Julis demanded.

You knelt before the bird, thinking ahead, you went ahead and put your hands up. If things went sour and he decided to shoot you, you'd have to quickly activate the dragon scale armor feature that your trench-coat wields. You hoped that dragons scales could block the damage.

Julis stepped out from behind his desk and approached you. A little more closer. Julis began talking about some subject that proved no significance. After he took one more step, your hatched your plan.

"-We'll win this war and kill everyone you lo-" Julis was interrupted by you jabbing him in the crotch. With your metal arm.

Julis dropped his weapon and cried out before bending over, giving you enough time to quickly jump back onto your feet and deliver a finishing blow. You grabbed his head and brought your leg back, before slamming your knee into his face. Brutally smashing his beak in and probably some of his skull.

Julis... Simply put, was dead.

As the birds body wordlessly collapsed on the floor, You remembered reading somewhere that smashing a Griffins beak hurts. A lot.

You took a deep breath and whispered a curse. "Fuck." You picked you SAS up and eyed the birds hand-cannon. You wanted it as a memento, something to hang above the fireplace, so you stuffed it into a spare holster in your trench-coat.

After catching your breath, you proceeded to search the desk. Nothing but gibberish and some other blueprints. But the one thing that caught your eyes was a really fancy letter. The paper was embroidered with some strange platinum-colored silk.

You couldn't read it. But it felt important, so you folded it and stuffed it into a empty pocket. You spent some more time carefully searching the room. You came across some blueprints that depicted some form a metal tank that would be pushed by multiple Griffins. From what you could assume, it would be deployed to soak up the heat of battle. So infantry could attack.

The tank had several papers on it, you couldn't find any sort of weapon that would be rigged to it. Then you came across one last blueprint that wasn't even done. But it had some kind of cooling system, something that could withstand heavy temperatures.

Then it clicked. And a question came to mind, was the Griffins planning on attacking the Dragons?!?!?!

"These birds are really land greedy." You whispered to yourself.

Due to the size of the designs, you folded the papers and stuffed them into a knife holster. Your pockets were too small, and folding the papers even more would just cause discomfort. You looked around a bit more and came across nothing more of worry.

You had to admit though, Julis had a bright mind. It was a shame to see his obvious intelligence be wasted on weapons of war. You turned and looked at the dead body of Julis, his fur was a cherry red, bathed in his own blood. The way his eyes seemed to be forever frozen in a single moment, one emotion and one emotion only showed in his eyes.

Fear. Fear that he'll never see his kids again. Fear that he'll never be able to tell his wife sorry.

You stopped yourself there, instead choosing to to leave the room. As you turned and stepped down the stairs, a Griffin stood there, looking up at you in surprise.

"A huma-" He began to yell, before a hole suddenly appeared where his left eye used to be. His body tumbled down the staircase. You holstered your pistol and continued down.

Turns out there were more waiting, and a dead body tumbling down the stares caught everyone's attention.

"Woah! We got a body! Body!" One started yelling.

"Get help!" Another exclaimed.

You couldn't allow this, so you pulled your SAS out once again. Everything afterwards was blurry, you blew one birds brains out and proceeded onto the next one, doing exactly the same. The remaining bird had the sense to run. But shooting him with your remains ammo was enough to put him down.

You ejected the magazine and inserted a fresh one. You looked over the railing and spotted Griffins stacking boxes after boxes into several wagons. You decided you should confiscate the weapons, and destroy the factory.

You cracked your neck and proceeded down a level, slaughtering every bird that stood against you. Eventually, you reached the bottom floor.

As you pulled your blood soaked sword from the back of a Griffin, you started to feel a odd, numb feeling overcome you. Maybe it was the heat coming from molten metals, maybe it was just you losing yourself to the machine.

Regardless, you took aim and killed a distant bird. His friend screamed and turned towards you, he faced the same fate. As the factory grew silent, you wiped your bloody sword on the fur of a Griffin and sheathed it. Unsurprisingly, killing a Griffin was easy as long as they weren't aware of your presence.

It also doesn't help that most of the actually guards were at the top of the factory, everything below was one or two guards and 6-8 workers. You weren't actually sure on how to steal all the weapons. So you ultimately decided to rig all the gunpowder barrels to explode in a untimely matter.

You took a box of ammo for the hand-cannon and then proceeded to light a trail that led to all the powder kegs. Unfortunately placed beneath or near the vital supports for the factory. Once the supports go, the building won't be able to support itself, therefore collapsing. And as a bonus, this will all (hopefully) appear as a accident in the eyes of the Griffins.

Once the spark started to blaze, you ran as fast your robotic legs could take you. You even cloaked yourself, so guards wouldn't pay much attention to you. And after running for at least 15 seconds. All you could hear was a distant BANG!

Braking the cool-guy-code, you turned and looked at the explosion. Which was pretty much over, but you didn't miss the best part. A loud as hell screeching noise turned the night into a murder-fest, as the top of the factory started caving in.

The south entrance kiosk was crush under the debris, along with the several birds who stood in awe and horror. As the dust settled and the night became quiet once again. You turned and disappeared into the night. Intent on leaving before the sky's became filled with birds.

End

Aftermath.

The destruction of the weapons prolonged the deployment of the "Rangers." A soon to be announced platoon of Griffins wielding hand-canons. They idle in their quarters.

The destruction of the factory put a halt to the creation of hand-canons. Remodeling a factory to support creation of hand-canons will take a while. The King sits in his office, deciding if the current amount of hand-cannons will be enough for a small army.

The Griffin government took the bait, the destruction of the factory was labeled as a accident. The people seek reasons for the accident.

The Griffin government now faces accusations from its population, demanding to know the reasons behind the secret factory. They refuse to share the information.

The next chapter will take place the next day.

Author's Notes:

Hey guys.

I'm sorry for the huge pauses, but I've been busy. I haven't forgotten about you. Anyways, onto news with me.

1. The aftermath part of the next few chapters will describe occurrences with the capital of Griffonia. I apologise if you don't like it, it's just how I'm going to explain the state of the capital. As you go through your rampage and kill the government officials.

2. I'd really like it if you guys comment, I feel like I'm writing for the dead. The view counter goes up, but the comments never do. And comments were a large source of inspiration, in the past at least. It showed me that you cared enough to comment.

3. And please, tell me if you find anything wrong! Criticism is a vital part of developing my skills! So if anyone feels wrong, tell me!

Ps. No the story is going anywhere, I apologize for the long hiatuses