Corpo Age - Chapter 61: War Council (Patreon)

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Jamie -  Wastelander (Bush Clan)

“Jamie, you will go guide Rollo and his entourage to the war council,” The old lady in front of him, who was his clan leader, commanded.

Invite that city-dweller back? Why? He’s the reason we’re even having this war right now.

“...Are you sure, ma’am?”

She turned to him despite being unable to see. She took a puff of her pipe and leaned back into her rocking chair before she responded.

“I know what you young ones are thinking. Do not be mistaken, the war was inevitable to begin with. It had only been accelerated.”

“But—”

“The friction was already there. The clans have never been united and only put on a front to oppose our common enemies. The only thing we should focus on now is how to get through the challenges ahead and come out in the best position for our clan as possible.”

“...I understand.”

“And your reply to my earlier request?”

“Yes ma’am, I’ll do it.”

As much as my brain understands she is right, my heart won’t let me accept those outsiders. But I will carry out my duties as expected of me.

He exited the leader’s tent and rendezvous with his party. They headed off to where the war council would be held, a neutral area belonging to no clan. Each clan had sent people there to set up the perimeter, and it should be finished soon. They needed to go there to finalize their clan’s assets first before he went to fetch the city-dweller.

When they arrived, Jamie spotted an old friend from the Wells clan.

“Jane, long time no see. Did they send you out to take care of your clan’s area?”

“Jamie. Yep, and way ahead of you too. Your Bush Clan’s areas are right over there, besides ours. Hurry up and set up your tents and give us a hand with the defenses.”

“Just because we are faster at setting up our shelter doesn’t mean we’re an extra labor force…”

“Quit complaining and get to work,” She smirked.

He proceeded to help with setting the tents up in our area before fortifying their position with machine guns and mines around the entire area. The clans were sparing no expenses as they mobilized for war.

The Bates Clan and their allies could attack at any time. They had already confirmed at least two other clans had rallied with them. At least there hadn’t been any surprises yet. Their two allies were well known to be anti-corporations.

Even though they outnumbered their opposition, it would take unacceptable casualties to defeat them. That was exactly why he would have to guide those outsiders here to supplement their forces.

I need to be more mature. Keep my emotions in check and do what I need to.

For the clan.

-----

Three days ago, we received a message from the Bush Clan that the war council would take place today. The Wells Clan was the furthest away from the meeting point, so they decided to send someone from the Bush Clan to escort us.

When we arrived at our outpost in the wasteland, I found our familiar guide, Jamie, waiting with his group.

“Rollo, allow me to guide you to the location of our war council. Are you ready to leave?”

“Yes, that’s why we’re here.”

We followed Jamie’s dune buggy, leaving behind the portion of our convoy that was here to supply our outpost and carry out the daily scavenging activities.

Our convoy was a dozen Vanguards strong for this campaign. It wasn’t our entire force, but we weren’t about to commit everything to this.

With a seasoned veteran of the wasteland guiding us, we trekked through the wasteland without any trouble. We didn’t even encounter any mutants before we arrived at the ruins of what seemed to be a prison.

The fences stood strong even in the sandstorm, with a watchtower at each corner of the complex. We drove through the gates and into the courtyard that was shielded from the sandstorm. The place was filled with tents and small houses that appeared to have been built recently.

Once we parked in the area we were assigned, we were then led to one of the old prison buildings. Inside was a refurbished room was a large meeting room with a rectangular table that could easily fit two dozen people.

“So you have arrived. Please take a seat, our people outside should be accounting for all the resources we have brought together. Once we know what resources we have to work with, we can then begin planning,” Said Kelsey, the old leader of the Bush Clan.

I listened and exchanged nods with all the acquaintances I recognized around the room.

After half an hour, several of their assistants entered the meeting room, carrying a projector and a few terminals.

They began going over the forces we had on hand and the information we had on our enemies, which were the Bates Clan plus two others. They discussed several assault plans, and I remained a spectator, as wasteland warfare wasn’t our specialty.

Eventually, they polished and revised the plans until there were only two left. One had us act as bait to lure out their forces, while the other involved a three-pronged on all three of the enemies’ settlements to spread their forces thin.

“As much as we trust you with our forces, we refuse to be the decoy, distraction, bait, or whatever you name it. Let us go with the assault. You wastelander will be able to employ hit-and-run if you encounter a larger force, right?”

“We can. We’ll need your forces to be the hammer to our anvil that will destroy their weaker forces quickly, though. Are you willing to have your forces in the thick of the fighting?” Eugene, the leader of the Wells Clan, asked.

That sounds a lot better than serving ourselves up on a platter, waiting for the opponents to make their move once they are ready. This way, we would be fighting where they were weakest.

“Yes, I’ll leave it to your forces to distract and hold the enemy in position. Just send along a few guides to direct us.”

With the strategy set, the meeting soon ended after going through the details of it, which I left it to Vin and Thorne.

We spent the night here, in some rooms they assigned us inside the old prison building. We would be carrying out the attack the next morning, so I forced myself to an early bedtime.

In the early morning, the united clans’ forces set off to the last known location of where our enemies were. They had been keeping track of their movement the day the Bates Clan attacked us, so they couldn’t hide away like they did against the corporations. It was a feat the corporations couldn’t pull off without the same familiarity of the land as the wastelanders had.

We set off with a wastelander guide assigned to each of our Vanguards, with Jamie joining the one Thorne and I rode on.

“We meet again. Thanks for doing this, Jamie,” I offered him my hand.

He hesitated for a moment before he shook it, “It is my duty. We will be on standby until the three forces make contact with the enemy. Would you like to wait in the command post?”

It sure beat sitting around in the car all morning.

“Sure, please lead the way.”

I had Thorne and Vin come along, entering a room with a large table in the center, with a map and chess-like pieces on it.

“These attacks we’re carrying out. What are your customs on how to deal with the non-combatants?” Thorne asked from beside me.

“War between clans isn’t as uncommon as you think. Our people are trained from an early age on our responsibility in these situations. All the non-combatants will stay away from the fighting, where they shall not be disturbed.”

“And what happens to them after you win?”

“We do not believe in senseless slaughter if that is what you’re getting at. We are already outnumbered by your city-dwellers, so we cannot afford to. Our custom is to exile them to other clans, away from here, where the survivors will be absorbed into those distance clans.”

“That doesn’t foster enmity and have them coming back for revenge?” Vin interjected.

“It is our people’s rule to forgo all enmity once we are defeated. If they do such a dishonorable act of disregarding this rule, other clans will unite like we have to punish them.”

As they chatted amongst themselves, I paid more attention to the table where several wastelanders periodically came in to move the pieces around.

I definitely have seen this before in old medieval films when they waged war. Is this what they reverted back to with communications hindered in the wasteland? I would love to see those high-nosed corpos try to imitate this.

Two hours into it, the tension in the room suddenly spiked with the next update to the war council map.

“All three forces have spotted the enemy and will be engaging them shortly. Once they update us on the numbers on each battlefield, it will be time for us to move out,” Jamie informed.

Vin notified our men to prepare while me and Thorne double-checked our weapons.

Ten minutes later, the update we were waiting for arrived.

“It seems like they have concentrated most of their forces in one place. We shall attack the Bates Clan, which is further away from their army. Let us go, it’s time to join the fight,” Jamie said.

Just as we exited the room, a loud explosion rang out.

“Shit, are we under attack?” I exclaimed.

“Rollo! Get behind me,” Thorne instantly stood in front of me.

A moment later, gunshots rang out from somewhere in the building. It was on a different floor, so it was hard to pinpoint exactly where.

“Wait in the war room, Jamie. We’ll go check it out.” I exchanged looks with Vin and Thorne.

We ran down the stairs and when the sound of gunfire was close enough, all three of us turned on our active camouflage.

Two floors below us, we spotted one of the wastelander guards in the middle of a firefight. His opponent was also a wastelander, but I had hung around them long enough to tell which of them wasn’t from any of our allied clans.

We were in a tight hallway, so we weren’t able to close the distance without risk of catching a stray bullet. Instead, I threw a grenade toward the enemies.

They recognized the threat and the shooting instantly stopped. As soon as the grenade exploded, we took the opportunity to peek out into the hallway with our guns at the ready. Our foes soon poked out from their cover to resume the fight.

They were a moment too late, though. Everyone on our side was ready for them and immediately unleashed a flurry of bullets in their direction.

+10 EXP

The remaining foes started to retreat, and our allies swiftly pointed their weapons in our direction.

I guess it makes sense from their perspective. Random, invisible people appeared out of nowhere, right beside them. I would be on guard too.

Thorne had already sped away to chase after them while Vin and I called out to our allies to identify ourselves.

“Easy, we’re friendlies,” I declared as we came out of stealth.

The wastelanders visibly relaxed when they saw us, but then shots rang out and drew all of our attention. It came from Thorne’s direction and stopped just as quickly as it came.

We moved over and found Thorne standing near several bisected corpses.

Okay, I need him to move separately or something. How am I supposed to get any experience points with him around…?

I tried attacking the corpses in the hope they still counted as being alive, but as expected, they were very dead and provided me with no experience points.

We let the wastelander guards deal with the aftermath and regrouped with Jamie.

“I’ve heard there were a few intruders that managed to smuggle in?” He asked immediately upon seeing us.

“Yeah, there weren’t a lot. The guards are doing a thorough sweep right now, though. Should we still be leaving?”

“Of course, the battlefield there is more important. I assume we may have a few traitors amongst us that allowed our enemies to sneak into our headquarters. We’ll have to deal with them later. We don’t have the time right now.”

“Understood, let’s head out.”

It was time to bring the battle to them.