Forgotten soldiers

In the gloom of the abandoned base, three men stand in front of the inactive portal. The smallest man, his hands glowing, grumbles. “Something happened here. We go out on a long recon mission and come back to an abandoned base.”

The second man, slightly larger, shrugs. “We knew it could happen, Rex. Someone took out Kali. You heard what happened to Dimitri. Gotta figure that the new blood from this world abandoned her after that.”

Rex sighs. “True. But how did they lose the portal? Now we can’t send our report back to the great one. Count, go check the other rooms, see if there’s anything salvageable.”

Count, a huge, muscular man with yellowish skin, lumbers off go search with a grunt.

Rex shakes his head. “I know Count is useful, but I’ll never be comfortable around an ogre, Rein.”

Rein shrugs. “Doesn’t matter. We’re stuck with him now, until we can get orders from the great one again. With Kali gone, we’re independent until we get access to another portal. I say we go after the primary target.”

“That mage? He took out Dimitri! Why risk our neck?”

“Because Dimitri was an idiot, and dependent on that crystal Kali gave him. We have two mages and an ogre. Plus charms to protect against the fucking gorgon. With her out of the equation, it should just be the mage and his dragon girl. The goblin and the human girl are no threat. Count can handle the half-dragon, and the mage is no match for us.”

Rex sighs. “You make a lot of sense. And we can use them to get at the AWIO, possibly to one of their portals.”

Rein claps Rex on the back. “There ya go! Now we just need to plan an ambush on them. Something simple so Count gets it right.”

As if summoned, the huge ogre walks back in. “Found something.”

In his giant hand is a collar. Both Rex and Rein grin, nodding. Rein takes the collar, and it begins to glow. “Can’t believe this didn’t get looted...”

Rex pats the ogre on the arm.